“I thought you said this lady was a baker!”
This was my husband’s recent complaint as he noted how long it had been since my French Fridays with Dorie project had yielded a dessert to satisfy his rather notorious sweet tooth. While he enjoyed last month’s Citrus-Berry Terrine, he didn’t actually consider it to be a dessert. And considering how supportive he has been of my FFwD endeavor, gamely trying every single recipe and giving me his honest feedback, I thought that he had earned a sweet reward.
Here in Germany the local berries are slowly starting to dwindle and so I decided to make a dessert which would embrace the dying days of fresh strawberry season. Dorie’s Torteau de Chevre (or goat cheese cake) looked like the perfect vehicle. But since there are only two of us in the house I cut the recipe in half and made cupcakes de chevre, which I then topped with strawberries macerated in sugar and a sprinkling of cognac.
Final verdict: the cupcakes were very light and tasty and really paired well with the fresh strawberries. The texture of the cake is nothing like an american cheese cake, but did remind me a bit of a german cheesecake, which has a lighter, dryer texture than the version I few up with.
But while I enjoyed the finished product, I really struggled with the recipe because of its tart crust base. Pie crust and I are not friends, Dorie has been trying to teach me (quite a few of the FFwD recipes to date have called for tart crust) and I do think that I am slowly getting better, but the sweet crust for this recipe simply refused to cooperate. I could not get it to roll out to save my life and so I finally gave up and just pressed it into the muffin tins. My trusty Joy of Cooking assures me that pie crust just takes practice, but for now I continue to cringe anytime I see an upcoming recipe which calls for it. My hope is that by the time I’ve worked my way through Dorie’s book I will be a pie crust pro. It’s good to have goals right!
one expat's life 
Mmmmm, I looooved this cake. Cupcake size portions would be perfect! I have a hard time with pie/tart dough, too. It never seems to do the same thing twice. It’s probably better that you just pressed it into the muffin tins, anyway. Trying to cut little crusts for each tin sounds like a whole heap of work, especially for something that turns out the same, either way.
Happy to hear that I’m not the only one who struggles with pie dough, but I do hope that I get better at it soon.
Oh, I’ve put a HUGE star on the sweet tart dough page in Dorie’s book to “press in pan with fingers; DO NOT roll out”! I’ve tried multiple times to roll out this dough and it’s never worked for me.
Thank you so much for posting this, I feel so much better! Obviously I need to add the same note to my book.
I enjoyed making the torteau de chevre so much and we all enjoyed eating every bit of it. It looks just as pretty as cupcakes! What’s so wonderful about this is that Dorie is right – the crust kind of disappears into the cake so any mistakes you make are not noticeable at all. I have to confess that I often end up pressing in the pie dough because I have a hard time rolling it out in a round shape without it breaking off in spots. Beautiful job!
I skipped the tourteau de chevre the first time around, but these cupcakes look lovely and maybe a bit more approachable. I’m also on the fence about most baking projects – the heat doesn’t help my cause.
keep your head up! Once you get the hang of it, you will enjoy making it, and then eating it will be a delight! 🙂 Glad you got to use some of the last of the straws of the season! I’m doing to same thing over here!