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- Little Debbie Little Debbie Oatmeal Lights
These soft, creme-filled cookies are one of the most drooled-over snacks in the popular line of Little Debbie products. The secret to cloning the light version of these mouthwatering sandwich cookies is in re-creating the soft, chewy consistency of the oatmeal cookies. To duplicate the texture, the cookies are slightly underbaked. For the filling we'll use marshmallow creme straight out of the jar. Just be sure to eat these within a day or two of filling them, since the filling may begin to slowly creep out from between the cookies in warm weather. Also, keep these sandwich cookies wrapped in plastic or sealed in an airtight container so that they'll stay moist and chewy.
Nutrition Facts
Serving size–1 sandwich cookie
Total servings–20
Calories per serving–146
Fat per serving–2.5g
Source: Low-Fat Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
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Cookies
- 3 1/2 tablespoons margarine, softened
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon molasses
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup egg substitute
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups 1-minute Quaker Oats
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
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- One 7-ouce jar marshmallow creme
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, cream together margarine, sugars, molasses, vanilla, and egg substitute with an electric mixer.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, oats, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.
4. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and mix by hand.
5. Drop the dough by tablespoonfuls onto a well-greased baking sheet. The dough will be very tacky, so you may wish to moisten your fingers so that the dough does not stick. With moistened fingers, press down on the dough and form it into circle about 1/8 inch thick. The circles should be about 2 inches in diameter before baking. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes or until a couple of the cookies start to darken around the edges. They will still be very soft in the center until cool. Be careful not to overcook. When cooled, the cookies should be about 1/4 inch thick and very soft and chewy.
6. When the cookies have completely cooled, assemble each creme pie by spreading about 1 1/2 tablespoons of marshmallow creme over the flat side of a cookie and press another cookie on top, making a sandwich. Repeat for the remaining cookies and filling.
Makes 20 sandwich cookies.
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Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies
Read moreThese soft, creme-filled sandwich cookies were the first snacks produced by McKee Foods back in 1960. It was his 4-year-old granddaughter Debbie after whom founder O.D. McKee named his line of snack cakes. O.D. was inspired by a picture of the little girl in play clothes and a straw hat, and that's the image we still find today on every package. The secret to cloning these mouth-watering snacks is re-creating the soft, chewy consistency of the oatmeal cookies. To duplicate the texture, the cookies are slightly underbaked. Then you whip up some of the easy-to-make creme filling with marshmallow creme, and spread it between two of the oatmeal cookies to complete your homemade Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies.
Find my lighter version of Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies here.
Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes 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. -
P.F. Chang's Mongolian Beef
Read moreMenu Description: "Quickly-cooked steak with scallions and garlic."
Beef lovers go crazy over this one at P.F. Chang's. Flank steak is cut into bite-sized chunks against the grain, then it's lightly dusted with potato starch, flash-fried in oil, and doused with an amazing sweet soy garlic sauce. The beef comes out tender as can be, and the simple sauce sings to your taste buds.I designed my P.F. Chang's Mongolian Beef recipe using a wok, but if you don't have one, a sauté pan will suffice. You may need to add more oil to the pan to cover the beef in the flash-frying step.
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I've cloned some of the best dishes from P.F. Chang's. Click here to see if I coped your favorite.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.
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Nabisco Honey Maid Graham Crackers
Read moreThe beginning of the graham cracker goes back to the early 1800s when Sylvester Graham thought his new invention was the secret to a lifetime of perfect health, even sexual prowess—certainly extraordinary claims for a cracker. But this came from the man thought to be quite a wacko in his time, since he had earlier claimed that eating ketchup could ruin your brain. So, while his crispy whole wheat creation was not the cure for every known ailment, the sweet crackers still became quite a fad, first in New England around the 1830s and then spreading across the country. Today, graham crackers remain popular as a low-fat, snack-time munchable, and, most notably, as the main ingredient in smores.
You don't need to use graham flour for my honey graham cracker recipe, since that stuff is similar to the whole wheat flour you find in your local supermarket.Try my recipes for cinnamon and chocolate graham crackers in my book: Low-Fat Top Secret Recipes.
Nutrition Facts
Serving size–2 crackers
Total servings–22
Calories per serving–120
Fat per serving–3gSource: Low-Fat Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
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Olive Garden Breadsticks
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Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur. -
Buffalo Wild Wings Asian Zing Sauce
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Here's a clone for one of the newer sauces that the wing masters at Buffalo Wild Wings added to the menu. When I get over to BWW, I order up a tall Foster's on tap, and 12 boneless wings covered in this great sauce. It's sweet-and-sour with a kick, and the kick is what the beer's for. Next time you're at the market grab yourself some chili garlic sauce in the aisle with the other Asian foods. That's the crucial ingredient to this Buffalo Wild Wings Asian Zing Sauce recipe that gives this sauce its heat, along with its deep red color. Once this sauce is made it'll store for weeks in a sealed container in your fridge. Now you've got a quick dip for eggrolls, wontons and spring rolls. Cook up some wings, nuggets or breaded tenders and toss 'em in the gooey goodness until well-coated, then serve hot. And don't forget the beer.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur. -
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Sabra Classic Hummus
Read moreEvery brand of hummus I've tried over the years has been just so-so in taste and texture, until I discovered Sabra. Now this ultra-smooth hummus—which has been rated number one in a blind taste test—is the only hummus in my fridge, unless I've made this clone. Hummus is an awesome snack as a dip for vegetables or pita chips, since it's rich in protein, soluble fiber, potassium, and Vitamin E. The secret to duplicating Sabra's smooth and creamy quality is to let your food processor work the stuff over for a solid 10 minutes. Also, when getting your Sabra hummus ingredients ready, don't use all of the liquid from the can of garbanzo beans or the hummus will end up too runny. Strain off the liquid first, then measure only 1/2 cup back into the food processor. Sabra uses canola and/or soybean oil, but you may think olive oil tastes better. Look for a jar of sesame tahini in the aisle where all the international foods are parked, and while you're there find the citric acid, which may also go by the name "sour salt." The clone below will not have the proper acidic bite without this secret ingredient, and citric acid also works as a preservative to help the leftover hummus stay fresh and tasty.
Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur. -
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4-Way: Add a couple teaspoons of grated onion before adding the cheese.
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Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.
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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.
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Yonah Schimmel Low-Fat New York City Knish
Read moreHere's a recipe that comes from a challenge issued by the New York Daily News. The paper wanted to watch a West Coast dude duplicate the taste of an authentic New York City knish. But, mind you, not just any knish. This knish comes from one of the oldest knisheries in the Big Apple, a place that also takes pride in the low fat content of its knishes as opposed to the popular deep-fried variety. When I tasted the famous Yonah Schimmel knish (the first knish I had ever eaten), I realized that not only could a good clone recipe be created, but even more fat grams could be eliminated. The Daily News had a food lab analyze the fat content of the original knish and the clone, as well as the fat in a street vendor knish and a supermarket knish, just for comparison. The lab results are listed following the recipe.
Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur. -
Panda Express Orange-Flavored Chicken Reduced-Fat
Read moreAndrew J. C. Cherng lived in China, Taiwan, and Japan before he came to the United States to study mathematics at Baker University. After graduation in 1973, Andrew used his extensive education and business savvy to open an Asian restaurant in Pasadena with his father; Master Chef Ming Tsai Cherng. Southern Californians went crazy for Andrew's Panda Inn and its cutting-edge menu that blended the styles of Szechwan and Mandarin cooking.
Today the chain—now called Panda Express—includes more than 320 units in thirty-two states and is famous for the addictive fried chicken dish with the tangy orange sauce. We can re-create this dish using a baking technique to avoid the fat that's unavoidable when frying.
Nutrition Facts
Serving size–1 sliced chicken breast
Total servings–4
Calories per serving–400 (Original–580)
Fat per serving–12g (Original–30g)Source: Low-Fat Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
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Chipotle Barbacoa Burrito (Cilantro-Lime Rice / Pinto Beans)
Read moreMenu Description: "Spicy, shredded beef, braised with our own chipotle adobo, cumin, cloves, garlic and oregano."
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Part of the secret for great adobo sauce is toasting whole cumin seeds and cloves and then grinding them in a coffee grinder (measure the spices after grinding them). Since the braising process takes so long, start early in the day and get ready for a big dinner, because I've also included clones here for Chipotle's pico de gallo, pinto beans, and delicious cilantro-lime rice to make your burritos complete. You can add your choice of cheese, plus guacamole and sour cream for a super-deluxe clone version.
Try my Chipotle Barbacoa copycat recipe below, and check out my clone recipe for Qdoba Grilled Adobo Chicken.
Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur. -
Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies
Read moreBefore Wally Amos shared his soon-to-be-famous homemade chocolate chip cookies with the world, he landed a job in the mailroom at the William Morris talent agency and soon became the agency's first African-American talent agent. Wally's unique approach of sending performers boxes of homemade chocolate chip cookies that he developed from his aunt's secret recipe eventually helped him get Diana Ross & The Supremes as clients.
After perfecting his cookie recipe in 1975, Wally launched his own cookie company and, solely from word of mouth, his baking business boomed. Today there are several flavors of Famous Amos Cookies, including oatmeal chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, and peanut butter, but it is the plain chocolate chip cookies that are the most popular. My Famous Amos copycat recipe here will give you 100 little chocolate chip cookies just like the originals that are crunchy and small enough to dunk into a cold glass of moo juice.
Find more of your favorite famous cookie and brownie recipes here.
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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.
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Ruby Tuesday Creamy Mashed Cauliflower
Read moreThe low-carb craze is influencing menus of America's restaurant chains, but no chain has embraced the trend as enthusiastically as Ruby Tuesday. Nation's Restaurant News awarded the chain "Best Healthy Choice Menu Selection for 2004," based on more than 30 new low-carb dishes added to the menu, including low-carb cheesecake, burgers in high-fiber tortilla wraps, and other low-carb stand-ins such as Creamy Mashed Cauliflower. This most talked-about of the new selections is a side dish stunt double for mashed potatoes, with a carb count coming in at a measly 9 net carbs per 3/4-cup serving, according to the menu. Spices and cream are added to steamed and puréed cauliflower to give this dish the taste, texture and appearance of America's favorite side. Learn how with my Ruby Tuesday creamy mashed cauliflower recipe below.
Serve this up with any entrée that goes well with mashed potatoes, and you'll never miss the spuds.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur. -
Lawry's Taco Spices and Seasonings
Read moreThis is my clone recipe for the stuff you buy in 1-ounce packets to create, as the package says, "a fun-filled Mexican fiesta in minutes." Ah, so true. In fact, thanks to Lawry's, my last Mexican fiesta was filled with so much fun that I had to take a siesta. And I promise you just as much fun with my Lawry's Taco Spices and Seasonings recipe below. Maybe even a tad more. Just mix the ingredients together in a small bowl, then add it to 1 pound of browned ground beef along with some water and let it simmer. Before you know it, you'll be up to your nostrils in good old-fashioned, taco-making fun.
Now, how about a cold margarita?
Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
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GrandMa's Oatmeal Raisin Big Cookies
Read moreGrandMa's Cookie Company was founded back in 1914 by Foster Wheeler, but it wasn't until 1977 that the company introduced the popular Big Cookie. This large, soft cookie comes two to a pack and is offered in several varieties, including oatmeal raisin. Now you can bake up a couple batches of your own with my GrandMa's oatmeal raisin cookies copycat recipe. Just be sure not to over bake these. You want the cookies soft and chewy when cool—just like a happy grandma would make. Be sure to take the cookies out of the oven when they are just beginning to turn light brown around the edges.
You might also like my copycat for GrandMa's Peanut Butter Big Cookies.
Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.Update 1/13/17: For an improved GrandMa's Big Cookies recipe, replace the 1/2 cup shortening with 3/4 cup softened unsalted butter. Also, reduce baking soda to 1 1/2 teaspoons and cinnamon to 1/2 teaspoon. Raising the oven temperature a little—to 300 degrees F—will help with browning and still keep the cookies chewy. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes.
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Carnegie Deli Classic New York Cheesecake
Read moreCarnegie Deli's huge pastrami sandwiches were selected as the best in New York by New York Magazine in 1975, but it's the cheesecakes, which can be shipped anywhere in the country, that really put this famous deli on the map.
The secret to my Carnegie Deli traditional New York cheesecake recipe is creating the perfect not-too-sweet sugar cookie crust and varying the baking temperature so that you get a nicely browned top before cooking the cheesecake through. Get ready for the best deli-style cheesecake to ever come out of your oven.
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Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.
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Girl Scout Cookies Thin Mints
Read moreIf those cute little cookie peddlers aren't posted outside the market, it may be tough to get your hands on these thin mint cookies—the most popular cookies sold by the Girl Scouts every spring. One out of every four boxes of cookies sold by the girls is Thin Mints.
My Girl Scout cookie thin mint copycat recipe uses an improved version of the chocolate wafers created for my Oreo cookie clone in the second TSR book, More Top Secret Recipes. That recipe creates 108 cookie wafers, so when you're done dipping, you'll have the equivalent of three boxes of the Girl Scout Cookies favorite. That's why you bought those extra cookie sheets, right? You could, of course, reduce this recipe by baking only one-third of the cookie dough for the wafers and then reducing the coating ingredients by one-third, giving you a total of 36 cookies. But that may not be enough to last you until next spring.
Click here for more of your favorite Girl Scout Cookies.
Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
Update 11/16/17: You can make an even better clone using a chocolate product that wasn't available when I created this recipe. Rather than using the semi-sweet chocolate chips combined with shortening and peppermint for coating the cookies, use Ghirardelli Dark Melting Wafers. You will need 2 10-ounce bags of the chips, mixed with 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract (and no shortening). Melt the chocolate the same way, and dip the cookies as instructed.
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.