Alsace
Tarte flambee
Flammekueche
Cream, bacon, onion, thin as paper, three minutes
Scale the dough for thisAlsatian farmers heated the bread oven once a week and needed a way to test the temperature, so they threw in a scrap of dough with whatever was in the dairy on it. If it baked in a couple of minutes the oven was ready for bread. It is unleavened, or nearly so, rolled to the thickness of a coin, and it wants the hottest oven you have for the shortest possible time.
The build
- Roll the dough as thin as you can get it without tearing, right onto the peel or a sheet of baking paper.
- Spread the cream mixture thinly all the way to the edge. There is no rim on this.
- Raw onion sliced paper thin, and lardons or thick cut bacon in short batons.
The bake
Oven300°C572°F
Time3-5 minutes
Hottest oven, top of the oven, and stand there watching. It goes from pale to burnt inside a minute.
On top
- Sauce
- Creme fraiche and fromage blanc beaten together with salt, pepper and a scrape of nutmeg.
- Cheese
- None. The fromage blanc is a dairy layer, not a melting cheese, and gruyere on top makes it a gratinee, which Alsace also sells and does not confuse with this.
You got it right when Charred blisters and black flecks at the edge, cream just set, and it snaps rather than folds.