The sweet-and-savory breakfast sandwich made with two slices of French toast first appeared on the Burger King menu in 2019, but it was just for a limited time. In 2021, BK brought the breakfast sandwich back, and this time it came with a new ingredient: buttery maple spread. The first version of the sandwich was good, but the sequel with the new maple spread is great.

And that’s right where this clone starts. The hack here for the buttery maple spread is just three ingredients and it will chill out in your fridge while you make the easy French toast. Find small, thin slices of white bread for that. Sara Lee makes a loaf of bread called Delightful that works great.

The real French toast sandwiches come with either sausage, bacon, or ham, so pick your favorite and insert it between the egg and cheese. If your ingredients cool down as you are prepping, just pop each assembled sandwich into your microwave for about 15 seconds prior to serving for perfectly warmed French toast and gooey melted cheese.

Check out more of my Burger King copycat recipes here.

It was the creator of Pizza Hut’s Stuffed Crust Pizza who came up with the idea to cook bits of maple syrup into small pancakes for a new sweet-and-savory breakfast sandwich offering from the world’s #1 fast food chain. Tom Ryan’s idea became a reality in 2003 when the McGriddles—with maple-flavored griddle cake buns—debuted on McDonald’s breakfast menu, and the sandwich is still selling like hotcakes today.

To make four cloned McGriddles at home you’ll first need to produce eight perfectly round griddle cakes that are infused with sweet maple bits. Recipes that instruct you to make hard candy from maple syrup for this hack will fail to tell you that the shattered shards of hard candy don't completely melt when the griddle cakes are cooked resulting in a distinct crunch not found in the real McDonald’s product. Also, breaking the hard maple candy into small uniform chunks is both difficult and messy. My solution was to make a flavorful maple gummy puck that could be neatly petite diced and sprinkled into the batter as it cooks.  

Just be sure to use maple flavoring rather than maple extract for the maple gummy. Maple flavoring has a more intense flavor than the extract and the dark brown caramel coloring will make your maple bits look like pancake syrup. You’ll also need one or two 3½-inch rings to make griddle cakes that are the perfect size for your clones.

This recipe duplicates the bacon version of the sandwich, but you can replace the bacon with a patty made from breakfast sausage for the sausage version, or just go with egg and cheese.

Get more of my McDonald's copycat recipes here.

They may not be as intriguing as the German Pancakes, 49’er Flap Jacks, or the other specialty hotcakes at Original Pancake House, but if pancake skills of any chain are best judged by how they put together a stack of old-fashioned buttermilks, then this chain is at the top of the game.

The first step to making a perfect clone of these fluffy hotcakes is to use clarified butter on your skillet or flat grill to keep the pancakes from sticking. This method will add better flavor to your pancakes than using a flavorless oil, and it’s how the Original Pancakes House makes their pancakes. So we'll do the same.

When you’ve got your clarified butter ready, the rest is a cinch. Mix the batter, measure 1/3-cup portions onto a hot pan or griddle greased with the butter, cook the pancakes until golden brown on both sides, then serve up a stack with whipped butter and warm maple syrup on the side.

Try my Original Pancake House Dutch baby and apple pancake recipes here.

Menu Description: “Four buttermilk pancakes layered with a fiesta of warm cinnamon spread, crunchy mini-churros and sweet cream cheese icing. Crowned with whipped topping.”         

This creative flapjack recipe is cloned by starting with my hack for IHOP’s famous buttermilk pancakes from Top Secret Recipes Step-by-Step. A fresh stack of these fluffy pancakes is then layered with the sweet cinnamon spread made with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon.

Rather than making churros from scratch, we’ll save time by using frozen churros. I found some at Target and Walmart. Chop them into bite-size chunks and arrange them on top of the pancakes, then drizzle your stack with the homemade cream cheese icing recipe here, and prepare to accept your “oohs” and “ahhs.”

Check out more of your favorite recipes from IHOP right here. 

Menu Description: “Four buttermilk pancakes layered with vanilla sauce and dulce de leche caramel sauce. Crowned with whipped topping.”

Re-creating this pancake version of Mexico’s mucho moist tres leches cake boils down to mastering two easy sauces: dulce de leche caramel and a vanilla sauce.

For the dulce de leche we’ll use a can of sweetened condensed milk, as do many traditional recipes. But I found that undiluted condensed milk produced caramel with an unpleasant canned-milk aftertaste. To improve the flavor, I first combined the condensed milk with whole milk, then cooked it down in a water bath the same way. The caramel sitting in the bottom of the pan was smooth and creamy, it tasted much better, and the process was as simple as it gets.

Turning to the vanilla sauce, I expected a basic formula at IHOP flavored with just vanilla extract, but I was pleasantly surprised to see real vanilla bean seeds in there. I excitedly added the seeds of a whole vanilla bean to our clone, in addition to the vanilla extract. But that’s not all the flavor we need for a match. I taste some butterscotch in there as well, so I’m including a little butterscotch flavoring in the final formula. If butterscotch isn’t your thing, feel free to replace that flavoring with an equal amount of vanilla extract.

Check out more of your favorite recipes from IHOP right here. 

I’m not sure why Einstein Bros. claims there are just four cheeses in the new Twice-Baked Hash Brown when the ingredients clearly list six kinds of cheese, plus cream cheese. Regardless, the shredded Asiago, Romano, Parmesan, provolone, and mozzarella listed there can be found combined in an “Italian Blend” at many supermarkets, making for an easy start to our home clone. And don’t just be thinking about breakfast for these cheesy potatoes. They work great as a side for any meal.

In the detailed description of the new item, Einstein Bros. claims the hash browns contain two kinds of schmears, which is true, but a little misleading because one of them is just plain cream cheese. The other is onion-and-chive cream cheese, which we can make from scratch. We’ll combine those two shmears into one blend by doubling the cream cheese added to our onion-and-chive schmear formula.

Mix everything together and load the ingredients into a standard 12-cup muffin pan with circles of parchment paper cut out to fit into the bottom of the 12 cups. Without these parchment circles, the hash browns may stick and break when they’re released. You can also use paper muffin cups, if you don’t mind the less crispy, ridged sides.

Bake them the first time for 30 minutes, then cool and store. Now you have a dozen servings of cheesy hash brown potatoes that are easy to finish off by baking them a second time until crispy. They are great served with breakfast, or for dinner as your starchy side alongside beef, chicken, lamb, and many other savory entrees.      

You can also make homemade Einstein Bros bagels, sandwiches, and shmears. See if I hacked your favorites here.

When Taco Bell introduced breakfast to America in 2014, the company had high hopes for its new Waffle Taco: a waffle shaped like a taco, filled with scrambled eggs and sausage, and served with a side of syrup. But the Waffle Taco had less-than-stellar sales and the product was eventually yanked off the breakfast menu.

But another clever morning item, the Breakfast Crunchwrap, continues to sell well at the Mexican food chain. This hexagonal grill-pressed wrap is a variation of the Crunchwrap Supreme, made by wrapping a large flour tortilla around a crispy corn tortilla, meat, cheese, sour cream, lettuce, and tomato (i hacked it in TSR Step-by-Step). When it was introduced in 2005, the Crunchwrap Supreme was Taco Bell’s most successful new product launch.

The Breakfast Crunchwrap looks exactly like a Crunchwrap Supreme from the outside—albeit slightly smaller—but the inside has been swapped out for morning food. The flour tortilla is wrapped around a crispy hash brown patty that’s been slathered with creamy jalapeño sauce and topped with cheese, eggs, and bacon (or sausage). The flour tortilla is folded over six times to make a pinwheel wrap, then the wrap is pressed on a flat grill until golden brown on both sides.

In this recipe I’ll show you how to clone the creamy jalapeño sauce, build the wraps, and flat grill them until golden brown using just your stovetop, a skillet, and a saucepan half-full of water.

If you like Bojangles’ famous flakey buttermilk biscuits, then you’ve got to be a fan of the chain’s popular Bo-Berry Biscuits. Bojangles’ transforms their great top-secret buttermilk biscuit recipe into a popular dessert item by adding blueberry bits and a drizzle of sweet glaze over the top. Really good just got better.

The basic recipe here for the biscuits is the same as my clone for Bojangles’ Buttermilk Biscuits, because I wouldn’t want to change a thing. The new secrets you’ll get here are for the glaze and a handy trick for getting the dried blueberries chopped into little bits without making a sticky mess.

I suggest margarine for a fluffier final product, but you can replace the margarine with butter if you want more butter flavor in the biscuits. Just as with the plain buttermilk biscuits recipe, make sure all your ingredients are cold and your oven is very hot. And don’t overmix or overwork the dough if you want flakey, fluffy biscuits that look and taste just like the real ones.

In January of 2017, Starbucks perfected slow-cooked sous vide–style egg snacks that can be prepped and served quickly by the baristas at any location. To speed up service, Starbucks makes the egg pucks ahead of time, then freezes and ships them to the coffee stores where they are defrosted and reheated in blazing-hot convection ovens.

Sous vide refers to the method of cooking food sealed in bags or jars at a low, consistent temperature for a long time. This technique creates food that’s softer in texture and less dried out than food cooked with other, faster methods. Cooks who use sous vide will often vacuum pack their food in bags and use special machines to regulate temperature. But you won’t need an expensive machine like that for this recipe—just some 8-ounce canning jars and a blender.

The secret to duplicating the smooth texture starts with blending the cheeses very well until no lumps remain. Rub some of the cheese mixture between your fingers to make sure it’s smooth before you pour it into the jars. It’s also important to monitor the temperature of the water. Try to keep it between 170 and 180 degrees F so that your eggs are neither too tough nor too soft. It’s best to use a cooking thermometer for this, but if you don’t have one, the right temperature is just below where you see tiny bubbles rising to the surface. Also, if you hear the jars jiggling in the water, that’s their way of telling you the water is a bit too hot.

You might also like my version of Starbucks Egg White and Roasted Red Pepper Sous Vide Egg Bites. 

The same slow-cooking technique is used to copy this yolk-less companion to the Bacon & Gruyere Sous Vide Egg Bites, but instead of bacon, this version comes with roasted red pepper, green onion, and spinach.

Because there is no yolk, a little rice flour is used to help hold everything together. I suspect Starbucks chose rice flour to keep the product gluten-free, even though most people really don’t mind a little gluten, and gluten does a much better job of binding. I include the rice flour here but you can substitute with all-purpose wheat flour if gluten isn't a concern, and if you don’t feel like buying a whole bag of rice flour just to use 2 teaspoons out of it.  

To get the same smooth texture in your egg bites as Starbucks, be sure to blend the mixture until no bits of cheese can be felt when you rub some between your fingers. The recipe tastes best with full-fat cottage cheese, but you can still use low-fat cottage cheese if you feel like trimming some of the fat.

Check out my other clone recipes for your favorite Starbucks drinks and baked goods here.

“Biting into a cloud” is how many describe the lightly crisp browned shell and fluffy, custard-like middle of Leonard’s malasadas. Hawaii has become known for the best malasadas in North America, but the hole-less doughnuts aren’t originally from Hawaii. Malasadas were brought to the islands in the late 1800s by Portuguese immigrants who worked on the sugarcane plantations, and today malasadas are sold in bakeries all over Hawaii. But for the best malasadas, everyone knows you must brave the long lines that always go out the door at Leonard’s Bakery in Honolulu. And that’s okay because it’s always worth the wait.

Leonard’s has been making malasadas since 1952 using a well-protected secret recipe that many have unsuccessfully tried to duplicate. The chain will ship malasadas from Hawaii to your house on the mainland for a pretty hefty fee (nearly $100), but even after following strict reheating instructions, eating a two-day-old malasada is not the same heavenly experience as consuming a fresh one. A fluffy, fresh malasada turns into a tough and chewy malasada in just a few hours. That’s the nature of fried dough. It quickly became clear that if I were ever to properly clone these, I would have to experience them fresh, from the source. So, I hopped on a plane to Hawaii.

I visited two Leonard’s locations in Honolulu: the original brick-and-mortar bakery and a Leonard’s Bakery food truck parked in a shopping mall lot. I watched them make malasadas in big vats of oil, lowering dozens of doughnuts at once into the oil with a metal screen pressing down on them so that they were fully submerged in the hot fat. I observed the process, noted the temperature, watched the malasadas come out of the oil and get sugared, and timed everything.

Back home I made malasadas for weeks, using intel gathered in Hawaii. Dozens and dozens of versions later, after altering variables such as proofing methods, mixing methods, flour types, fat types, sweetness, saltiness, and many others, I landed on this one. I believe it was number 92 out of 93 attempts.

Before we start, let me offer a few tips about equipment you’ll need. It’s best to have a stand mixer. The dough starts loose but it eventually gets too tough for a handheld granny mixer. I’m sure it’s possible to mix and knead the dough by hand when it gets too tough for the little mixer, but a big mixer is much better.

Also, a deep fryer is helpful. You can fry these in a pot of oil with a thermometer if you want, but it’s so much easier to regulate temperature with a deep fryer. And you must devise a way to keep the malasadas submerged so that you won’t have to flip them, and they won’t get a white line around the middle where the dough isn’t in the oil. Deep fryers typically have a basket that you can use to put on top of the malasadas to hold them down. Rather than placing the dough in the basket when frying, carefully lower the dough into the fryer without the basket and use the basket on top of the dough to hold it under the oil. If you are frying on your stovetop, you can use a spider or strainer to hold the dough under the oil.

My favorite new Denny’s pancakes are these tasty whole-grain-filled buttermilk flapjacks, peppered with healthy flax seeds. At the base of the formula is my hack for Denny’s buttermilk pancakes, and to that I’ve added whole wheat flour, a little flax seed, and a hot cereal blend with nine different grains in it. Okay, mine had ten grains in it, but who’s counting?

Regardless of how many grains are in the cereal blend you use, I find it best to give the grains a quick soak to soften them up before making the pancakes. Just let the cereal and flax seeds rest for a bit in the liquid before mixing them into the dry ingredients.

Find more cool breakfast copycat recipes here.

First impressions are important, and after my first bite of Denny's new buttermilk pancakes, I couldn't stop thinking about waffle cones. Back in the lab I mashed together a standard waffle cone recipe with one of mine for buttermilk pancakes and was able to create the perfect hack for Denny’s new, improved flapjacks. And because of their unique waffle cone flavor, these pancakes taste just as great doused with maple syrup as they do topped with a big scoop of ice cream.

The recipe makes eight big 6-inch pancakes, which you will form by measuring 1/2 cup of batter onto your preheated griddle or skillet. If you have a large griddle pan you may be able to make a couple of these at a time. With smaller pans, though, you’ll have to make one at time, which will take a little longer. And that’s why they invented mimosas.

By making a few tweaks to basic pancake batter, including adding a little cake flour to the mix, typical flapjacks are deliciously converted into ritzy, flat red velvet cakes just like those offered for a limited time at the world's largest pancake chain.

But the recipe would not be complete without a sweet clone for the cream cheese icing that's drizzled over the top, so that's included here as well.

Cooking these pancakes on a griddle pan set over medium/low heat seems to work the best. Just be sure to give your pan plenty of time to heat up and only add the nonstick spray once.

I've copied a ton of items from IHOP. See if I hacked your favorites here. 

Three things make Costco Blueberry Muffins special: they’re huge, they’re moist, and berries are bursting out of the top of each one. Now your home muffins can be just as special using a similar recipe and freshly unlocked tricks from our favorite big-box store.

Obviously, you get huge muffins by using a huge muffin pan, so you’ll need a jumbo or “Texas-size” muffin pan if you want your muffins the same size as the originals. You can certainly make standard muffins with this batter in a standard-size muffin pan, but in this case, bigger is definitely better.

To get muffins that are moist you’ll need oil. I noticed many muffin recipes use butter, but I found it made the muffins taste more like butter cake or pound cake than true muffins. Looking at the ingredients listed on the package of Kirkland muffins, you won’t find any butter in there. Just oil. For this hack, some of that oil comes from margarine (for a mild butter flavor and thicker batter), and the rest is vegetable oil.

As for the blueberries, if you add them straight into the batter the juice frozen on the outside of the berries will streak your batter blue, so be sure to rinse the berries before you add them. And to make your muffins look as irresistible as those at Costco, we’ll use another one of their tasty tricks: press 4 blueberries into the batter in each cup just before the pan goes into the oven so that every baked muffin is sure to have several tantalizing berries popping out of the top.

Menu Description: "Two fresh breakfast favorites are even better together with our buttermilk pancakes swirled with cinnamon-brown sugar."

This new Cheesecake Factory brunch item packs everything you love about cinnamon rolls into an extra-wide stack of pancakes, including buttery icing on top. To make pancakes that are caramel brown on their faces and super spongy with lots of air pockets, you’ll need a tablespoon of baking soda in the batter. When the alkaline baking soda collides with the acidic buttermilk, the batter will instantly puff up, making pancakes that are extra light and airy, and very dark on their surface, like pretzels.

The batter here makes plain buttermilk pancakes until the secret cinnamon filling is swirled over the top of the batter when it's poured into the pan. The combination of brown sugar, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and butter will melt into the pancake, making it look and taste like a sweet, buttery cinnamon roll. Hopefully you have a big griddle or very large skillet to cook these on. The original pancakes are 7 to 8 inches across, so you’ll need a big cooking surface if you want to cook more than one at a time. Or you could just make smaller pancakes.

This easy muffin clone is modeled after the low-fat product found in the freezer section of your market, from one of the first brands to make low-fat food hip and tasty. Muffins are notorious for their high fat content, but in this recipe mashed banana adds flavor and moistness to the muffins to replace the fat. Now you can satisfy a muffin craving without worrying about fat grams.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Hearty grains, wholesome oats, almonds and English walnuts."

Wholesome grains and nuts get it on in this clone for the signature pancakes from the country's largest pancake chain. The whole wheat flour and oats add more flavor, while the nuts pitch in for a crunch in every bite. Take a break from gummy, bland traditional pancakes. Make a breakfast that pacifies your pancake urge, and leaves you feeling peppy.

Find more of my IHOP copycat recipes here. 

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

Two friendly Atlanta, Georgia neighbors built the first Waffle House in 1955. With the dimpled breakfast hotcake as a signature item, the privately held chain grew into 20 Southern U.S. states. Today tasty food at rock-bottom prices, plus 24-hours-a-day service, makes Waffle House a regular stop for devoted customers any time of the day or night. And don't even think about referring to your server as a waitress—they're called "associates."

For the best clone of the 50-year-old secret waffle recipe you should chill the batter overnight in the fridge, just as they do in each of the restaurants. But sometimes you can't wait. If you need instant gratification, the recipe still works if you make the waffles the same day. Wait for at least 15 to 20 minutes before using the batter so that it can thicken a bit. That'll give you time to dust off the waffle iron and heat it up.

How about some homemade Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sausage to go with those waffles? Check out my recipes for famous breakfast items here. 

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

Get vertical with these two top secret breakfasts-in-sandwich from the world's number-two fast food chain. A great way to make the eggs for these breakfast sandwiches is to pour the beaten egg into a well-greased mold made from an empty pineapple can. Just cut both ends off an 8-ounce pineapple can—you know, the short cans that have the crushed or sliced pineapple inside. Then, before you know it, you'll be making perfectly round eggs like the fast food pros.  

Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes 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 you'll need for this recipe, 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.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Brimming with a blend of diced ham, onions, crisp celery and green peppers folded into a rich, luscious cheese sauce. With hashed browns tucked inside." 

The same year that Matt and Ivan Perkins opened their first diner, they started selling franchise rights to other entrepreneurs. Back then, the name for the chain west of the Mississippi was still Smitty's, and to the east it became Perkins Pancake House. Soon, the name was changed to Perkins Cake & Steak. But that wouldn't last either. In the seventies the western chain of Smitty's and the eastern Perkins consolidated, and Perkins Family Restaurants, as we know it today, was born.

Secret breakfast recipes are what originally made Perkins famous. The trademarked Granny's Country Omelette is a popular menu selection from the "Premium Omelettes" column. It is a clever design for an omelette with the hash browns hidden away inside the folded eggs in a compartment separate from the other filling ingredients. 

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

The automated process for creating Krispy Kreme doughnuts, developed in the 1950's, took the company many years to perfect. When you drive by your local Krispy Kreme store between 5:00 and 11:00 each day (both a.m. and p.m.) and see the "Hot Doughnuts Now" sign lit up, inside the store custom-made stainless steel machines are rolling. Doughnut batter is extruded into little doughnut shapes that ride up and down through a temperature and humidity controlled booth to activate the yeast. This creates the perfect amount of air in the dough that will yield a tender and fluffy finished product. When the doughnuts are perfectly puffed up, they're gently dumped into a moat of hot vegetable shortening where they float on one side until golden brown, and then the machine flips them over to cook the other side. When the doughnuts finish frying, they ride up a mesh conveyor belt and through a ribbon of white sugar glaze. If you're lucky enough to taste one of these doughnuts just as it comes around the corner from the glazing, you're in for a real treat—the warm circle of sweet doughy goodness practically melts in your mouth. It's this secret process that helped Krispy Kreme become the fastest-growing doughnut chain in the country. 

As you can guess, the main ingredient in a Krispy Kreme doughnut is wheat flour, but there is also some added gluten, soy flour, malted barley flour, and modified food starch; plus egg yolk, non-fat milk, flavoring, and yeast. I suspect a low-gluten flour, like cake flour, is probably used in the original mix to make the doughnuts tender, and then the manufacturer adds the additional gluten to give the doughnuts the perfect framework for rising. I tested many combinations of cake flour and wheat gluten, but found that the best texture resulted from cake flour combined with all-purpose flour. I also tried adding a little soy flour to the mix, but the soy gave the dough a strange taste and it didn't benefit the texture of the dough in any way.  I excluded the malted barley flour and modified food starch from the Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut recipe since these are difficult ingredients to find. These exclusions didn't seem to matter because the real secret in making these doughnuts look and taste like the original lies primarily in careful handling of the dough.

The Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut recipe dough will be very sticky when first mixed together, and you should be careful not to over mix it or you will build up some tough gluten strands, and that will result in chewy doughnuts. You don't even need to touch the dough until it is finished with the first rising stage. After the dough rises for 30 to 45 minutes it will become easier to handle, but you will still need to flour your hands. Also, be sure to generously flour the surface you are working on when you gently roll out the dough for cutting. When each doughnut shape is cut from the dough, place it onto a small square of wax paper that has been lightly dusted with flour. Using wax paper will allow you to easily transport the doughnuts (after they rise) from the baking sheet to the hot shortening without deflating the dough. As long as you don't fry them too long—1 minute per side should be enough—you will have tender homemade doughnuts that will satisfy even the biggest Krispy Kreme fanatics.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

It was in the late seventies, shortly after McDonald's had introduced the Egg McMuffin, that the food giant realized the potential of a quick, drive-thru breakfast. Soon, the company had developed several breakfast selections, including the Big Breakfast with eggs, hash browns, and sausage. Eventually one out of every four breakfasts served out of the home would be served at McDonald's—an impressive statistic indeed. The newest kid on the McBreakfast block is this morning meal in a tortilla, first offered on the menu in the summer of 1991. The regular Breakfast Burrito has 19 grams of fat. To keep the energy up for your busy day, try out this version of the tasty breakfast meal with under 3 grams of fat.

Nutrition Facts
Serving size–1 burrito
Total servings–4
Calories per serving–202 (Original–320)
Fat per serving–2.5g (Original–19g)

Source: Top Secret Recipes Lite by Todd Wilbur. 

Like the Big Mac, the idea for this breakfast product came from an inspired McDonald's franchisee goofing around with ingredients in the kitchen—in this case, English muffins and a cylindrical egg mold. It was in 1977 that the world's largest burger chain unveiled the Egg McMuffin to a ravenous America on the go: the eat-breakfast-while-driving, morning rush hour workforce with the spill-proof coffee mugs.

Back then, concerns with fat intake were not big on our minds or in the news, so the 12 grams of fat per Egg McMuffin was disregarded. But if you've had your share of greasy breakfast sandwiches over the years and have little extra time one morning, give this cool clone a test. Using egg substitute egg whites and fat-free American cheese, you can still create that signature Mickey D's taste while cutting the fat down to just 2.5 grams per sandwich. Now when you eat two of these you won't make such a dent in your daily fat allotment when the sun is just barely up.

Nutrition Facts
Serving size–1 sandwich
Total servings–1
Calories per serving–217 (Original–290)
Fat per serving–2.5g (Original–12g)

Source: Low Fat-Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Six triangular slices with powdered sugar."

Now in its 38th year, IHOP has become one of the recognized leaders for breakfast dining, serving up thousands of omelettes, waffles, blintzes, and pancakes each and every day.

Among the popular morning meals is IHOP's classic French Toast. You'll notice the addition of a little bit of flour to the batter to make this IHOP French Toast copycat recipe more like the dish you get at the restaurant. The flour helps create a thicker coating on the bread, almost like a tender crepe on the surface, keeping the bread from becoming too soggy.

Click here for more amazing IHOP breakfast options.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Crepe-style pancakes filled with a blend of cheeses with strawberry preserves and sour cream."

Detroit's mayoral candidate Sharon McPhail and Detroit schools superintendent David Snead often dined in the city's hottest spot for power breakfasts—the local IHOP. Those morning breakfasts eventually led to the two exchanging vows in front of 1,800 guests in a 1995 wedding ceremony. It was dubbed Detroit's "wedding of the year." 

You'll enjoy this simple recipe for crepes, which, when filled with cheese, become delicious blintzes. The restaurant uses a type of cheese that is similar to soft farmer's cheese, but you can make this with cream cheese, or even with yogurt that has been strained to make it thicker. Any way you decide to go, you're in for a treat.

Can't get enough IHOP? Click here for all my clone recipes. 

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

IHOP claims to sell over 400,000 pancakes each day. That's a lot of pancakes. So many, in fact, what if all of those flapjacks were served up on one plate, it would make a giant stack taller than the Sears Tower in Chicago. And much tastier.

According to servers, of all the pancakes flavors and varieties, the Banana Nut Pancakes are one of the most often requested. I've included a recipe for the banana-flavored syrup here, but you can use any flavor syrup, including maple, on these dudes. Check out my other IHOP recipe clones here. 

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Update 2/8/17: Rather than combining all of the ingredients together in this IHOP banana nut pancake recipe in step #2, use two bowls. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in one bowl. In the other bowl combine the buttermilk, egg, oil, sugar, and banana flavoring with an electric mixer on medium speed. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, mix until smooth, and move on to step #3.

This McDonald's yogurt parfait recipe is super easy to make, plus it's low fat and delicious. The yogurt in the original is very sweet and creamy like Yoplait. So that's the brand that you should use, although any brand of a vanilla yogurt will work fine (see update in "Tidbits"). If you use Yoplait, you'll need two 6-ounce containers of the stuff per serving. For the granola, just look for one that contains mostly oats. It should be crunchy and sweet, and can also include puffed rice bits. You can make these McDonald's yogurt parfaits a day or two ahead of time. Keep the fruit and yogurt parfairt covered in the fridge, and hold off on the granola topping until just before you serve them or it'll get soggy. Also, try our McDonald's strawberry banana smoothie recipe.

Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Two sweet golden pancakes, grilled with fresh sliced banana, drizzled with a rum-butter flavored glaze and crowned with creamy whipped topping and toasted macadamia nuts."

This is the best of three varieties of pancakes that IHOP introduced as "Hawaiian Pancakes" in the summer of 2009. The country's largest flapjack house flavors the new pancakes with imitation banana flavoring and a yellow coloring, since real bananas will eventually turn a prepared batter brown. But we are going to use this batter right away so I've incorporated real mashed banana in this batter to add the perfect sweetness and much better real banana flavor. A clone for the delicious rum-butter glaze is also included here, but these pancakes are also great when drizzled with plain old maple syrup. 

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

Even though the early press runs of the first book, Top Secret Recipes, excluded buttermilk in this recipe—a very important ingredient if you really want pourable batter—many figured out the missing ingredient on their own and the error was quickly corrected in later copies. Now we just like to call those copies of the book the "Collector's Editions." For any of you who were lucky enough to get one of the "Collector's Editions" we'd like to say "Congratulations!" Now here's the recipe—with the complete list of ingredients—to make pancakes just like those served every day at IHOP. Also check out our IHOP banana nut pancake recipe.

Source: Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Seasoned chicken or beef with onions, diced green peppers, cheese and chili salsa."

Pancakes are obviously the signature entree, but IHOP serves a variety of breakfast selections—more than 65 items! Along with a cup of coffee from the trademarked "Never Empty Coffee Pot," diners can choose from about a dozen different omelette selections including the Santa Fe Omelette, International Omelette, Chorizo and Cheese Omelette, and the delicious Fajita Omelette.

In my version of the original favorite, you can use either chicken or beef.

Click here for more of your favorite IHOP copycat recipes. 

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

During the holiday season this particular hotcake flavor sells like...well, you know. This IHOP pumpkin pancakes recipe is one of 16 varieties of pancakes served at this national casual diner chain. You can make your own version of these delicious flapjacks with a little canned pumpkin, some spices and traditional buttermilk pancake ingredients. Get out the mixer, fire up the stove, track down the syrup.

Check out my other clone recipes for famous items from IHOP here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

Hold an entire breakfast in two hands and bring it right up to your face for a bite. Here's a clone for the Spanish Omelet Bagel from the Golden Arches. Check out my other clones for the Ham & Egg, and Steak & Egg Bagels in Even More Top Secret Recipes. All three sandwiches use the easy-to-make secret dill mayo-mustard sauce, cloned here with just two ingredients. The only requirement is that you have a small 6-inch skillet to make the omelette for each sandwich. This McDonald's Spanish omelette bagel sandwich recipe makes four sandwiches, so you'll be able to feed the whole crew.

This is fun, right? Check out more of my copycat recipes for McDonald's favorites here.

Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Biscuit-flavored pancakes layered with your favorite fruit compote and crowned with creamy whipped topping. Choose from blueberry, strawberry or country apple."

Since these fruit-covered pancakes are made with the same ingredients that go into biscuits, you won't need any eggs. The batter is like runny biscuit dough, and, when cooked on a hot griddle or in a skillet, you get dense pancakes that have the same flavor as buttermilk biscuits. For real! The fruit compote is canned pie filling if you are making the blueberry or apple versions. Each can supplies enough fruit for the 3 servings made with this recipe. If it's strawberries you want on top of your pancakes, just thaw out a package of frozen whole or sliced strawberries in syrup. You can also use fresh sliced strawberries that have been mixed in the strawberry glaze that's often found in your market's produce section, usually over by the strawberries.

Find more great ideas for breakfast here. 

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Oven-roasted turkey breast, real bacon pieces, green onions and fresh tomatoes. In a delicate hollandaise sauce."

This chain gained a large following early on for its homestyle breakfast menu. Today, even though you can eat from the breakfast menu whenever you like, customers are picking from the lunch and dinner selections just about as often.

Since it was originally the breakfast selection that made this chain famous, I thought it would be a good idea to hack this great omelette recipe. The Country Club Omelette answers the question "What do you get when you cross a club sandwich and three eggs?" 

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Sure, IHOP is famous for pancakes, but the joint makes a pretty killer omelette when put to the task. What makes this three-egg creation so cool is the top secret folding method. For all of IHOP's omelettes, the beaten eggs are mixed with the appropriate chunky ingredients, and the whole thing is poured out thin on a giant griddle. When the eggs have firmed up, two sides are folded over, the filling is positioned, and the omelette is rolled over once, twice, three times, so it ends up looking like a burrito, sort of. Now with this IHOP Country Omelette copycat recipe, we can execute the same egg origami at home with a 12-inch electric skillet, or a 12-inch stovetop griddle pan. You can find easy-to-cook hash brown potatoes in bags in the freezer section.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

Everyone knows the center of a cinnamon roll is the best part. With that in mind, McDonald's designed a cinnamon pastry where every bite is coated with the same deliciously gooey cinnamon and brown sugar filling that you discover only after working your way through the dry, doughy part of traditional cinnamon rolls. It's sort of like monkey bread, whereby chunks of dough are tossed in cinnamon sugar and then baked in a deep cake pan. The difference with this clone of the McDonald's version is that the filling is mixed with margarine and spooned onto the dough chunks in layers. And you bake this in small, single-serving portions. As it turns out, a Texas-size muffin tin, which has cups that are about twice the size of a standard muffin tin, is the perfect pan for this. You can also use disposable aluminum pot pie pans that many markets carry. Since this recipe makes a dozen servings, dig this: After the cinnamon melts have cooled, cover and freeze them. When you need a quick breakfast pastry or late-night snack, simply remove a melt from the pan, microwave for 35 seconds, or until hot (this is how McDonald's heats it, too), and you're instantly teleported to cinnamon roll paradise.

Cinnamon Roll fans may also want to try my clone recipe for Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls here. 

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Oven baked with fresh apples and pure Sikiyan cinnamon glaze."

Fresh, high-quality ingredients and traditional recipes are what makes this growing chain a frequent favorite for anyone who stops in. The star of the show is the incredible apple pancake, the chain's signature dish. To make a dead-on clone, Granny Smith apples are sauteed in butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, then allowed to cool for a bit. That way, when the batter is poured into the pan, the apples and glaze stay anchored to the bottom. This technique also prevents the glaze from penetrating into the batter as the pancake bakes since there is now an apple barrier preventing any mixing of the ingredients. When the pancake comes out of the oven it's flipped over onto a plate and the apples are right there on top, dripping with a delicious cinnamon-sugar glaze. You won't need any syrup for this one, that's for sure. Just a light dusting of powdered sugar on top. Then dig into an apple pancake unlike any other.

You may also like my clone recipe for the Original Pancake House German Pancake aka "Dutch Baby".

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

International House of Pancakes Funnel Cake Carnival promotion brought the famous fairground food to the masses for a limited time. As you would expect from the name, the first thing you'll need to make proper funnel cakes is, of course, a funnel. The funnel is used to swirl batter into hot oil where it will fry to a happy golden brown in about a minute on each side. Find a funnel with an opening that is at least 1/2-inch wide so that your funnel cakes will have approximately the same thickness as the IHOP version. For the frying, shortening works the best since that's what IHOP uses, but you can also use vegetable or canola oil. I used a trans fat-free shortening from Smart Balance and it worked great. Load your oil or shortening into a small saucepan with about a 6-inch diameter. This way the batter won't spread out when you funnel it into the oil, and you'll get funnel cakes that are all about the same size. When it's time to serve the dish, arrange two funnel cakes on a plate, dust them with powdered sugar, top 'em off with fruit and whipped cream, and enjoy fairground-style funnel cakes without any scary carnies watching you eat. 

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

If your crew likes food with a little kick, and they're into breakfast sandwiches, grab some of your favorite bagels and give this clone a go. The jalapeño salsa cream cheese used here is made with only four ingredients, and the rest of the recipe is even easier: cook up some turkey sausage patties in a skillet and prepare each serving of scrambled eggs in a small bowl in the microwave so they fit perfectly on the bagels. For the turkey sausage, I used Wampler brand which comes in 1-pound tubes, but you can also use small turkey breakfast links—just squeeze the sausage out of the casings and form your patties (ditch the casings). You can also use pork sausage if you like.

Still hungry? Check out my recipe for Einstein Bros. Bagels Twice Baked Hash Browns. 

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

When Matt and Ivan Perkins tasted the food at Smitty's Pancake House in Seattle, they were smitten. Soon they had purchased the rights to William Smith's recipes, which had been perfected at his renowned restaurant that opened just after the end of World War II. In 1958, the brothers opened their own Smitty's restaurants in Cincinnati, Ohio, and eventually changed the name from Smitty's to Perkins. 

If you've never tried potato pancakes from Perkins, or any restaurant, now's the time with this copycat recipe. I've given you the option to make the potatoes with frozen hash brown potatoes or with fresh potatoes you shred by hand. It's up to you. Use maple syrup on these hotcakes, or go for a little butter and powdered sugar on top.

Try more of my breakfast copycat recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description:"Two slices of sourdough bread grilled with an egg in the middle, served with thick-sliced bacon or smoked sausage patties and fried apples or hash brown casserole."

Breakfast is a popular meal at Cracker Barrel restaurants. Just to prove it, the restaurant has some amazing statistics printed on the back of their breakfast menus: "Each Spring 607,142 Sugar Maple Trees must be tapped to produce enough pure maple syrup for our guests;" "It takes 5,615,000,000 (THAT'S BILLION!) coffee beans each year to satisfy our guests' need for coffee. Each tree produces only 1 pound of coffee per year, that's 1,560,000 trees."

This recipe is a classic egg-in-the-hole recipe that I used to make all the time as a kid. I thought my family invented it.

Find more fun ideas for breakfast here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Panera Bread's Baked Spinach and Artichoke Egg Souffle reminds me of a breakfast Hot Pocket, if a Hot Pocket tasted really good. With eggs, cheese, spinach, and artichoke hearts baked into a buttery crust, this super-cool presentation will earn you big bonus points from your crew in the a.m. And the best part about this copycat Panera spinach souffle recipe is you won't stress out over making the dough from scratch since you use premade Pillsbury Crescent Dough that comes in a tube. Just be sure when you unroll the dough that you don't separate it into triangles. Instead, pinch the dough together along the diagonal perforations to make four squares. After the dough is rolled out, line four buttered ramekins with each square, fill each ramekin with the secret egg mixture, and bake. 

Find more of your favorite recipes from Panera Bread here. 

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

It was in the late seventies, shortly after McDonald's introduced the Egg McMuffin, that the food giant realized the potential of a quick, drive-thru breakfast. Soon, the company had developed several new breakfast selections, including the Big Breakfast with eggs, hash browns, and sausage, and this morning meal in a tortilla, first offered on the menu in 1991.

Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

As he worked long, hard days at a shipyard in Hingham, Massachusetts, during World War II, William Rosenberg was struck with an idea for a new kind of food service. As soon as the war ended, Rosenberg started Industrial Luncheon Services, a company that delivered fresh meals and snacks to factory workers. When Rosenberg realized that most of his business was in coffee and donuts, he quit offering his original service. He found an old awning store and converted it into a coffee-and-donut shop called The Open Kettle. This name was soon changed to the more familiar Dunkin' Donuts, and between 1950 and 1955 five more shops opened and thrived. The company later spread beyond the Boston area and has become the largest coffee-and-donut chain in the world.

Today, Dunkin' Donuts offers fifty-two varieties of donuts in each shop, but the most popular have always been the plain glazed and chocolate-glazed yeast donuts.

Source: More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Before he became America's sausage king, Jimmy Dean was known for crooning the country hit "Big Bad John." That song came out in 1962 and sold more than 8 million copies. His singing success launched a television career on ABC with The Jimmy Dean Show, where Roy Clark, Patsy Cline, and Roger Miller got their big breaks. The TV exposure led to acting roles for Jimmy, as a regular on Daniel Boone, and in feature films, including his debut in the James Bond flick Diamonds are Forever. Realizing that steady income from an acting and singing career can be undependable, Jimmy invested his show-biz money in a hog farm. In 1968 the Jimmy Dean Meat Company developed the special recipe for sausage that has now become a household name. Today the company is part of the Sara Lee Corporation, and Jimmy retired as company spokesman in 2004.

This clone recipe re-creates three varieties of the famous roll sausage that you form into patties and cook in a skillet. Use ground pork found at the supermarket—make it lean pork if you like—or grind some up yourself if you have a meat grinder.

Check out more of my famous breakfast food clone recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Two scrambled eggs, seasoned sausage, crispy bacon, shaved ham, mayonnaise and American cheese grilled on potato bread with a maple spice spread."

After a successful Super Bowl promotion when Denny's gave away over 2 million Grand Slam Breakfast platters in February 2009, the chain revealed its next generous publicity stunt the following April by offering a free serving of its new Grand Slamwich with every purchase of a Grand Slam Breakfast. This entire breakfast-in-a-sandwich features everything you'd want in a hearty day starter including 2 eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, and cheese, all on potato bread. It seems that the taste buds of Denny's corporate chefs were influenced by the maple-flavored buns used on McDonald's McGriddle sandwich when they got the idea to brush the bread on each Grand Slamwich with a maple-infused buttery spread. Regardless of the inspiration, the Denny's Grand Slamwich recipe works great, and now you can make it at home anytime you like.
 
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

It's got a goofy name and tons of fans. This is one of  Denny's most popular sandwiches, and it has remained on Denny's menu since 1978. But whether you have it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, you might like to know there's a way to enjoy the taste of this grilled sandwich for around 30 grams less fat than the real thing. This TSR version cuts fat in several ways, but the most significant savings come from using fat-free cheese. Get some low-fat ham at your supermarket deli counter, or you can find it prepackaged near the luncheon meats. Start heating up a couple saute pans and get ready to discover this delicious lower-fat treat.

Nutrition Facts
Serving size–1 sandwich
Total servings–1
Calories per serving–460 (Original–700)
Fat per serving–3g (Original–33g)

Source: Top Secret Recipes Lite by Todd Wilbur.

The original version of these bite-size breakfast treats made with extra thick pancake batter and coated with cinnamon sugar are a big success at Denny's. So, chefs there have come up with another version with blueberries and white chocolate chips inside. Initially I thought I could use an instant blueberry pancake mix to clone the new flavor, such as the mix made by Krusteaz. But those "blueberries" in there aren't even real blueberries - they're fake blueberry flavored bits. Not good. I found that the best solution for the best clone is to add chopped up dried blueberries to an extra-thick batter, along with a little chopped up white chocolate chips. The batter is easy to portion out using a 1 3/4-inch cookie scoop that's been dipped in oil, but you could also use a tablespoon measure as long as you don't scoop up too much. Keep your batter balls about 1 1/2 inches in diameter or they may not cook all the way through. Here are clones for the original Pancake Puppies as well as the new blueberry and white chocolate chip version.

Denny's does pancakes right! Check out my other clone recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.