14 Jennifer Garner Recipes That Will Make You Love the Actress Even More

Actress Jennifer Garner is beloved for a number of reasons, including her iconic roles in 13 Going on 30 and Alias, as well as her undeniable charm, which shines through in everything she does. Her simple recipes (and every installment of Pretend Cooking Show) only sweeten the pot. Read on for the 14 best Jennifer Garner recipes to date, ranging from easy desserts to comforting breakfasts. 

It just might be the easiest summer snack you’ll ever make. The key is using a fruit blend from Garner’s brand of organic snacks and meals, Once Upon a Farm, as a drizzle atop the Greek yogurt bark (then piling on all the toppings your heart desires).

She calls them “the perfect autumnal cookie,” and we totally see why. The gingersnaps are packed with molasses, cinnamon, ground ginger and cloves. Santa certainly won’t mind receiving them over sugar cookies this year.

Here, Garner calls her mother Patricia to help walk her through her grandma’s cornbread recipe, which only calls for nine simple ingredients—and many are likely in your kitchen right now. Once you see her mom on camera, it’ll be no mystery where she gets her charm.

Using a base recipe from @melskitchen and a water bath from @realbakingwithrose, Garner made an early morning project out of preparing real-deal bagels for her family. It’s a solid lazy Sunday venture, if you’re feeling ambitious.

So it’s not her recipe, but one from New York Times Cooking, although Garner does use dark and milk chocolates instead of going with the recipe’s bittersweet. It only requires two ingredients and comes together in minutes, making for a great low-effort way to make your next batch of ice cream sundaes extra special.

She tackles a recipe from the cookbook Huckleberry by @zoenathanloeb, but makes a few tweaks of her own. She strains out all the seeds for the sake of her picky kids, and even adds a glug of red wine to the preserves with a shoutout to Ina Garten.

Garner calls on a pro—the brains behind L.A.’s popular Pizzana restaurant—to help her make her own margherita pie from scratch. It looks pretty darn authentic to us, from the hand-smashed tomato sauce to the fior di latte cheese.

Tart apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, maple syrup—we feel warm and cozy just thinking about this bowl of deliciousness. A recipe from Taste of Home, it’s endlessly riffable. “@inagarten says the trick to learning how to cook is finding something you eat and making it over and over again,” wrote Garner in the caption. “Maybe this time try half water/half almond milk? Or instead of brown sugar drizzle some maple syrup?”

And you thought Courteney Cox’s gluten-free biscotti had your heart. Wait until you try Garner’s take on the Cook’s Illustrated recipe, which calls for toasted almonds, almond extract and minced orange zest. (If you don’t like biscotti, just watch to see Garner wearing space buns.)

“Well, it’s official—I could eat figs for every meal,” she captioned this recipe. “Purple and green, sweet and savory. Practically a perfect food and easy peasy to prepare.” We’ll be serving this appetizer at Thanksgiving and Christmas for sure.

Another gem from NYT, this buttery, cinnamon-y delicacy couldn’t be simpler to prepare—or more picky kid-proof. The cinnamon sugar gets delightfully caramelized with the help of butter and a hot skillet.

Because nothing gets us out of bed like chocolate. Created by @healthygirlkitchen, Garner bakes this decadent gluten-free breakfast that can easily be made vegan and dairy-free, if you use non-dairy chocolate chips.

Mama Patricia is back for a special Mother’s Day episode of Pretend Cooking Show, and TBH, she steals the spotlight from the buckle, if you ask us. We just might never use fresh nutmeg again in her honor.

Complete with buttery cinnamon-sugar topping. Adapted from @pinchofyum’s cinnamon sugar apple cake recipe, Jennifer’s muffins are made with freshly picked apples from her garden, but we promise the store-bought kind are just fine.

_{Taryn Pire is PureWow’s associate food editor. A former bartender and barista, she’s been writing about all things delicious since 2016, developing recipes, reviewing restaurants and investigating food trends at Food52, New Jersey Family Magazine and Taste Talks. When she isn’t testing TikTok’s latest viral recipe, she’s having popcorn for dinner and posting about it on Instagram @cookingwithpire.}