French Fridays with Dorie: Tourteau de chèvre

I approached this week’s French Fridays with Dorie with a little bit of trepidation.  A Tourteau de Chèvre is basically a baked cheesecake, made with goat’s cheese. No, it wasn’t the goat’s cheese part that worried me, it was the “baked cheesecake” part.  Oh, I’ve made them before – but as you can see in this post and this one, I was not successful in producing a cheesecake that didn’t crack when baked.  So I was worried. Until I looked at Dorie’s picture and saw that this one is supposed to be cracked and kind of ugly on the top… A perfect baked cheesecake recipe for me then!

Then there was the dough.  Even though I had close supervision, I still was not able to produce a dough that was able to be rolled out 🙁

(I swear, I turned my back for one second to grab my camera and she was up there checking it out. Well, I guess she could smell the butter…)

So I resorted to the “press-in” method which I didn’t think would matter so much for a “rustic” dessert like this one…

And just like Dorie says it will, the cake cracked when it baked.  It also didn’t get quite black/ brown enough as a true torteau that you would find in France would – our ovens don’t get hot enough for that – but I was still pretty happy with the outcome…

Just to prove that mine is not uglier than it should be, I did a quick comparison…

Look Ma – just like Dorie’s!

And the taste?

I served this for Easter dinner dessert. And then again a number of times the week following that. And finally for breakfast as Neil and I watched the Royal Wedding (cake for breakfast seemed fitting!).

It is super light and not too sweet (one of our friends declared it “a little goat-y” for her tastes but I don’t think you can taste the goat that much).  We ate it plain though Dorie suggests drizzling it with a little honey – I didn’t think it needed it.

I will definitely be making this one again – such an easy recipe, an impressive result and a dish that lends itself to rusticity? Ça, c’est pour moi!

Want to join French Fridays with Dorie? Join here.

French Fridays with Dorie participants do not publish the recipes on our blogs, rather, we prefer if you purchase Around My French Table for yourselves (trust me, you definitely want this book!) which you can do here on Amazon or Amazon Canada. Or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository.

 

91 thoughts on “French Fridays with Dorie: Tourteau de chèvre”

  1. Your tourteau looks better than Dorie’s, I could barely see the cracks. And Mardi, I would gladly trade in my cheesecake baking skills for your macaron ones right now! I’m still frustrated by my imperfect ones… but hopefully someday soon they’ll turn out lime yours ;-).

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  2. I love it when the food isn’t supposed to be pretty – way less stress involved in the final outcome.
    I am sure this would have been perfect alongside a cuppa for an early morning wedding watch!

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  3. This was delightful.

    For all you Americans, don’t think “cheesecake” like you probably know it. With just a hint of sweet, this is really much more enjoyable as a nice savoury dish. (And yes – I DO love my sweets!)

    Wine pairings? Well, as this is extremely flexible, “when” it is being served in a meal may be the more deciding factor for me.

    With a cafe au lait for the Royal Wedding at 5.30 worked well. So did with an off-dry Riesling after dinner (though not my first choice). A fino Sherry as a wee snack. Or with Pimm’s No.1 Cup was divine.

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  4. I love the picture with the cat overseeing the proceedings. You can’t tell your’s from Dorie’s tart…nice work.

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  5. I love the idea of this! I also am quite partial to a bit of goatiness, so I guess this outcome is predictable. Also.. dare I say.. I think yours looks better than the picture in the book!

    I’ll never tire of Cleo photos. I wonder if Dorie might try and recruit her as a food model in the next book.

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  6. Your cat looks like my cat!! I should get back on the French Fridays. Would have LOVED to do (and eat) this dish.

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  7. Mardi, the tourteau looks absolutely beautiful! I didn’t think it tasted goaty at all. Both my guys loved it (Ethan said it was a bit like angel food cake). I too had a little help from a feline friend (or so I thought when I saw a nibble taken out of my cake…Ethan later confessed it was him!)

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  8. This looks so tasty!

    I can relate to having trouble with cheesecakes, I’ve also written about my failures 🙁

    And I have curious cats too 😀

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  9. That cat picture totally reminded me of cooking at a friend’s house and the cat wouldn’t leave me alone!! Your cake looked good, pressed-in crust or not.

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  10. This looks great – your cat has outstanding taste. I’ve missed the last few weeks of FFwD and am missing it! Might just have to have a late entry for this one. I think I might like to eat this for Mother’s Day. Goat cheese is great for us because the lactose levels are low plus seems like the texture would be superb for cheesecake! Glad you enjoyed it so many ways!

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  11. I also had trouble rolling out this dough. I ended up pressing the pieces into the pan. I think of you as the perfect cook, so now I don’t feel so bad about my crust.
    Your end result looks perfect! The cat thinks so too.

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  12. I was chuckling as I saw your cat photo—my Westie was following me around the kitchen when I searched for good lighting to take a picture…I kept one eye on her and one on the Tourteau 🙂 Nana would have been so disappointed after we made it together if my dog ate it. The dish was a very lovely addition to our French Friday success stories. And yours looks absolutely spectacular- well done !

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  13. Your cake looks amazing. I just loved this recipe. A cheesecake that is supposed have cracks is my kind of cheesecake!

    I am so excited to win your drawing. Thanks so much!

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  14. This cheesecake looks absolutely delicious, I think I may find myself giving it a go.

    I love the picture of your cat staring at it, I wonder if she was thinking ‘Hmm..this smells good. I wonder if its for me? Surely it must be. It wouldn’t just be sitting there if it wasn’t right?’

    I know our family cat, whenever food items get placed in the cool of the utility room (kind of her domain), presumes automatically : ‘Hey, its in my kingdom, it must be mine!’ and promptly helps herself. We’ve learnt the hard way as you may be able to tell.

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  15. I finally got my copy of Dorie’s cookbook 🙂 Still hesitant about joining French Fridays. Too much pressure on me. LOL!

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  16. Mardi, I think yours looks just as good as Dorie’s! Don’t you just love a recipe that allows a few imperfections to make it even more beautiful? Any how, I laughed at the picture of your cat keeping a close eye on your Tourteau. How funny, and to me it just seemed so French (don’t ask me why). What an entertaining post. Thanks for the smiles 🙂

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  17. I do think this is a great thing to serve with a royal wedding! I nearly didn’t get it done but soo glad I did. I will definitly make this again and again!

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  18. This one has caught my eye, in particular as I have a big log of goat cheese that needs using ASAP. I’m guessing it would freeze well, what do you think? (obviously it would just be a guess, but I think of cheesecake as generally freezing well). Your cake looks gorgeous! I just got this book and am sorely tempted to join FFWD.

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