Introduction
Flammkuchen, tarte flambée in French, is a very thin, crisp dough spread with crème fraîche and topped with sliced onions and smoked lardons. It bakes in a few minutes and is cut into strips at the table, so it suits an evening with friends, a glass of wine or beer, and one tray after another.
It comes from the Upper Rhine: Alsace, Baden and the Palatinate. The name means “flame cake”, and the usual explanation is that bakers slid it into the wood oven before the bread, to test the heat; it is a popular story rather than a documented one. Home versions often use a dough without yeast, as here, so it is ready in under an hour. Roll the dough as thin as you can, about 2 mm; thicker, it bakes soft like a pizza base.
Ingredients
For the dough (2 trays):
- 250 g plain flour
- 150 ml water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or sunflower oil
- 1 pinch of salt
For the topping:
- 200 g crème fraîche (or half crème fraîche, half fromage blanc or quark)
- 2 onions, very thinly sliced
- 150 g smoked lardons
- 1 pinch of grated nutmeg
- salt and black pepper
Tools
- A mixing bowl
- A rolling pin
- 2 baking trays
- Baking paper
Preparation
- Mix the flour, salt, water and oil and knead for 5 minutes, until smooth. Cover and let it rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.
- Heat the oven to its highest setting, 250 °C (230 °C fan) or more, with a tray inside.
- Season the crème fraîche with nutmeg, salt and pepper.
- Halve the dough and roll each piece on baking paper into a thin rectangle the size of the tray, about 2 mm thick.
- Spread half the cream over the dough up to 1 cm from the edge, then scatter half the onions and lardons.
- Slide it on its paper onto the hot tray and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until the edges are browned and crisp and the onions are soft. Watch the last two minutes: thin dough burns fast.
- Cut into rectangles and serve at once while the second one bakes.