Flammekueche
Flavors Used:
Bonjour, Avez-vous essayé Flammekueche? This Flammekueche is the bomb, if you’ve never had it then you’re in for a savory treat that can’t be beat. This classic French-German dish is a great nightcap after a night out, and the best part is you probably already have everything you need to make it! It’s super easy to make with the longest part being making the dough. Thankfully the dough doesn’t use yeast, and only takes about 30 minutes to set up properly. Your reward for all that hard work is a crispy cracker-like crust. This isn’t exactly a pizza, instead you use fromage blanc or crème fraîche as the “cheese”. Fromage blanc is just a simple white cheese that is tangy and rich, while crème fraîche is a fresher, richer, and tangier version of sour cream. The two can be used interchangeably but for the money, we like fromage blanc the best.
What is Flammekueche?
Flammekueche, or tarte flambée, is a specialty of the Alsace region in eastern France that borders Germany and Switzerland. It’s a rather simple dish being made of bread dough rolled out in a thin crust vaguely resembling a rectangle or oval. It’s then covered with fromage blanc or crème fraîche before being topped with thinly sliced onions, and lardons. Lardon refers to small strips or cubes of pork fat. The name of the dish really varies depending on who's talking due to dialects. In Alsatian it’s called Flàmmaküacha, but in Lorraine Franconian it's known as Flammkuchen. Despite the differences in names, they all translate to pie baked in flames despite the fact that the flammekueche is cooked in a wood-fired oven!
The dish is believed to have been created by German farmers in ALsace, Baden, and the Palatinate who used to bake bread once a week. Flammekueche was typically used to test the heart of the farmer’s woodfired ovens. There are many varieties of flammekueche but here are some common ones.
- Gratinée – with added Gruyere cheese
- Forestière – with added mushrooms
- Munster – with added Muenster cheese
- Sweet – dessert versions vary from with apples and cinnamon to blueberries, or being flambeed with Calvados or another sweet liqueur.
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ½ cup warm water
- ½ tsp salt
- Dan-O’s Original Seasoning
- For the pie
- 4 strips of bacon, cooked and chopped
- ½ yellow onion
- 1 leek
- Olive oil
- Pinch of nutmeg
- ¼ cup plain greek yogurt
- ¼ cup sour cream
- ½ tsp salt
- Cornmeal
- Black pepper
Preparation Instructions
- Make your dough by mixing all dough ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Knead and stretch by hand for roughly 10 minutes and form into a ball. Place ball into mixing bowl and brush with olive oil. Loosely cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
- While your dough rests, julienne your onions and take roughly 10 slices out of the green area of your leek. Set to the side.
- Season your bacon with Dan-O’s, and cook it in a pan until it starts to crisp. Remove from pan and place on paper-towel-lined sheet. SAVE YOUR BACON GREASE!
- On medium heat, cook your onions and leeks in the bacon grease, seasoning with Dan-O’s as you go. Cook until onions are golden and start to caramelize. Remove onions and leeks and place on a paper towel-lined plate.
- In a small mixing bowl, mix together your sour cream, Greek yogurt, nutmeg, salt, and Dan-O’s. Set to the side.
- Preheat your oven or grill to 450 degrees using a pizza stone (if you have one). Roll out your dough as thin as possible, and smear over your cream and yogurt mixture, then top with onions, leeks, and bacon.
- Place pizza on a pizza peel dusted with cornmeal and add to your grill or oven. Cook for 3-4 minutes until the dough is crispy and starts to brown on the sides. (may take longer if you ended up with thicker dough.
- Remove from oven or grill with pizza peel, slice and serve!
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