I made several discoveries on episode 2 of my CMT Show "Top Secret Recipe" that helped me improve significantly on the recipe for my first clone of Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls that I first hacked many years ago in my book "More Top Secret Recipes". After interviewing the creator of the Cinnabon roll, Jerilyn Brusseau (aka "Cinnamom"), at her home in Seattle and visiting Cinnabon headquarters in Atlanta, I was able to sleuth out some important clues that make this the closest Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll copycat recipe you'll find. I learned about the unique gooey properties of a specific cinnamon found in Indonesia called Korintje cinnamon, which Cinnabon calls "Makara") and how to give the rolls their signature golden color (buttermilk and baking soda). I also discovered that the dough must rise in your refrigerator for at least 5 hours, and that adding some xanthan gum to the filling will keep the filling from leaking down into the pan as the rolls bake.

Cinnabon master chefs allowed me to step into the development kitchen at Cinnabon headquarters for an up-close demonstration of the rolling and slicing techniques, so the instructions I have laid out for here come straight from the inside, and will give you beautiful rolls that look and taste just like those you get at the mall. In fact, if you follow these instructions carefully, being sure to weigh the ingredients rather than measuring by volume, everyone will be shocked that the delicious finished product came out of your very own kitchen. 

Try my recipe for Cinnabon CinnaStix here. 

Source: "Top Secret Recipes Step-by-Step" by Todd Wilbur.

While most restaurant chains attempt to keep their menus simple so as not to tax the kitchen, the Cheesecake Factory's menu contains more than 200 items on a 17-page menu. And at the end of the meal there are 40 cheesecakes to choose from for dessert, including the delicious Pumpkin Cheesecake hacked here for you.

Use an 8-inch springform pan for my Cheesecake Factory Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe. If you don't have one, you should get one. They're indispensable for thick, gourmet cheesecake and several other scrumptious desserts. If you don't want to use a springform pan, this recipe will also work with two 9-inch pie plates. You'll just end up with two smaller cheesecakes. 

Find more of your favorites from Cheesecake Factory here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Here's a great recipe for the holidays, or anytime you want, really. It's a mint chocolate brownie with peppermint buttercream frosting on top and creamy chocolate frosting on top of that. I've made my Starbucks Peppermint Brownie recipe easier by starting with a common fudge brownie mix. By changing the required ingredients listed on the brownie mix box and modifying some steps, we can improve on the finished product. 

Rather than oil, use a stick of melted butter in your brownies for a richer, better flavor. And cook the brownies at a slightly lower temperature so that they come out moist and chewy. Since this recipe is for peppermint brownies, add just a bit of peppermint extract to the batter. The peppermint brownies from Starbucks have red and white frosting drizzled lightly across the top. To duplicate this easily, you can buy premade red and white colored frostings that come in little cans with tips included.

Check out my other Starbucks copycat recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Our famous pumpkin pie has just the right amount of spice."

The vittles from Marie Callender's have made an impression beyond the chain's West Coast roots with home-style packaged entrées and side dishes available in frozen food sections of supermarkets across the country. Pie making is where the chain excels. A fresh slice of a Marie Callender's pie is as close as you'll get to homemade heaven this side of Grandma's porch window. Creating a recipe for Marie Callender's Pumpkin Pie is an obvious selection, since the restaurant sells more pumpkin pies than any other, even in non-holiday months. 

Creating my Marie Callender's Pumpkin Pie copycat recipe was a perfect opportunity to improve on icky pumpkin pie recipes (like those found on cans of canned pumpkin, for example) in many ways. For one thing, there's no need to use canned evaporated milk when fresh whole milk and cream is so much better. And three eggs, versus two found in many recipes, will add to the richness and firmness of the cooked filling. After mixing the filling, we'll let it sit for a bit while waiting for the oven to preheat. This way it can come closer to room temperature, and the pie filling will bake more evenly. My recipe included here for the crust uses a chilled combination of butter and shortening for the perfect mix of flavor and flakiness. If you find your crust getting too dark on top during baking, use a pie crust shield or mold some foil around the top of the crust to prevent it from over-browning.

Find more of my Marie Callender's copycat recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

During the holiday months, you'd better get over to Starbucks bright and early if you want to sink your teeth into a delicious pumpkin scone. These orange triangles of happiness are made with real pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices, and they quickly vanish from the pastry case when fall rolls around. Each scone is generously coated with a plain glaze, and then spiced icing is drizzled over the top. To get the crumbly texture, cut cold butter into the dry ingredients, either with a pastry knife or by pulsing it in a food processor until all the butter chunks have been worked in. 

My Starbucks Pumpkin Scone copycat recipe calls for 1/2 can of pumpkin purée. Use the leftover purée to make Starbucks pumpkin bread or a pumpkin spice latte.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

As far as scones go, the maple oat nut scone at Starbucks is a superstar. At first, I thought that we could use real maple syrup or even the maple-flavored syrups that are more commonly used on pancakes today (they are actually corn syrup-based and artificially-flavored). But I found that these syrups add too much moisture to the dough, creating something more like cake batter than the type of dough we want for a dense, chewy scone.I found that the caramel-colored imitation maple flavoring gives the scone—and the icing—the strong maple taste and dark caramel color that perfectly matches the flavor and appearance of the real thing. You can find this secret ingredient stocked near the vanilla extract in your supermarket

Try my Starbucks Maple Oat Scone recipe below, and find more of your favorite Starbucks drink and pastry recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

I found the best way to get good cranberry flavor and light pink color into this clone is to use concentrated cranberry juice found in the frozen food section of your market. First, thaw the juice, then shake the canister before you open it. After you've measured out the 3 tablespoons of concentrate, make the rest of the concentrate into juice and sip it with your freshly baked bagel clones. 

The most important step for commercial-quality chewy bagels is no secret: a thorough kneading process. Add flour to your hands if the bagels begin to stick while you form them. Any excess flour on the bagels will wash off when you drop them in the boiling water. Boiling the bagels before baking is called "kettling," and it's this step that gives bagels their shiny crust. Follow my Panera Bread Cranberry Walnut bagel recipe below for incredible taste-alike at home.

Find more of your favorite recipes for Panera Bread salads, soups and pastries here.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

This delicious fall offering arrives frozen to each Starbucks store and is thawed out just before opening in the morning. The pumpkin cream cheese muffins were especially popular in the fall of 2008. According to my local Starbucks manager, a memo fired off to all stores warned of a shortage in the product and that inventory in most states would be depleted before the holidays arrived. That was enough information to get me quickly working on a seriously great Starbucks pumpkin cream cheese muffin recipe, and here you go. 

First, sweeten some cream cheese and get it back in the fridge to firm up. It's much easier to work into the top of the muffins when it's cold. The pumpkin seeds that are sprinkled on top of each muffin get candied in a large skillet with brown sugar and cinnamon. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper muffin cups, add the muffin batter and some cream cheese, top with the candied pumpkins seeds, and then bake. Soon you'll have a dozen fresh clones of the amazing muffins, and you'll always be prepared for the next pumpkin cream cheese muffin shortage.

See if I cloned more of your favorites from Starbucks here.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

Starbucks makes its hot chocolate with mocha syrup that's used for a variety of other drinks in the store. A barista combines mocha syrup with a couple squirts of vanilla syrup and heated milk, and he then finishes off the drink with a sweet pile of whipped cream. 

You can duplicate the process using my Starbucks Hot Chocolate copycat recipe below. You'll create your own chocolate syrup in the microwave with cocoa—Hershey or Nestle brand works great. After adding milk to the heated chocolate mixture, pop it back into the microwave again until piping hot. Add a little vanilla extract at the end to give the drink vanilla hints like the original. I found that a 2-cup glass measuring cup with a spout works best to heat the drink in the microwave. Then, when it's ready, you can easily pour the hot chocolate into a 16-ounce coffee mug and get on with the sipping.

Find more of your favorite recipes for Starbucks pastries and drinks here.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

"Ruth's Chris Steak House" is such a difficult name to spit out that a restaurant critic suggested it be used as a sobriety test. Surely anyone who could say the name three times fast couldn't possibly be intoxicated. But the hard-to-say name has worked well for the steakhouse chain—it's memorable. The name came from the first restaurant that Ruth purchased in 1965 called Chris Steak House. When she opened a second restaurant with that same name, the previous owner, Chris Matulich, tried to sue her. She won the case, but to avoid future lawsuits, she put her name in front of the original and it became the tongue twister we know today.

The delicious creamed spinach served at this famous steakhouse inspired this recipe that has just a hint of cayenne pepper in it for that Louisiana zing. My Ruth's Chris creamed spinach recipe requires a package of frozen spinach to make it convenient, but you can use the same amount of fresh spinach if you prefer.

Now that you've chosen the veggies, finish off the meal with my copycat recipes for Ruth's Chris Petite Filet and Au Gratin Potatoes.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: “Our house specialty with cream, jalapeños and cheddar cheese.”

These slightly spicy au gratin potatoes are cooked at a low heat several hours in advance of the dinner house’s evening opening. When an order for the signature side comes into the kitchen, a generous serving of the potatoes is portioned out, topped with grated sharp cheddar cheese, and baked again at a high temperature until browned. The real trick to this Fleming's potato au gratin recipe is to slice the potatoes very thin—1/16 of an inch to be exact—and the only way to do that is with a slicer, such as a mandoline. The rest of the prep involves making a basic béchamel sauce using cream, and then carefully layering the sauce and sliced potatoes in the baking dish. The potatoes are baked for 2 hours and then chilled in the restaurant, so this can be a great make-ahead dish for entertaining. You can also serve the potatoes immediately by topping them with cheese, cranking up the oven, and heading straight into the second baking step.

Update 10/17/23: Recently, I set out to snag a sample of the au gratin potatoes from Bonefish Grill to clone it, but discovered that the dish had been taken off the menu. However, the friendly wait staff informed me that the au gratin potatoes at Fleming's and Bonefish Grill are the same recipe, created by the parent company that owns both chains. So, this recipe is a hack for the great side served at each of the restaurants.  

Find more of your favorite side-dish copycat recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

By sneaking around to the back of a HoneyBaked Ham store, I witnessed the glazing process through an open door. The hams are delivered to each of the 300 HoneyBaked outlets already smoked, but without the glaze. It is only when the ham gets to your local HoneyBaked store that a special machine thin-slices the tender meat in a spiral fashion around the bone. Then, one at a time, each ham is then coated with the glaze—a blend that is similar to what might be used to make pumpkin pie. This sweet coating is then caramelized with a blowtorch by hand until the glaze bubbles and melts, turning golden brown. If needed, more of the coating is added to the HoneyBaked Glazed Ham, and the blowtorch is fired up until the glaze is just right. It's this careful process that turns the same size ham that costs 20 dollars in a supermarket into one that customers gladly shell out 3 to 4 times as much to share during the holiday season.

For my HoneyBaked Ham glaze copycat recipe, we will re-create the glaze that you can apply to a smoked/cooked bone-in ham of your choice. Look for a ham that is pre-sliced. Otherwise, you'll have to slice it yourself with a sharp knife, then the glaze will be applied. To get the coating just right, you must use a blowtorch. Get the kind that is used for crème brûlée from almost any kitchen supply store. They're usually pretty cheap. And don't worry—I didn't leave out an ingredient. No honey is necessary to re-create this flavorful glaze.

Now, what's for dessert?

Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

"Biscotti" is Italian for "twice baked." The dough is first baked as one giant rectangular cookie loaf, then the loaf is removed from the oven while it's still soft, and it's sliced. These slices are arranged on a baking sheet and cooked once again until crispy. That's how the cookies get their thin profile and crunchiness that makes them the perfect coffee-dunking pastry. These homemade biscotti cookies are actually best the next day after they completely dry out, as long as you live in a dry climate. If your weather is more humid, be sure to seal up the cookies in a tight container after they cool so that they stay crunchy.

Try my Starbucks Vanilla Almond Biscotti recipe below, and find more cool Starbucks copycat recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

Each holiday season, Starbucks brings out one of its most beloved desserts: a soft triangle of white chocolate and cranberry cake covered with delicious creamy lemon frosting and dried cranberries. But when the holidays are over, the Bliss Bars go back into hiding until next season. That's when we bust out our Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bar copycat recipe.

The cake is flavored with bits of crystallized ginger that you can find in most markets near the herbs and spices. Be sure to finely mince the chunks of ginger before adding them, since ginger has a strong flavor, and you don't want anyone biting into a whole chunk. For the white chocolate, one 4-ounce bar of Ghirardelli white chocolate will give you the perfect amount of chunks after you chop it up. If you can't find that brand, any brand of white chocolate will do, or you can use 4 ounces of white chocolate chips. My cranberry bliss bar recipe below will make a total of 16 cake bars, at a fraction of the cost of the original.

For a demonstration of this classic clone recipe, check out this video.

Check out my other copycat recipes for more Starbucks favorites here.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

Creamy garlic spinach the Joe's Stone Crab way is a simple preparation. Two boxes of frozen, chopped spinach and a few other ingredients are all you'll need to re-create this awesome dish. The ground nutmeg is the secret addition that sets this creamed spinach apart from other chains.

Try my Joe's Stone Crab creamed spinach recipe below, and click here for more of my recipes from Joe's Stone Crab.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

Joe's Stone Crab knows how to make mashed potatoes special. Chunks of fontina cheese are mixed into these creamy potatoes, and the dish comes to your table with a golden crust of crispy asiago breadcrumbs. The secret blend of panko breadcrumbs, butter and shredded asiago cheese is patted down onto the potatoes, and then the whole dish is broiled until the top is golden brown.

Try my Joe's Stone Crab Jennie's Mashed Potatoes copycat recipe below alongside your favorite famous entrée.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "A 14-ounce rack of New Zealand lamb served with a Cabernet sauce."

Next time you make lamb, try this seasoning and sauce and make lamb the Outback way. The original racks are small, so if you find a 24- to 28-ounce rack of lamb, you'll get 2 servings with my Outback Rack of Lamb copycat recipe. Be sure to trim off most of the extra fat before you sear the lamb. And after the searing, don't wash out that skillet! You want those flavorful little bits (fond) in there to make the incredible Cabernet sauce that is served alongside the lamb for dipping, dousing, and drenching.

Start your meal off with Outback's famous Bushman Bread, and Blue Cheese Chopped Salad. Find all of my Outback Steakhouse copycat recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

A thick slice of moist pumpkin bread Starbucks-style is the perfect companion for your morning cup of Joe. Many other pumpkin bread recipes produce sad, squatty loaves—but not this clone. 

Use my custom Starbucks Pumpkin Bread recipe below that makes enough batter to fill up a medium loaf pan. And when the bread is done, you'll slice the moist loaf into eight thick slices of goodness that perfectly mimic the look and flavor of the real thing, right down to the chopped pumpkin seeds on top.

Craving your favorite Starbucks coffee drink? Click here for all of my Starbucks copycat recipes.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

There are several delicious variations of Wolfgang Puck's butternut squash soup recipe floating around, but as far as I can tell no version comes close to duplicating the amazing stuff served at his flagship restaurant. At the Las Vegas Spago in Caesar's Palace, I recently slurped up the slightly sweetened, pale amber masterpiece with the perfect combination of spices, and then finagled two bowls to go. 

Since the soup is completely smooth, running it through a strainer revealed no solid evidence of ingredients; only black specks of various spices were visible. This one was not going to be easy. After many attempts, I finally re-created the subtle background flavors with chopped leek slowly sweated in butter, and one gala apple. I discovered that the apple contributes a perfect sweetness. The rest was easy: poach the leek, squash, and apple in broth until soft; blend everything until smooth; then reheat with the cream and just a little brown sugar. 

I have a feeling that my Wolfgang Puck butternut squash soup recipe below will be your new favorite. Find more famous soup recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

When I checked out the ingredients for the Banana Nut Bread Loaf—the most popular baked item at Bob Evans Farms—I was surprised to discover that the banana bread has very little real banana in it. In fact, banana is the second-to-last ingredient, just before water. The banana taste in the loaf appears to be artificial banana flavoring, but I assume that there was once a time when these delicious loaves were made with more real banana, and with real butter instead of the less expensive margarine that is used in the loaves today. So, that's how I crafted my Bob Evans banana bread recipe.

This upgraded recipe calls for old-school wholesome ingredients, and it produces a moist, delicious banana bread loaf that tastes like the original—and maybe even a little bit better. So, if you’re a big fan of the real thing, you're sure to love this new recipe hack.

Making bread is fun, right? Find more of my copycat recipes for famous bread here. 

For years now, I've been on the lookout for a great chain restaurant crème brulee to clone for one of my books, but I hadn't located a really fantastic formula to hack until I tried this one. The Capital Grille's Classic Crème Brulee is a perfect blend of sweet and creamy, with amazing flavor that comes from real vanilla bean. If you want an easy dessert to impress that you can prepare a day or two in advance of the sit-down, this is your recipe. When it comes time to serve the brulee, sprinkle each serving with a little white sugar and caramelize it with a small chef's torch (if you don't already have one, you can find them online or at kitchen stores for around 15 bucks). Add a garnish of fresh seasonal berries plus a sprig of mint, and serve up the goodness. 

Try my Capital Grill Creme Brulee copycat recipe below, and complete your meal with an entrée and side dish from the restaurant of your choice.  

Source: Top Secret Recipes Step-by-Step by Todd Wilbur.

The Cheesecake Factory’s autumnal dessert offering is a clever mashup of pecan pie and pumpkin cheesecake in a traditional flakey pie crust. At first glance, I thought creating a Cheesecake Factory Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake copycat recipe would be easy, but I found it surprisingly tricky to hack since all the components in the cheesecake follow different baking rules.

The first step was to design a crust that could withstand being cooked three times. After a few tests, I came up with a recipe that produces a hardy dough that can be par-baked, then baked again two more times while maintaining flakiness.

The next step was to thicken the pecan filling before adding it to the cheesecake pan. My first version skipped this step and pecan filling soaked through the crust and through the springform pan onto the bottom of the oven, where a charred, dark stain remains to this day.

Cooking the pecan filling before it goes into the cheesecake will thicken it, so it won't soak through the crust and wind up dirtying your oven. After the filling cools for 45 minutes, you can build a cheesecake on top of it.

Add the cheesecake filling right up to the top of the crust. If you do a good job making the top edge of the crust even all the way around, the cheesecake filling will fit perfectly.

I'm sharing two ways to make the delicious finishing caramel sauce that goes over the top. The easy way is to simply combine walnuts with your favorite caramel sauce and pour it over a slice. But the best way is to make the sauce from scratch using the recipe I've included here. It's only a few ingredients, it's not too hard, and you'll love the results.

Pour the sauce over the top, add a dollop of whipped cream, and you'll have produced a finished slice of Cheesecake Factory Pumpkin Pecan cheesecake that looks—and tastes—like it was made by a pro.

Find more of my Cheesecake Factory copycat recipes here.

Barney's Beanery, the self-proclaimed "third oldest restaurant in Los Angeles," has a long history of celebrity patrons dropping by for a hot bowl of chili and a beer or three. John "Barney" Anthony opened the first Barney's Beanery in Berkley, California in 1920, and seven years later relocated the restaurant to its current location on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood.

Barney's soon became a popular watering hole for film stars from the 1920s and '30s, such as Clara Bow, Clark Gable, and John Barrymore. In the '50s and '60s Lou Costello was a regular, and so were Donald O'Connor, Charles Bukowski, and Dennis Hopper. Jim Morrison and his Doors bandmates were frequent customers since the offices of their record label, Elektra, were nearby. Janis Joplin was said to have had a drink there the night she died. The Brat Pack of the '80s—Charlie Sheen, Rob Lowe, John Cusack, Emilio Estevez, and Demi Moore—would often come in to play pinball and video games. And Quentin Tarantino wrote most of his screenplay for Pulp Fiction while sitting at his favorite booth at Barney's.

This original chili was a favorite of Peter Falk's character on Columbo, who ate it often at the restaurant on the TV show. But the show wasn't filmed at the actual location. The Barney’s Colombo viewers saw on their TV was a sound-stage replica.

I found the secret to the flavor in Barney's chili comes from two chili powders that were popular in the West over 100 years ago, around the time Barney's first opened: Gebhardt and Mexene. Chili powders were new at that time, and there were very few on the market, so it's highly likely these ingredients were used in the recipe that made Barney's Beanery famous. Find those two chili powders, and follow my Barney's Beanery classic chili copycat recipe below to properly duplicate this Hollywood classic at home.

Re-creating the signature cooking style at the country's most famous fondue chain required hacking the flavorful simmering broth in which all the proteins and vegetables are cooked. This was tricky since only some of the prep is performed tableside at the restaurant.

When a server brought the warm broth to my table, it was already seasoned with a few mystery ingredients. The pot was left alone to heat up on the center burner, which was the perfect time for me to scoop out ½ cup of the liquid and seal it up in a small jar to take back to the lab for further analysis. When the server came back to the table after five minutes, she added a few more ingredients to the pot: fresh garlic, mushrooms, green onions, Burgundy wine, and black pepper. I took mental notes on the amounts and wrote them into my phone before I forgot.

The server told me the hot liquid base was vegetable broth, so I figured some Swanson in a can would do. But later, after further taste-testing, I found the broth in my stolen sample to be more savory than any of the canned broths I tried. I then made a broth by dissolving a vegetable bouillon cube in boiling water and found the flavor to be a much closer match to the sample I had swiped. The bouillon is also cheaper than the broth, and I'm okay with that.

After a few tweaks to the seasoning additions, I had a good Melting Pot broth recipe that could stand up to any taste test. Use this to cook chopped veggies, chicken, beef, and shrimp. And if you want the complete Melting Pot experience, you're going to need my hacks for the six dipping sauces. So here you go: Cocktail Sauce, Curry Sauce, Gorgonzola Port, Green Goddess, Ginger Plum, and Teriyaki.

My Melting Pot Coq au Vin Fondue recipe is designed for a 2-quart fondue pot. If you have a 3-quart pot and would like a bigger fondue party (lucky you), refer to the Tidbits below for that adjustment.

Check out my Melting Pot Cheddar Cheese Fondue recipe here.