Does anyone know the recipe for The Olive Garden’s Chocolate Lasagne?
Olive Garden Chocolate Lasagna
Posted by LladyRusty at recipegoldmine.com 1/17/2002 6:48 pm
Source: Recipe by LladyRusty, Hershey® and Wilton Enterprises
Cake
6 cups cake flour
5 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 1/4 cups Hershey’s Cocoa
2 tablespoons baking soda
4 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups butter
12 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Butter Cream
2/3 cup water
4 tablespoons meringue powder
12 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 1/4 cups shortening
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon clear almond extract
1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
1 teaspoon colorless butter flavor
Cake: Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease three 10-inch springform pans.
In mixing bowl, stir together sifted cake flour, sugar, Hershey’s Cocoa and baking soda. Add butter and mix well. Add milk, eggs and vanilla. Mix thoroughly. Pour about 5 cups of the cake batter into each prepared pan.
Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in cake center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before you remove the cake from the pan. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Butter Cream: Combine water and meringue powder; whip at high speed until peaks form. Add 4 cups of sugar, one cup at a time, beating after each addition at low speed. Alternately add shortening and remainder of sugar. Add salt and flavorings; beat at low speed until smooth.
Thin out 1/2 of the frosting with a little extra water. The thinned frosting is used as the filling between layers.
To Assemble: Place one 10 inch cake on a large round plate or a large round cake platter. Spread 1/2 of the thinned frosting on top. (Only frost the top of the cake) Sprinkle very lightly with semi-sweet chocolate chips. (There are very few chips on this layer, usually only 1 or 2 per wedge, so sprinkle very very lightly)
Place the second cake on top of the first. Frost the top with the remaining thinned frosting. Sprinkle with semi-sweet chocolate chips. (You can be a bit more generous with this layer)
Place the third layer on top of the second. Frost the top with all of the Butter Cream that was not thinned. This is a thick layer of frosting so pile it on. Try to get the top as smooth as you can. Sprinkle with semi-sweet chocolate chips. The frosting seems more authentic if you let it set up (sit out) for an hour at room temperature. (I wrapped the sides lightly with foil to keep the cake from drying out as well)
Cut the cake into wedges, as you would cut a pizza. Using Hershey’s chocolate syrup, create a design on your dessert plate. Place the wedge of chocolate lasagna at the 11 o’clock position on your dessert plate with the point facing down so that you can see some of the syrup design. Serve.
Emergency Substitute for Meringue Powder
#1. To make a simple meringue, separate the eggs scrupulously. A little bit of egg yolk in the mix and your whites won’t whip up as well. Also, let the whites reach room temperature, at which point they have less surface tension and will form bubbles more easily. The whites of older eggs whip better, because they are thinner, but the whites from newer eggs have more stability when whipped.
If you have an unlined copper bowl for beating egg whites, use it. The copper reacts with the whites and provides a loftier result. Don’t use an aluminum bowl, which will react with the acid and turn your whites gray. A glass or metal bowl is better than plastic, as plastic may harbor traces of oil, which are fatal to a good meringue.
In a medium bowl, beat three eggs either with an electric mixer or by hand. Add 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar and a pinch of salt. Begin beating slowly at first, which will produce small, stable bubbles. After a minute or so, increase the speed and beat until soft peaks form. Beat in 2/3 cup of superfine sugar, 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time until stiff peaks form, which will take 7 to 10 minutes. If you don’t have superfine sugar, make your own by grinding granulated sugar in a food processor until very fine. This will make about 4 cups of meringue.
#2. Italian Meringue
From The Way to Cook (Canada, UK), by Julia Child.
Ingredients:
The Egg Whites
2/3 cup egg whites (4 to 5 whites)
A pinch of salt
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
The Sugar Syrup
1-1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
Instructions:
Beat the egg whites at slow speed until the foam throughout, add the salt and cream of tartar, gradually increase the speed to fast, and beat to soft peaks. Turn the machine to slow as you complete the sugar syrup.
Bring the sugar and water to the simmer, swirl the pan to dissolve the sugar completely, cover tightly and boil to the soft-ball stage (234°F to 240°F; 112°C to 116°C).
Beating the egg whites at moderately slow speed, dribble into them the boiling syrup — trying to avoid the wires of the whip. Increase speed to moderately fast and beat until cool and the egg whites form stiff, shining, upstanding peaks. The meringue is now ready to use as your recipe directs.
#3. The New Safe Meringue
From Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts (Canada, UK), by Alice Medrich.
Safe Meringue can be used place of ordinary meringue in old recipes. These include uncooked desserts such as mousse, Bavarian cream, and ice cream as well as soft meringues for pie topping and baked Alaska where a short baking or browning period may not be enough to heat the meringue thoroughly.
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp water
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
2 egg whites
4 Tbsp sugar
Instructions:
Bring 1 inch of water to a gentle simmer in a large skillet. Combine the 2 tsp water with the cream of tartar in a 4- to 6-cup stainless steel bowl. Add the egg whites and sugar and whisk together briskly to combine ingredients thoroughly and break up the egg white clots (which have a tendency to scramble first.) Place an instant-read thermometer near the stove in a mug of very hot tap water.
Set bowl of egg whites in skillet. Stir mixture briskly and constantly with a rubber spatula, scraping the sides and bottom often to avoid scrambling the whites. After 1 minute, remove bowl from skillet. Quickly insert thermometer, tilting bowl to cover stem by at least 2 inches. If less than 160°F (70°C), rinse thermometer in skillet water and return it to mug. Replace bowl in skillet. Stir as before until temperature reaches 160°F when bowl is removed. Beat on high speed until cool and stiff.
[/b]
I tried this recipe and it turned out terrible. The cake was almost a foot tall and the cake was very dry. I’m an experienced baker. I’ve never tried the Chocolate Lasagna at Olive Garden so I don’t know what it should taste like but I’m hoping it’s not this. Also, from a picture of Chocolate Lasagna served at the Olive Garden this doesn’t look a thing like it. This just came out like a chocolate cake with buttercream icing. Let me know if I did something wrong or if this really is the way it should be. Thanks!