by Kate Hill
Preheat oven to 380ºC or 530ºF. Yes. HOT! Very HOT!

For the pastry I used a simple butter short crust.

100 gr (3½ oz) butter- unsalted
200 gr (7 oz) flour- all purpose unbleached
Salt- pinch
1 egg
Water- as needed

Cut butter into flour and salt with fingertips. Add egg and water. Gather pastry crust into ball. Divide into three. Roll out each third, place into deep rounded molds. Trim. Prick.

Batter:
250 gr (9 oz) fresh goats cheese (after draining)
175 gr (6¼ oz) white sugar (125gr for yolks- 50gr for whites)
50 ml milk (about a tablespoon)
6 eggs, separated
60 gr (2⅛ oz) flour
Splash of vanilla/rum/Armagnac

Directions:
Pass goat cheese through a food mill or ricer.

Beat in 125 gr (4.4 oz) sugar, milk and flour. (I used a whisk.)

Whisk egg whites with 50 gr (1¾ oz) sugar until stiff peaks. (we use a copper bowl and hand whisk in the Gascon Kitchen.)

Fold in a large spoonful of whites into the cheese/yolk mixture. Stir well.

Fold remaining whites into cheese/yolk batter. Pour into unbaked pastry shells.
Place into HOT oven (280ºC/530ºF) for 10 minutes. The tops will puff up round and start to brown and blacken immediately. Don’t panic!

Then turn oven down to 220ºC or 425ºF for 40 minutes. remove from oven and let cool.
I used 3 small cassoulet bowls holding about 300ml/12oz each. this is what they look like baking. The forward one we slid in 4 minutes after the first two, and it was indeed underdone. but delicious.

Tourteau Fromagé.

The Tourteau Fromagé is a specialty cake of Poitou-Charente region of Southwest France. Found usually in cheese shops, I developed a weakness for the finely textured, barely sweet cake. Like an Angel Food Cake married to a N.Y. Cheesecake. After just one bite Sabina also fell for the sweet trap and we decided to test the recipe with some of the fresh goat cheese from Phillipe.

Local is as local does. And here in Gascony, you can tell that even our flour, that I buy in one kilo sacks at Pierre’s Boulangerie is a local product. Wearing the Musketeers habit, this is the classic ‘type 55′ all purpose flour used for most baking.

EXTREME WARNING: The extraordinary eggs from my hens account for the extreme yellow color of the interior of the cake just as the extra-high temperature of the oven produces the traditional blackened crust. The contrast of soft tender cake and charcoaled top crust is part of the tourteaux charm. We produced three cakes from the following recipe that we made in small very deep mini-cassoles each holding about 12fl oz or 300ml. So inspired by the courage of the Cadets of Gascony- all for one and one tourteau for all!

Here is a link to the original Recipe and Article. Do enjoy it.