Maxime

‘Tarte flambée’ (also known as ‘Flammekueche’ in Alsaltian and ‘Flammkuchen’ in German) is an iconic dish from Alsace, my home region. A communal dish beloved by everyone, the tradition is to order one tarte at a time and share it in the center of the table. Alsatians like to point out that you can easily spot tourists because they order a tarte per person.

A tarte flambée is fairly simple to make. The traditional recipe uses a base of crème fraîche and fromage blanc, but as the latter is hard to find outside of France, we substitute it with quark-which works perfectly! This creamy mixture is topped with bacon, Emmental cheese, and onion- how delicious does this sound?

The crust is similar to a pizza but even thinner. When perfectly cooked, it should be evenly crusty underneath. While store-bought dough can be easily found, we recommend trying to make your own- it is not that hard and will make you feel very proud!

While growing up, my parents and I would usually go eat ‘tartes flambées’ once every other week. Now that I live abroad, this is a tradition that I definitely miss!

Tarte flambée / Flammekueche• Alsatian flatbread with cream, bacon, onion, and Gruyère

Course: MainCuisine: FrenchDifficulty: Medium

Makes

2

tartes

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Resting time

1

hour

Total time

1

hour 

50

minutes

Ingredients

• For the dough

• 215 g 215 all-purpose flour

• 4 g 4 dry yeast

• 150 ml 150 water

• 1/2 tsp 1/2 salt (3 g)

• For the filling

• 50 g 50 quark

• 40 g 40 crème fraîche

• 100 g 100 Emmental cheese

• 120 g 120 bacon strips

• 100 g 100 white onion

• 1/4 tsp 1/4 salt

• 1/6 tsp 1/6 black pepper

• 1/4 tsp 1/4 nutmeg

Directions

• To make the dough
• Mix together flour, dry yeast (or 12g of fresh yeast), water, and salt.
• Knead until the dough is no longer sticky. If it remains too sticky, add a tbsp of flour at a time.
• Wrap the dough and let rest in the fridge for one hour.
• To make the filling
• In a bowl, mix together quark, crème fraîche, salt, black pepper, and nutmeg. Set aside.
• Dice the slices of bacon, thinly slice the onion, and grate the Emmental cheese. Set aside.
• To make the tartes flambées
• Divide the dough in half.
• On parchment paper, roll out the first half in a rectangle. The dough should be a little thinner than thin crust pizza.
• Stab the dough using a fork.
• Spread a layer of the creamy mix, leaving a 1.5-cm (0.5-inch) border.
• Layer the toppings in order: onion, bacon, cheese.
• To bake the tartes flambées
• Lift the parchment paper onto a baking sheet.
• In a pre-heated oven at 450°F/230°C, bake 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden.
• Cut in 6 or 8 pieces and serve immediately!

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