tarte flambee

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I know I say this for a lot of the recipes I share, but Tarte Flambee is one of my absolute favorite dishes – sweet or savory – I have ever eaten…ever. I could, and have, shamelessly stuffed my face with tarte flambee until I’m sick to my stomach because I just can’t help myself. It’s just a pizza – thinly rolled dough with fromage blanc, onions and lardon bacon that is flash baked until crisp. So ridiculously simple and yet totally perfect. It hits me in all the right mouth feels.

Tarte Flambee lives under many names (you may know it as Flammekueche) and has its origins in the Alsace-Lorraine and Southern Germany regions of Europe. The original is the onion-lardon combo but there are varieties that call for mushrooms (known as Tarte Forestiere) or cheese (usually Gruyere and then called Tarte Gratinee) and even apples and Calvados for a dessert version. I first encountered the dish in pastry school when my instructor, the Alsatian pastry chef Jacquy Pfeiffer, made it for an event and I was immediately hooked.

OK yes, I have a pastry blog and this is a savory recipe but A. There is baked dough involved which then requires baking and B. It’s my blog and I’ll make whatever the hell I want! You won’t be disappointed though and this dough recipe makes a great flatbread dough for whatever you want to put on it. Get crazy!

recipe notes

The only trick to this recipe is the dough. Not that it’s difficult to make, but like all dough it is very much a living thing. Use tepid water in the recipe and be sure not to let the salt and yeast come in contact with one another before the dough is mixed, because the salt will kill the yeast. To avoid this, I either add the salt to the bowl first and measure the flour on top of it or else I pour the olive oil directly over the salt to coat it in fat so it can’t contact the yeast directly. Lastly, while this recipe is pretty damn solid, on the driest winter days you may need to add a little more water than called for and on the most humid summer days you may need to add a little less. That’s just how bread goes.

You can substitute the fromage blanc with crème fraiche, sour cream or even greek yogurt and the lardon with regular bacon but I’m telling you now, it’s not the same. Yes, it will be delicious and yes, I will come over if you ask me nicely and eat it with you, but truly the authentic ingredients make Tarte Flambee its best self.

I highly recommend you use a baking stone (pizza stone) to bake the dough on. The stone creates strong, even heat that directly and quickly transfers to the dough during the recipe’s short baking time. A long time life hack is to use a heat resistant ceramic tile from the hardware store in place of an expensive baking stone, but these days a stone can be picked up for basically the same cost. Give the oven and stone plenty of time to heat up for the best baking results.

tarte flambee

bread dough

700g water
1000g bread flour
22g salt
6g dry yeast
50g olive oil

Combine all of the ingredients together and mix in a stand mixer with a dough hook for 5min on low speed.

Continue mixing on medium speed for 3min. At the end of this mixing the dough should be nice and smooth. It will also be pretty sticky.

Scale the dough into 100g pieces. I like to use scissors to do this.

Shape the dough into a ball. You’ll want to lightly flour the top of the piece of dough and/or your hand to keep it from sticking to you while you shape, but you don’t want to flour your working surface. If the dough slightly sticks to the work surface it allows you to tighten the dough under itself. If your table is floured, then the dough just kind of slides around and doesn’t do much else.

To form the dough into a ball, shape your hand like you were waving to a crowd in a parade – fingers tight together and your hand cupped slightly. Apply pressure to the piece of dough while moving your hand in tight circles (clockwise or counter – your choice). Tighten the cup of your hand while using the pressure and movement and you’ll notice the ball of dough forms like magic!

Use a bench scraper to remove the dough from the table and place it on a sheet pan lined with plastic wrap or parchment paper.

Coat the dough lightly with flour and cover the balls of dough with plastic wrap and rest them in the fridge for 15-20min.

Because the dough is so sticky at this stage, you’ll need a way to transfer it onto your pizza stone. You basically have two options. The first is to use a baking peel and the second (which I recommend although there’s no shame in owning a baking peel) is to use a piece of parchment paper. I lightly grease the parchment paper with baking spray so the dough will stick to it and not retract, which it will want to do after you’ve agitated it by stretching it out. The nice thing is you can use the single piece of parchment paper several times (I used just one piece for baking off 8 portions of dough).

Starting with a square-like piece of parchment paper I just cut the corners off to make it a little easier to work with.

When it’s time to roll the dough you’ll likely use a decent amount of flour, and that’s ok. Start to roll it out on your table with a rolling pin and then switch to gently stretching it by hand, pizza-master style.

Shape your hands either into fists or with your fingers slightly splayed out and the dough resting on top of your hands in order to gently stretch it out. Once it’s thin, lay it out on your parchment paper.

Dock the dough before baking to keep it from puffing up too much.

Par bake the disks of dough, one at a time, at 200C/392F for 1-2min.

Let them cool between clean kitchen towels. Once cooled, you can finish them off to eat or wrap them up and freeze them for when you have a craving.

cheese mixture

350g fromage blanc
25g pastry flour
25g egg yolk
2g salt
1g pepper
1g nutmeg
250g Bacon
200g Onion

Slice the bacon into 1/8 strips and the onions into very thin slices and reserve.

Combine the fromage blanc, pastry flour, egg yolks and spices and simply whisk everything together.

Spread a thin layer of the mixture over the par baked dough and then cover evenly with bacon and onions. You know, like you would with any other pizza. But let’s not call it pizza or we might offend some Alsatians and/or Southern Germans.

Bake the tarts straight on the baking stone – no parchment paper – at 260C/500F for 2-3min or until everything starts to bubble and brown.

F*******ck yes. No joke, I ate this entire thing after I photographed it. I have zero regrets about that decision.

Tarte flambee is at its best when it is fresh out of the oven, so dig in!

Cheers – Chef Scott

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tarte flambee

Votes: 1 Rating: 5 You: Rate this recipe!

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tarte flambee Votes: 1 Rating: 5 You: Rate this recipe! Print Recipe

Ingredients

bread dough

• 700 g water
• 1000 g bread flour
• 22 g salt
• 6 g dry yeast
• 50 g olive oil

cheese mixture

• 350 g fromage blanc
• 25 g pastry flour
• 25 g egg yolk
• 2 g salt
• 1 g pepper
• 1 g nutmeg
• 250 g bacon
• 200 g yellow onion

Servings:

Units:MetricUS Imperial

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients and mix in a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment on low speed for 5 minutes.
2. Increase speed to medium and mix for 3 minutes.
3. Portion the dough into 100g pieces and shape into balls.
4. Transfer the portioned dough to a sheet pan lined plastic wrap or parchment paper and lightly coat with flour or lightly spray with pan spray and another piece of plastic wrap.
5. Rest the dough for 15 to 20 minutes in the refrigerator.
6. Prepare a piece of parchment paper to transfer the dough to a baking stone. Lightly coat the paper with pan spray between baking.
7. With a rolling pin, roll the ball of dough out as thinly as possible.
8. Finish shaping the dough by gently stretching it out by hand.
9. Lay the dough onto the prepared parchment paper and dock before baking.
10. Par bake: convection; 200C/392F; 1 to 2 min.
11. Keep the par baked dough stacked between clean kitchen towels to let them cool without drying out. Once cool, finish with toppings and a final bake or wrap and freeze for later use.

cheese mixture

1. Combine all of the ingredients and mix well.

assembly

1. Thinly cut the bacon and onions and reserve.
2. Spread a thin amount of cheese mixture over the par baked dough.
3. Cover the mixture with bacon and onions as desired.
4. Bake: convection; 260C/500F; 2 to 3min.

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