FFwD - Torteau de Chevre

Thank God it's Friday!  Friday means French Fridays with Dorie, and this week's recipe was Torteau de Chevre ("tort-tow  dee chee-ver").  This is simply a goats cheese cheesecake.  The original French versions have rounded black tops, but you need an oven hotter than the average residential oven to achieve this.  

I took my cheesecake into work yesterday, on a suddenly cold Melbourne day.  I had slept in for half an hour past my alarm and had to move it to get into work at my usual time.  I take up a lot of space on the train with my bags and cake boxes,  but luckily it was the Flinders Street direct train rather than the City loop, which is usually more crowded.  At Richmond station,  a guy who got on the train eyed me up from toe to head - not sure if he was taking in all my boxes and bags or admiring my thick and camouflaging winter coat in standard Melbourne black.  The station staffer on the platform caused me to chuckle inside my head by yelling "Bums and bags on board!" to hurry things along.  At the other end, it was the usual crush to get off the train and out of the station boom gates.  I am not sure why everyone is in such a rush to get to work, but there you go. Despite all this, my torteau de chevre arrived at work safely in one piece.

The goats cheese filling of the torteau de chevre is cradled in a pastry crust.  I wasn't sure what to expect from this cake, but was pleasantly surprised.

After cutting through the firm brown outer crust (which took me an hour and a half to achieve in my oven), the pale yellow centre shines through.  The cake itself is, as Dorie says, neither sweet nor savoury, and if I didn't know what was in it, I am sure that I wouldn't take it for a cheesecake.

I really enjoyed the flavour of this cake.  It would be a perfect accompaniment to a cheese board, and would go down well with a glass of rich red (alas, not a possibility at work).

To check out how everyone else went with the torteau de chevre, visit the LYL section of the FFwD website.