128 secret recipes

Stephanie's cinnamon rolls bake up extra soft thanks to a secret in the dough: instant vanilla pudding mix. Rolled with a thick cinnamon-brown-sugar filling and cut with thread for clean swirls, they stay tender for days.

Chocolate cookies with a secret ingredient: fresh chopped mushrooms that keep them incredibly moist for days. Brown sugar, sour cream, unsweetened chocolate, and macaroon crumbs in every bite.

Orange sweet potatoes whipped with fresh orange juice, zest, brown sugar, and a secret splash of Angostura bitters. A lighter, butterless holiday side dish.

Homemade flour tortillas with just 5 ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, shortening, hot water). Granny's traditional Mexican recipe with the secret puff-up technique for soft, fluffy tortillas.

Creamy Indian chicken curry with a surprising secret ingredient: Coca-Cola. Sweet, savory, and rich with apple, raisins, and warm spices.

Raisin bran bread is a soft brown sugar yeast loaf that uses your morning cereal as the secret ingredient. Bread machine or hand-shaped, this bakes up tender with embedded raisins and a hint of bran nuttiness.

Country Club Salad: a creamy lemon Jell-O mold with fruit cocktail, cream cheese, mini marshmallows, sliced bananas, and clouds of whipped cream. The vintage holiday side that's secretly dessert.

Chocolate mayonnaise cake is an old-fashioned secret for incredibly moist chocolate cake. A full cup of mayo replaces butter and adds richness without any greasy taste.

The secret to making the cucumbers crunchy is to salt them first and let the salt draw out excess moisture before use.

Sauerkraut apple cake with walnuts, cinnamon, and nutmeg topped with orange-cinnamon cream cheese frosting. A secret ingredient cake nobody can guess.

Vanilla is the secret ingredient in this cross-cultural sauce, which is also delicious served with grilled or roasted meats, poultry or seafood.

Irish cream fudge uses mashed potato as the secret binder, giving a smooth, silky chocolate fudge spiked with Bailey's-style liqueur and crowned with a walnut on each square. A quirky candy-shop classic.

Big-batch spicy turkey chili loaded with kidney beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, jalapenos, cilantro, and a secret splash of Kahlua. Feeds a crowd of 20.

Loaded oatmeal cookies with whole wheat flour, coconut, pecans, chocolate chips, and butterscotch chips. Vanilla pudding mix is the secret to extra-soft cookies.

No-bake coconut candy with a secret ingredient: mashed potatoes bind coconut and powdered sugar into tiny haystacks, then get dipped in dark chocolate. Old-fashioned and surprisingly addictive.

Mom's secret sweet potato pie with boiled sweet potatoes, nutmeg spice, corn syrup, and a custard filling that sets perfectly for clean slices every time.