- ←
- Home
- New Recipes
- Otis Spunkmeyer Apple Cinnamon Muffins Reduced-Fat
Otis Spunkmeyer Apple Cinnamon Muffins Reduced-Fat
- $0.00
Who is Otis Spunkmeyer? Actually, he does not exist. The character who flies around in the plane pictured on the product labels, searching the world for premium ingredients, is just a catchy name dreamed up by founder Ken Rawling's 12-year-old daughter.
The company offers low-fat versions of many of its 11 varieties of muffins, but they are more difficult to track down than the original versions.
My reduced-fat conversion copycat recipe of the famous Otis Spunkmeyer Apple Cinnamon Muffins has 4 grams of fat per serving, or 8 grams total—quite a reduction compared to the original muffins, which have a total of 22 grams of fat each.
Nutrition Facts
Serving size–1/2 muffin
Total servings–16
Calories per serving–142 (Original–220)
Fat per serving–4g (Original–11g)
Try my recipes for reduced-fat versions of Otis Spunkmeyer chocolate chip, blueberry and banana muffins here.
Source: Top Secret Recipes Lite by Todd Wilbur.
Get This
_main
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup egg substitute
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk (1 percent fat)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- Fat-free butter-flavored spray
- 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, applesauce, egg substitute, oil, salt, vanilla and baking soda. Add the buttermilk and blend.
3. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix well with an electric mixer.
4. To bake the muffins, use a "Texas-size" muffin pan lined with large muffin cups. You may also bake the muffins without the cups, just be sure to grease the cups well with cooking spray. (If you use a regular-size muffin pan, which also works fine, your cooking time will be a few minutes less and your yield will double.) Fill the cups halfway with batter.
5. Spray a couple of squirts of fat-free butter-flavored spray over the top of each cup of batter. Follow that with a sprinkle of about 1 teaspoon of brown sugar.
6. Bake the muffins for 20 to 24 minutes or until brown on top (16 to 20 minutes for regular-size muffins). Remove the muffins from the oven and allow them to cool for about 30 minutes. Store muffins in a sealed container or resealable plastic bag.
Makes 8 Texas-size muffins (or 16 regular-size muffins).
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
-
Monthly TSR Club
Read moreper month*
Includes eight (8) 79¢ recipes of your choice each month!
-
25% off
-
-
Annual TSR Club (Best Deal!)
Read moreper month
($23.88 annually)*
Save $19.16 vs. monthlyIncludes eight (8) 79¢ recipes of your choice each month!
-
33% off
-
-
Otis Spunkmeyer Chocolate Chip Muffins Reduced-Fat
Read moreIn Cayce, South Carolina, Otis Spunkmeyer muffins were manufactured with state-of-the-art robotic equipment that would make R2-D2 jealous. The amazing machines do everything from packaging 130 muffins per minute to sealing up the cartons for a quick shipment to stores across the country.
This Top Secret Recipes reduced-fat clone version uses unsweetened applesauce to keep the muffins moist and to help replace fat.Find more yummy copycat snack recipes here.
Nutrition Facts
Serving size–1/2 muffin
Total servings–16
Calories per serving–160 (Original–240)
Fat per serving–5.5g (Original–13g)Source: Low-Fat Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
-
Otis Spunkmeyer Wild Blueberry Muffins Reduced-Fat
Read moreAfter baking the big 'ol muffins, Otis Spunkmeyer freezes them so that they stay fresh on the way to the stores. Vendors thaw out the tasty baked goodies before displaying them on their shelves. Even after the muffins reach room temperature, they still have a very impressive shelf life of twenty-one days.
You can also freeze the muffins you make with this reduced-fat clone recipe. Just wait until they cool, then wrap the muffins in plastic wrap, and toss them in the freezer. And remember, the shelf life of your version without preservatives will be much less than that of the real McCoy, so dive into those muffins post haste.
Nutrition Facts
Serving size–1/2 muffin
Total servings–16
Calories per serving–165 (Original–210)
Fat per serving–4 g (Original–11g) -
Heinz Premium Chili Sauce
Read moreThe name of this tomato-based sauce belies its taste. There's not even a hint of spiciness here that someone might associate with "chili." Instead, you get a sweet and sour sauce that's got more tang than ketchup, and more chunks. And what are those chunks? According to the label, they're dehydrated onions, so that's exactly what I used in my Heinz Chili Sauce recipe below. Be sure to get the kind that say dried "minced" onions, because dried "chopped" onions are too big. The recipe is a simple one since you just combine everything in a saucepan and simmer until done. And if you cruise down to the Tidbits at the bottom of this recipe, I'll show you a super-easy way to turn this saucy clone into a beautiful carbon copy of Heinz Seafood Cocktail Sauce.
Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.
-
Chili's Salsa
Read moreMy super simple Chili's salsa recipe can be made in a pinch with a can of diced tomatoes, some canned jalapeños, fresh lime juice, onion, spices, and a food processor or blender. Plus, you can easily double the recipe by sending in a larger 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes, and simply doubling up on all the other ingredients. Use this versatile salsa as a dip for tortilla chips, or plop it down onto any dish that needs flavor assistance—from eggs to taco salads to wraps to fish. You can adjust the heat level to suit your taste by tweaking the amount of canned jalapeños in the mix.
Now, what's for dinner? Check out some copycat entrees from your favorite restaurants here.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur. -
Starbucks Bacon and Gruyere Sous Vide Egg Bites
Read moreIn 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 my Starbucks Bacon and Gruyère Sous Vide Egg Bites 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.
-
Bonefish Grill Citrus Herb Vinaigrette
Read moreThere a are few decent bottled salad dressings out there, but there's nothing on the shelf that compares in taste to this homemade version of the house salad dressing from Bonefish Grill. Not only that, it's a heck of a lot cheaper to make your own vinaigrette from scratch. And check out the easy steps in my Bonefish Grill Citrus Herb Vinaigrette copycat recipe: Mix everything together in a bowl, microwave for 1 minute, whisk to emulsify, then chill. If you're a salad lover, this is the clone for you.
You might also like my recipe for Bonefish Grill Bang Bang Shrimp.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.
-
Maid-Rite Loose Meat Sandwich
Read moreIt's been an Iowa tradition since 1926, and today this sandwich has a huge cult following. It's similar to a traditional hamburger, but the ground beef is not formed into a patty. Instead, the lightly seasoned meat lies uncompressed on a white bun, dressed with mustard, minced onion, and dill pickles. Since the meat is loose, the sandwich is always served with a spoon for scooping up the ground beef that will inevitably fall out.
When this clone recipe for Maid-Rite was originally posted on our website several years ago, it elicited more e-mail than any recipe in the site's history. Numerous Midwesterners were keyboard-ready to insist that the clone was far from accurate without the inclusion of a few bizarre ingredients, the most common of which was Coca-Cola. One letter states: "You evidently have not ever had a Maid-Rite. The secret to the Maid-Rite is coke syrup. Without it you cannot come close to the taste." Another e-mail reads: "Having lived in the Midwest all of my life and knowing not only the owners of a Maid-Rite restaurant but also many people who worked there, I can tell you that one of the things you left out of your recipe is Coca-Cola. Not a lot, just enough to keep the meat moist."
On the flip side, I received comments such as this one from an Iowa fan who lived near Don Taylor's original Maid-Rite franchise: "The secret to the best Maid-Rite is the whole beef. Don had a butcher shop in his basement where he cut and ground all his beef. Some people still swear they added seasoning, but that is just not true. Not even pepper."
Back in my lab, no matter how hard I examined the meat in the original product—which was shipped to me in dry ice directly from Don Taylor's original store in Marshalltown, Iowa—I could not detect Coca-Cola. There's no sweetness to the meat at all, although the buns themselves seem to include some sugar. When the buns are chewed with the meat, the sandwich does taste mildly sweet. I finally decided that Coca-Cola syrup is not part of the recipe. If it is added to the meat in the Maid-Rite stores, it's an insignificant amount that does not have any noticeable effect on the flavor.
Also, the texture is important, so adding plenty of liquid to the simmering meat is crucial. My Maid Rite sandwich copycat recipe requires 1 cup of water in addition to 1/4 cup of beef broth. By simmering the ground beef in this liquid for a couple of hours, the meat will tenderize and become infused with a little flavor, just like the real thing.
When the liquid is gone, form the ground beef into a 1/2 cup measuring scoop, dump it onto the bottom of a plain hamburger bun, then add your choice of mustard, onions, and pickles. Adding ketchup is up to you, although it's not an ingredient found in Maid-Rite stores. Many say that back in the early days "hobos" would swipe the ketchup and mix it with water to make tomato soup. Free ketchup was nixed from the restaurants way back then, and the custom has been in place ever since.
Just think of all the famous sandwiches you can make at home. I've hacked the Popeye's Chicken Sandwich, McDonald's Big Mac, Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich, and many more. See if I've duplicated your favorite here.
Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur. -
Chili's Chicken Enchilada Soup
Read moreChili's Chicken Enchilada soup happens to be one of the chain's most raved-about items, and the subject of many a recipe search here on the site. Part of the secret in crafting your clone is the addition of masa harina—a corn flour that you'll find in your supermarket near the other flours, or where all the Mexican foodstuffs are stocked.
Try my Chili's Chicken Enchilada Soup copycat recipe below, and complete your meal with more of my Chili's copycat recipes here.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur. -
Red Lobster New England Clam Chowder
Read moreSome recipes require going through the tedious (and more expensive) task of steaming fresh clams and dicing up all the good parts. For my Red Lobster New England Clam Chowder copycat recipe, you can use the more affordable and convenient canned clams found in any supermarket without sacrificing flavor. Just remember to not toss out the clam juice in the cans when you open them, since you'll need that flavorful liquid in the first step.
Make a batch of my Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits to go with your chowder, and find more of my Red Lobster recipes copycat here.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur. -
Olive Garden Minestrone Soup
Read moreMenu Description: "Fresh vegetables, beans and pasta in a light tomato broth—a vegetarian classic."
Olive Garden's minestrone soup is jam-packed with beans, zucchini, onion, tomatoes, carrots, pasta, and spices; but O.G.'s secret formula doesn't include chicken broth. Canned vegetable broth found in the soup aisle of most markets works as a base here in this secret formula that bursts with flavor as a purely vegetarian dish.Try my Olive Garden minestrone soup recipe below, and check out my other Olive Garden copycat recipes here.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur. -
Taco Bell Burrito Supreme
Read moreTo copy the Taco Bell Burrito Supreme at home, you first must assemble the meaty foundation of many of the chain's top-selling products: the spiced ground beef. Toss it and seven other tasty ingredients into a large flour tortilla and fold using the same technique as taught to new recruits to the chain. Add your favorite hot sauce for a bit of heat, or clone Taco Bell Mild, Hot, Fire Border, Diablo, Baja, or Lava sauce with my recipes here.
You might also want to try my improved Taco Bell beef recipe here.
Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur. -
Panda Express Mandarin (Bourbon) Chicken
Read moreHere's a dish from a rapidly growing Chinese food chain that should satisfy anyone who loves the famous marinated bourbon chicken found in food courts across America. The sauce is the whole thing here, and it's quick to make using my Panda Express Mandarin Chicken recipe below. You'll make the sauce right on your stove-top, then fire up the barbecue or indoor grill for the chicken. Then, whip up a little white rice to serve on the side.
Panda Express - now 370 restaurants strong - is the fastest-growing Asian food chain in the world. You'll find these tasty little quick-service food outlets in supermarkets, casinos, sports arenas, college campuses, and malls across the country passing out free samples for the asking.
You might also want try my Panda Express Honey Walnut Shrimp Recipe.
Source: "Even More Top Secret Recipes" by Todd Wilbur.
-
Benihana Japanese Fried Rice
Read moreThe talented chefs at Benihana cook food on hibachi grills with flair and charisma, treating the preparation like a tiny stage show. They juggle salt and pepper shakers, trim food with lightning speed, and flip the shrimp and mushrooms perfectly onto serving plates or into their tall chef's hat.
One of the side dishes that everyone seems to love is the fried rice. At Benihana this dish is prepared by chefs with precooked rice on open hibachi grills, and is ordered a la cart to complement any Benihana entrée, including Hibachi Steak and Chicken. I like when the rice is thrown onto the hot hibachi grill and seems to come alive as it sizzles and dances around like a bunch of little jumping beans. Okay, so I'm easily amused.
My Benihana Japanese fried rice copycat recipe will go well with just about any Japanese entrée, and can be partially prepared ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator until the rest of the meal is close to done.Re-create more of your favorite dishes from Benihana here.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur. -
Otis Spunkmeyer Banana Nut Muffins Reduced-Fat
Read moreFounder Ken Rawlings opened his first baked cookie store in San Francisco in 1977, and over the next five years the chain had grown to 22 stores throughout California. In 1990, after much success, Rawlings' Otis Spunkmeyer Company started selling ready-to-bake cookie dough in grocery stores. That same year the company acquired a Modesto, California, muffin manufacturer, and Otis Spunkmeyer Muffins were born. Since then, the company has seen a 1,200 percent increase in muffins sales, and today this is America's best-selling brand of muffins.
For my reduced fat Otis Spunkmeyer banana nut muffins recipe, I found real banana to be a perfect substitute for much of the fat. Even with a small amount of oil in there, and the walnuts on top, these tasty Texas-size Otis Spunkmeyer banana nut muffins weigh in with less than half the fat of the original without sacrificing flavor or texture.You might also like my Otis Spunkmeyer wild blueberry and chocolate chip muffin recipes, also low in fat and equally delicious.
Nutrition Facts
Serving size–1/2 muffin
Total servings–16
Calories per serving–147 (Original–240)
Fat per serving–5g (Original–12g)Source: Top Secret Recipes Lite by Todd Wilbur.
-
Panda Express Chow Mein
Read moreI got lucky on the day I picked up a box of chow mein from this huge Chinese chain because they had just run out. This meant that I could watch from the sidelines as they whipped up a fresh batch in a giant wok over a high flame in the completely visible kitchen, and I was able to take plenty of mental notes. The whole dish took just a few minutes for the enthusiastic chef to prepare, and before I knew it I was out the door with a huge box of hot chow mein ready for hacking.
Just like the real Panda Express Chow Mein, the beauty in this re-creation is its simplicity. There are only seven ingredients, and the prep work is low-impact. I used dry chow mein noodles (also called Chinese stir fry noodles) which are easy to find and cheap, and dark soy sauce to get that great caramel color. And if you don’t have a wok for this, a large skillet with sloped sides for tossing will work just fine.
This recipe was our #1 most popular in 2021. Check out the other four most unlocked recipes for the year: Qdoba 3-Cheese Queso (#2), Panda Express Fried Rice (#3), Outback Baked Potato Soup (#4), Chipotle Carne Asada (#5).
Check out this list of our most popular recipes of all-time.
-
Chili's Original Chili
Read moreOver the years I've hacked a bunch of items from Chili's menu, including their Fajitas, Baby Back Ribs, Salsa, Chili Queso, Southwestern Eggrolls, Chicken Crispers, Boneless Wings, and more, but it wasn’t until recently that I got the chance to create a recipe for the Chili's award-winning Original Chili. Why it took so long, I have no idea.
The chili served at Chili’s is a Texas-style con carne recipe, which traditionally means no beans and no tomato. You won’t find any beans in this recipe or chunks of tomato, but their chili does have a tomato base to boost flavor, so I’m adding that into the mix by including one 6-ounce can of tomato paste. As it turns out, that small can is just the right amount.
The preparation technique for my Chili's Original chili copycat recipe is simple: brown the beef, drain off the fat, then add some of the fat back to the empty pan to sauté the onions and peppers in. When those are done, you add the beef back to the pan along with the remaining ingredients and simmer for 1½ hours. That will be just long enough to braise the beef and tenderize it, and to thicken the chili to a perfect consistency.
When the chili’s done, top each serving with a cheddar/pepper Jack blend, and some crispy tortilla bits. Then pass out the spoons.
-
Wingstop Garlic Parmesan Wings
Read moreIf you feel like diving into a pile of wings with big flavor and no heat, you'll love this Wngstop Garlic Parmesan Wings recipe. At the restaurant, these wings are deliciously doused with a buttery garlic Parmesan baste and then sprinkled with grated Parmesan cheese. A home clone is easy when you toss crispy wings in this hack of the top secret baste and top them with a snowfall of good Parmesan cheese.
To duplicate the baste, you clarify a stick of butter, then add a little oil so that the butter doesn’t solidify. Parmesan cheese, garlic, and salt are mixed in, then the sauce is set aside to cool and thicken.
Once the wings are fried to a golden brown, toss them with the baste in a bowl, then grab the grated Parm and make it snow.
Check out my other Wingstop clone recipes here.
-
KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) Potato Wedges
Read more“Don’t call them fries,” says KFC about its popular side made with sliced, skin-on russet potatoes. What sets these potatoes apart from all the others is the secret breading made with a similar seasoning blend to the one used for Colonel's Original Recipe Fried Chicken. To achieve the proper crispiness, the potatoes are par-fried, frozen, then fried again until golden brown.
One important ingredient that completes the flavor is MSG. Monosodium glutamate is a food additive derived from glutamic acid, which is an important amino acid found in abundance in nature, food, and in you right now. Over the last 60 years of study and use, MSG has not only been found harmless in normal amounts, but tests have shown glutamate to be a chemical messenger that benefits gut health, immunity, and brain functions such as memory and learning. In addition to all of that, it imparts a unique savoriness that enhances flavors in other ingredients and makes your food taste amazing. Using MSG in your food is, literally, smart cooking.
Another important ingredient is ground Tellicherry black pepper, a select black pepper from India. Winston Shelton, a friend of Harland Sanders who invented the first high-volume pressure fryers for KFC, confirmed this. Shelton recalled seeing the ingredient when Sanders showed him the secret formula for the fried chicken seasoning he had scribbled on a piece of paper.
While we were shooting the first episode of my TV Show, Top Secret Recipe, Winston pulled me aside and whispered to me that Tellicherry pepper is crucial to creating the unique KFC aftertaste. It was a great tip, and fortunately, we caught that moment on camera and you can see it in the show. Later, I conducted a side-by-side taste test with common black pepper and Tellicherry black pepper and discovered Winston was right. If you want the best taste for your copycat KFC Potato Wedges, you'll need Tellicherry pepper, which you can find online and in some food stores. Be sure to grind it fine before using it.
For my KFC Potato Wedges recipe, just two russet potatoes are all it takes to make the equivalent of a large serving of fried potato wedges, which will be enough for at least four people.
-
Maggiano's Beef Tenderloin Medallions
Read moreFor many years this entrée has been a top menu choice at Maggiano's, the 54-unit Italian chain from Brinker, the same company that operates Chili’s Grill & Bar. The $30 restaurant dish consists of three 2½-ounce tenderloin steaks, swimming in a fantastic balsamic cream sauce with sliced portabello mushrooms—but a home version is only six easy steps away, and it won't hit you in the wallet as hard as the pricey original.
Cracking this dish required a perfect hack of the balsamic cream sauce, and that came quickly after obtaining some very reliable information from my incredibly helpful server/informant at a Las Vegas Maggiano’s. Let’s call him Skippy.
According to Skippy, the balsamic cream sauce is as simple as mixing a sweet balsamic glaze with the chain’s creamy Alfredo sauce. So, I first got a sample of Maggiano’s Alfredo sauce and figured out how to replicate it. Once that was done, I measured increments of balsamic glaze into the Alfredo sauce until the color and flavor matched the original. The rest of the recipe was easy.
My recipe will make two servings and includes preparation for the tenderloins and sauce. If you’d like to complete the dish the way it’s served at the restaurant (as in the photo), add some garlic mashed potatoes on the side, using my hack for Olive Garden Garlic Mashed Potatoes.
Try my Maggiano's Beef Tenderloin Medallions copycat recipe below, find more of my Maggiano's copycat recipes here.
-
Pei Wei Wei Better Orange Chicken
Read moreThis 220-unit downscaled version of P.F. Chang’s China Bistro targets the lunch crowd with a smaller menu that features bento boxes, bowls, and small plates. Obviously, a clone is needed for this one, stat.
The name “Wei Better Orange Chicken” is a competitive callout to Panda Express's signature orange chicken, which is made with pre-breaded and frozen chicken. Pei Wei claims its orange chicken is prepared each day from scratch with chicken that is never frozen, so we’ll craft our Pei Wei Better Orange Chicken recipe the same way. But rather than assemble the dish in a wok over a high-flame fast stove like they do at the restaurant, we’ll prepare the sauce and chicken separately, then toss them with fresh orange wedges just before serving.
By the way, Pei Wei Better Orange Chicken goes very well with white or brown rice, so don’t forget to make some.
This recipe was our #4 most popular in 2020. Check out the other four most unlocked recipes for the year: Rao's Homemade Marinara Sauce (#1), Olive Garden Lasagna Classico (#2), King's Hawaiian Original Hawaiian Sweet Rolls (#3), Chipotle Mexican Grill Carnitas (#5).
Check out this list of our most popular recipes of all-time.
-
Olive Garden Stuffed Chicken Marsala
Read moreMenu Description: “Creamy marsala wine sauce with mushrooms over grilled chicken breasts, stuffed with Italian cheeses and sundried tomatoes. Served with garlic mashed potatoes.”
My Olive Garden Stuffed Chicken Marsala copycat recipe includes a marsala sauce that even marsala sauce haters will like. My wife is one of those haters, but when she tried this sauce, her eyes lit up, and she begged for more. That’s great, now I won’t have to eat alone.
Not only is Olive Garden's delicious marsala sauce hacked here (and it’s easy to make), you’ll also get the copycat recipe for the chain's awesome Italian cheese stuffing that goes between the two pan-cooked chicken fillets. Build it, sauce it, serve it. The presentation is awesome, and the flavor will soothe your soul.
Try this dish paired with my recent clone of Olive Garden’s Garlic Mashed Potatoes for the complete Olive Garden Stuffed Chicken Marsala experience.
-
Olive Garden Chicken Parmigiana
Read moreMenu Description: “Two lightly fried parmesan-breaded chicken breasts are smothered with Olive Garden’s homemade marinara sauce and melted Italian cheeses. We serve our Chicken Parmigiana with a side of spaghetti for dinner.”
Chicken parmigiana is a forever favorite, and it’s not a difficult dish to whip up at home. But for it to taste like the Olive Garden signature entree, we’ll need to take some very specific steps.
Olive Garden’s chicken is salty and moist all the way through, so we must first start by brining the chicken. Give yourself an extra hour for this important marinating step. The marinara sauce used on the chicken is an Olive Garden specialty and no bottled sauce compares, so we’ll make our own from scratch using canned crushed tomatoes and the formula below.
While the sauce cooks, filling your house with its intoxicating aroma, the chicken is breaded and browned. When the marinara is done, top the chicken with the sauce and mozzarella and stick it under your hot broiler until bubbling.
Hopefully, everyone at your house is hungry, because the Olive Garden dinner portion is two chicken fillets, and my Olive Garden Chicken Parmigiana recipe will yield a total of four 2-piece servings. Add a small serving of spaghetti on the side, topped with more of the delicious sauce, and you'll have a perfect match to the restaurant plate.
Can't get enough Olive Garden? Click here for more of your favorite copycat recipes.
-
Maggiano's Vera's Lemon Cookies
Read moreOne of the most-loved treats at the Maggiano's Little Italy restaurant chain are the crescent-shaped lemon cookies served at the end of your meal. The cookies are soft, chewy, and coated with a bright lemon icing, and it’s impossible to eat just one.
Well, now you can eat as many as you like because my Maggiano's Vera's lemon cookie recipe makes five dozen lemony taste-alike cookies. And you won’t have to worry about getting a crescent cookie cutter to get the shapes right. First, cut out a circle using a round 2-inch biscuit cutter, then use the cutter to slice a chunk out of the round, making a crescent.
You might also like my copycat recipe for Maggiano's Beef Tenderloin Medallions.
-
Olive Garden Warm Apple Crostata
Read moreMenu Description: “Northern Spy apples baked in a pastry crust topped with vanilla ice cream and a caramel drizzle.”
The most important component of a good crostata, or Italian baked tart, is a great crust. When cloning this top Olive Garden dessert, that's where I first focused my efforts, baking dozens of slightly different unfilled sugared crusts. Thankfully, flour is cheap. Once I had an easy, yet still delicious and flakey crust that was as good, if not better, than the real thing, I turned to the filling.
Olive Garden uses Northern Spy apples in the crostata, which are somewhat tart, firm apples often used in pies. But they are hard to find. If you can’t find Northern Spy apples, the much more common Granny Smith apples work just fine here. As for chopping the apples, I noted that the apple pieces in the real crostata have no uniformity—the apples appear to be sliced, then those slices are coarsely chopped, resulting in a mixture of small and large apple pieces. We'll do the same here.
After your crostatas have been baked to a golden brown, top each one with a scoop of ice cream and drizzle some caramel sauce over the top for a beautiful dessert no one will have the power to resist.
My Olive Garden Warm Apple Crostada copycat recipe makes four crostatas, which is enough for eight people to share. If you have crostatas left over, they can be stored in a covered container for a couple of days, then reheated under a broiler until hot just before serving.
Want some more of my Olive Garden clone recipes? I've got a bunch right here.
-
Starbucks Petite Vanilla Bean Scones
Read moreGood things come in small packages - just like these hit scones that have been a staple Starbucks favorite for years.
Unlike many scones that end up too dry and tasteless, these miniature scones are moist and full of great vanilla flavor. They’re deliciously sweet and creamy, with real vanilla bean in both the dough and the glaze. Want to make some great scones? Make my Starbucks Petite Vanilla Bean scones recipe.
-
Hooters Buffalo Chicken Wings (Improved)
Read moreMenu Description: "The one and only! The style we invented over 30 years ago; they're breaded by hand, tossed in your choice of wing sauce and served by your favorite Hooters girl."
When I first hacked this recipe back in 1997 for the book Top Secret Restaurant Recipes, Hooters wings looked different than they do today. The chain used to leave the pointy end of the wing attached to the middle piece, or “flat,” which, frankly, is unnecessary because there is very little meat on the tip segment. Today the chain serves wings like everyone else, with drumettes and flats completely separated, and delivered by waitresses in the same bright orange shorts as when the chain started in 1983.
One thing that wasn't available to me back then was the opportunity to examine the chain’s packaging for the lists of ingredients on signature items like sauces and breading. Today, since they sell these items as retail products, I can take advantage of labeling laws that require ingredients to be clearly listed and see what really goes into these recipes. Using that new information, I’ve made a few small tweaks to improve my Hooters Wings copycat recipe from over 20 years ago, including two versions of the kickass wing sauce—medium and hot—for your wing-devouring pleasure.
Find more of my Hooters copycat recipes here.
-
Benihana Hibachi Chicken and Steak
Read moreWhen 20-year old Rocky Aoki came to New York City from Japan with his wrestling team in 1959 he was convinced it was the land of opportunity. Just five years later he used $10,000 he had saved plus another $20,000 that he borrowed to open a Benihana steakhouse on the West Side of Manhattan. His concept of bringing the chefs out from the back of the kitchen to prepare the food in front of customers on a specially designed hibachi grill was groundbreaking. The restaurant was such a smashing success that it paid for itself within 6 months.
The most popular items at the restaurant are the Hibachi Chicken and Hibachi Steak, which are prepared at your table on an open hibachi grill. But, since most home kitchens are not fitted with a hibachi grill, you'll have to improvise. It's best to use two pans for my Benihana hibachi chicken and steak copycat recipe below; one for the meat and mushrooms, and the other for the remaining vegetables. And since many of today's cooking surfaces are coated with scratchable, nonstick coatings, we won't be slicing the meat and vegetables while they are sizzling on the hot cooking surface as the Benihana chefs do.
Grab my clone recipes for the Ginger and Mustard Dipping Sauces here!
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur. -
Cheesecake Factory Cajun Jambalaya Pasta
Read moreMenu Description: "Our most popular dish! Shrimp and Chicken Sautéed with Onions, Peppers and Tomatoes in a Very Spicy Cajun Sauce. All on top of Fresh Fettuccine."
The Cheesecake Factory's founder, David Overton, says it was his unfamiliarity with the restaurant business that contributed to the company's success. In an interview with Nation's Restaurant News David says, "We did not know anything about running restaurants. We just knew that people valued fresh foods. In some ways, our naïveté helped us because we didn't know what you are not supposed to do."I think we all know it helps to serve good food and that's an area in which the Cheesecake Factory excels. The pastas and salads top the list of big sellers, but it's the Cajun Jambalaya Pasta that holds the pole position, according to the menu description of this dish. Jambalaya is a spicy Creole dish that usually combines a variety of ingredients including tomatoes, onions, peppers, and some type of meat with rice. Rather than the traditional rice, the Cheesecake Factory has designed its version to include two types of fettuccine—an attractive mix of standard white noodles and spinach-flavored noodles.
My Cheesecake Factory Cajun Jambalaya pasta recipe makes 2 huge portions, like those served in the restaurant. It's probably enough food for a family of four.
Now, how about dessert? Find my copycat recipes for Cheesecake Factory's signature cheesecakes here.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur. -
Olive Garden Breadsticks
Read moreAnyone who loves Olive Garden is probably also a big fan of the bottomless basket of warm, garlicky breadsticks served before each meal at the huge Italian casual chain. My guess is that the breadsticks are proofed, and then sent to each restaurant where they are baked until golden brown, brushed with butter and sprinkled with garlic salt. Getting the bread just right for a great Olive Garden breadstick hack was tricky—I tried several different amounts of yeast in all-purpose flour, but then settled on bread flour to give these breadsticks the same chewy bite as the originals. The two-stage rising process is also a crucial step in this much requested Olive Garden breadstick copycat recipe.
Complete the bottomless experience with my Olive Garden Italian salad dressing recipe.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur. -
Cracker Barrel Double Chocolate Fudge Coca-Cola Cake
Read moreMenu Description: "A Cracker Barrel tradition. Our rich, chocolate cake made with real Coca-Cola is baked right in our own kitchen. It's served with premium vanilla bean ice cream and makes for a warm treat on a cool day."
Cracker Barrel's signature dessert is moist and chocolaty, with just a hint of Coke flavor. Coca-Cola is added to the batter for our clone, and we'll double up on the chocolate by using melted semi-sweet chocolate chips and cocoa powder. A little more Coke goes into the creamy chocolate icing that's also made by melting chocolate chips. Be sure to slide on down to the "Tidbits" at the bottom of the recipe for a great way to easily get the cake out of your baking pan in one piece. Make sure you have some milk on hand before you take a bite of out of this decadent Cracker Barrel Double Chocolate Fudge Coca-Cola Cake recipe!
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur. -
Outback Steakhouse Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Read moreThis special side may not always be on the menu at your local Outback Steakhouse. If it's not, use tmy Outback Steakhouse sweet potato copycat recipe to satisfy your craving. The butter, sugar and spices added to the baked and mashed sweet potatoes make this dish great with salmon, chicken, turkey, and pork; and it rocks as a holiday feast side. It's so sweet and rich that it could double as pie filling. And just check out the amazing finishing touch: pecans, corn flakes and oats mixed with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon for a streusel-like crunchy topping, that you'll want to eat by the spoonful.
Find more incredible copycat recipes for famous side dishes here.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.
TRANSLATE with xEnglishTRANSLATE withEnable collaborative features and customize widget: Bing Webmaster Portal -
Chili's Cajun Ribeye Steak
Read moreMenu Description: "12 oz. ribeye steak seasoned with Cajun spices and topped with roasted herb jus and spicy Cajun butter."
Three secret formulas must be hacked before we can consider this dish a complete culinary carbon copy of Chili's signature Cajun Ribeye. The Cajun seasoning, the herb jus, and the Cajun butter comprise the flavorful hat trick that earns this dish its signature-item status.
Use my Chili's Cajun Ribeye recipe below to make each component from scratch. Everything is pretty easy. Rustle up some ribeyes from your favorite butcher, and fire up the grill. Sprinkle the seasoning on the steak before it's grilled, and then add the jus and herb butter just before serving. That's it. Once you've assembled these three simple secret recipes below, you're just minutes away from an impressive, flavor-filled steak.
Find more of your favorite Chili's copycat recipes here.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.
-
T.G.I. Friday's Crispy Green Bean Fries
Read moreMenu Description: "Crunchy and crisp battered green beans with a cool creamy Cucumber-Wasabi Ranch dip."
T.G.I. Friday's new finger food offering might just make you forget about French fries. At least for a little while. Flavorful green beans are coated with tasty breadcrumbs, then fried to a golden brown, and served with a side of creamy wasabi dipping sauce. This item has quickly become the top seller on the chain's new appetizer menu, as Friday's becomes the first major casual restaurant to introduce a dish that has been popular for several years at upscale chains.Creating a home version isn't just a matter of breading and frying fresh green beans. My first attempts using a breading technique employed for perfect onion rings produced beautiful looking fried beans, but they were undercooked and had an overwhelming green bean flavor that was absent from the Friday's version. So, I had to figure out a good way to get the green bean-ness out of there.
After a few tests that included steaming, baking, and boiling, I finally settled on blanching the beans in a flavorful broth. The secret technique, which you'll find here in my T.G.I. Friday's Crispy Green Bean Fries recipe below, tenderizes the beans while injecting pleasant flavor that closely resembles the Friday's favorite.
Click here for more T.G.I. Friday's copycat recipes.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur. -
Islands Tortilla Soup
Read moreThe entire process for making this soup which Islands serves in "bottomless bowls" takes as long as 3 hours, but don't let that discourage you. Most of that time is spent waiting for the chicken to roast (up to 90 minutes -- although you can save time by using a precooked chicken, see Tidbits) and letting the soup simmer (1 hour). The actual work involved is minimal -- most of your time is spent chopping the vegetable ingredients.
My Islands Tortilla Soup recipe produces a copycat with awesome flavor and texture, since you'll be making fresh chicken stock from the carcass of the roasted chicken. As for the fried tortilla strip garnish that tops the soup, you can go the hard way or the easy way on that step. The hard way makes the very best tortilla strips, and it's really not that hard: Simply slice corn tortillas into strips, fry the strips real quick, then toss the fried strips with a custom seasoning blend. The easy way is to grab a bag of the new habanero-flavored Doritos, which happen to be similar in spiciness to the strips used at the restaurant. Simply crumble a few of these chips over the top of your bowl of soup, and dive in.
Find more cool Islands copycat recipes here.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur
-
Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Soup
Read moreFor two years after the first Olive Garden restaurant opened in 1982, operators were still tweaking the restaurant's physical appearance and the food that was served. Even the tomato sauce was changed as many as 25 times. It's that sort of dedication that creates fabulous dishes like this popular soup. It blends the flavors of potatoes, kale, and Italian sausage in a slightly spicy chicken and cream broth.
Try my Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana copycat recipe below, and find more of my Olive Garden clone recipes here.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur. -
Carrabba's Bread Dipping Blend
Read moreWhen you sit down for Italian-style grub at one of the more than 168 nationwide Carrabba's restaurants, you're first served a small plate with a little pile of herbs and spices in the middle to which the waiter adds olive oil. Now you're set up to dip your sliced bread in the freshly flavored oil.
For my Carrabba's Bread Dipping Blend copycat recipe, you'll need a coffee bean grinder or a small food processor to finely chop the ingredients, but you've got one of those right?
You might also like my recipe for Carrabba's Spicy Sausage Lentil Soup.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.
-
Carrabba's Chicken Marsala
Read moreMenu Description: "Fire-roasted chicken breast topped with mushrooms, prosciutto and our Florio Marsala wine sauce."
To create my Carrabba's Chicken Marsala recipe, I ordered the dish to go, with the sauce on the side, so that I could separately analyze each component. After some trial and error in the underground lab, I found that re-creating the secret sauce from scratch is easy enough with a couple small cans of sliced mushrooms, a bit of prosciutto, some Marsala wine, shallots, garlic and a few other good things.Cooking the chicken requires a very hot grill. The restaurant chain grills chicken breasts over a blazing real wood fire, so crank your grill up high enough to get the flames nipping at your cluckers (not a euphemism). If your grill has a lid, keep it open, so you can watch for nasty flare-ups.
Click here for more of your favorite dishes from Carrabba's.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur. -
Taco Bell Chicken Quesadilla with Creamy jalapeno Ranchero Sauce
Read moreTaco Bell takes the fast food quesadilla into new territory with three different cheeses and a creamy jalapeño Ranchero sauce, all of which you can now cheerfully re-create in the comfort of your warm kitchen. Gather up the crew, since my easy Taco Bell Chicken Quesadilla recipe will make four of the tasty tortilla treats.
How about some homemade Diablo, hot, or mild sauce to go with your quesadilla? Check out all of my Taco Bell copycat recipes here.
Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur. -
Popeyes Buttermilk Biscuits
Read moreIn 2007 America's number one Cajun-style restaurant celebrated its 35th birthday with 1,583 stores worldwide. But Popeyes didn't start out with the name that most people associate with a certain spinach-eating cartoon character. When Al Copeland opened his first Southern-fried chicken stand in New Orleans in 1972, it was called Chicken On The Run. The name was later changed to Popeyes after Gene Hackman's character in the movie The French Connection. In addition to great spicy fried chicken, Popeyes serves up wonderful Southern-style buttermilk biscuits that we can now easily duplicate to serve with a variety of home cooked meals. The secret is to cut cold butter into the mix with a pastry knife so that the biscuits turn out flaky and tender just like the originals.
Source: "Top Secret Recipes Unlocked" by Todd Wilbur. -
HoneyBaked Ham Glaze
Read moreBy 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. -
Cheesecake Factory Banana Cream Cheesecake
Read moreMenu Description: “Banana Cream Cheesecake Topped with Bavarian Cream and Fresh Sliced Bananas.”
I’ve learned a lot about cheesecakes over the last couple of decades in the process of duplicating a variety of popular versions for the Top Secret Recipes cookbooks, and I’ve made a lot of mistakes. But the biggest secret I’ve discovered for baking picture-perfect cheesecakes is using a water bath. By baking the cheesecake in a pan filled with just a little water, you add moisture to the oven, thereby allowing the top of the cheesecake to expand as it cooks without developing what will look like an aerial view of the San Andreas Fault. If you don’t over mix your filling and use a water bath, you’ll bake a restaurant-quality cheesecake every time.
You also need to have a good recipe, of course, and my Cheesecake Factory Banana Cream Cheesecake copycat recipe here is great if you like banana cream pie. It’s quickly become a top choice at the restaurant chain because of the banana flavor hidden in each layer. And everyone knows that Nilla Wafers go great with bananas, so these ground-up cookies make the perfect crust.
Find more amazing Cheesecake Factory copycat recipes here.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.
-
Olive Garden Chicken Scampi
Read moreMenu Description: "Chicken breast tenderloins sauteed with bell peppers, roasted garlic and onions in a garlic cream sauce over angel hair."
This chicken scampi dish is a big favorite of Olive Garden regulars. Chicken tenderloins are lightly breaded and sautéed along with colorful bell peppers and chopped red onion. Angel hair pasta is tossed into the pan along with a healthy dose of fresh scampi sauce.The sauce is really the star, so you might think about doubling the recipe. If you're cooking for two, you can prepare my Olive Garden Chicken Scampi copycat recipe for the table in one large skillet, saving the remaining ingredients for another meal. If you're making all four servings at once, you need two skillets. If you can't find fresh chicken tenderloins (the tender part of the chicken breast), you can usually find bags of them in the freezer section.
Find more delicious recipes for Olive Garden's most famous dishes here.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.
-
Chevys Texas BBQ Wrap Reduced-Fat
Read moreIn the restaurant, these are made with red chili tortillas. Since those can be hard to find, especially in fat-free versions, well use plain flour fat-free tortillas. Except for the color, you can hardly tell the difference. You'll want to prepare several elements of this recipe ahead of time. The relish and slaw is best when made the day before, and the chicken will have to marinate for an hour or so before you grill it.
Nutrition Facts
Serving size–1 wrap
Total servings–4
Calories per serving–515 (Original–644)
Fat per serving–5g (Original–15g)Source: Low-fat Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
-
Krispy Kreme Original Glazed Doughnuts
Read moreThe 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 my Krispy Kreme Doughnuts 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 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.
Find more recipes for your favorite iconic treats here.
Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur. -
Cheesecake Factory Avocado Eggrolls
Read moreMenu Description: "Chunks of Fresh Avocado, Sun-Dried Tomato, Red Onion and Cilantro Deep Fried in a Crisp Chinese Wrapper."
In 1995, Forbes Magazine named The Cheesecake Factory in its list of the 200 best small companies in America. At more than 90 stores now, The Cheesecake Factory plans to continue growing at a rate of about 11 new restaurants per year, and still does not franchise.
The avocado egg rolls are one of the most popular appetizers on the menu at the Cheesecake Factory, and it's not hard to see why. The combination of avocado, sun-dried tomatoes, and the cilantro-tamarind sauce makes this one of the tastiest appetizers I've had at any restaurant chain.The trickiest part of my Cheesecake Factory avocado egg rolls recipe might be finding the tamarind pulp at your market. It's a brown, sticky pulp that looks like puréed prunes, and can be found in the spice section or near the ethnic foods—or try a Middle Eastern market. The pulp sometimes contains the large seeds of the fruit, so be sure to remove them before measuring. If you can't find the tamarind paste, you can get by substituting smashed raisins or prunes.
Find more of my famous appetizer copycat recipes here.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur. -
P.F. Chang's Chang's Spicy Chicken (General Chu's)
Read moreMenu Description: "Lightly-dusted, stir-fried in a sweet Szechwan sauce." (Our version of General Chu's.)
The delicious sweet-and-spicy secret sauce is what makes this dish one of P. F. Chang's top picks. Once the sauce is finished, all you have to do is sauté your chicken and combine. You'll want to cook up some white or brown rice, like at the restaurant. If you can't find straight chili sauce for my P.F. Chang's spicy chicken recipe, the more common chili sauce with garlic in it will work just as well.Check out my other P.F. Chang's clone recipes here.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur. -
Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls
Read moreIn early 1985, restaurateur Rich Komen felt there was a specialty niche in convenience-food service just waiting to be filled. His idea was to create an efficient outlet that could serve freshly made cinnamon rolls in shopping malls throughout the country. It took nine months for Komen and his staff to develop a cinnamon roll recipe he knew customers would consider the "freshest, gooiest, and most mouthwatering cinnamon roll ever tasted." The concept was tested for the first time in Seattle's Sea-Tac mall later that year, with workers mixing, proofing, rolling, and baking the rolls in full view of customers. Now, more than 626 outlets later, Cinnabon has become the fastest-growing cinnamon roll bakery in the world.
Use my Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls copycat recipe below to make delicious homemade Cinnabon, or try my improved recipe here, which I perfected with the help of Cinnabon HQ.
Source: More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
-
Marie Callender's Pumpkin Pie
Read moreMenu 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.
For over 30 years I've been deconstructing America's most iconic brand-name foods to make the best original copycat recipes for you to use at home. Welcome to my lab.