Tarte Flambée
Alsatian oven flatbread on paper-thin dough, spread with fromage blanc and crème fraîche instead of tomato, topped with onions and raw bacon, baked in a flash.
While the dough rests, heat the baking steel through completely and get the filling ready. The tartes are rolled out and baked one at a time, so each base arrives at the table piping hot and crisp. The ultra-thin base is what creates the crisp contrast to the creamy topping.
Ingredients
The dough
- 500 g wheat flour
- 2½ dl water, lukewarm
- 3 tbsp canola oil
- 1 tsp salt
The filling
- 400 g fromage blanc
- 200 g crème fraîche 38%
- 3 onions, large
- 250 g smoked bacon, in one piece
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 pinch nutmeg, freshly grated
- pepper, freshly ground
How to make it
- Combine the flour and salt in a bowl. Stir in the lukewarm water and canola oil, then knead the dough well on the counter until it's smooth and supple and comes away cleanly from both the bowl and your hands. ⏱ 10 minChef's tip Oil coats the flour proteins and keeps the crumb short rather than bready — this dough wants no yeast and no long gluten. Knead only until the surface turns smooth and satiny; it should feel supple, not springy and tight.
- Shape the dough into a ball, place it back in the bowl and cover the bowl with a kitchen towel. Let the dough rest at room temperature for 60 minutes, until it's soft and stretches without springing back. Meanwhile, set the baking steel on the second-highest rack and preheat the oven to 275°C, so the steel is heated through by the time the dough is ready. ⏱ 1 h · passiveChef's tip The rest is about relaxation, not rise. Once the dough stops snapping back when you tug a corner, it will roll paper-thin without fighting you; rolled too early, it shrinks back on the parchment.
- Stir the fromage blanc, crème fraîche, salt, freshly ground pepper and grated nutmeg together in a bowl until the mixture is smooth and holds in a thick dollop on the spoon. Go easy on the salt here, since the bacon will season the tarte on its own during baking.Chef's tip Stir only until the mixture is smooth and holds thickly on the spoon. Full-fat crème fraîche can take the high heat; a low-fat version weeps water and leaves the base soggy under the cream.
- Peel the onions and cut them into paper-thin half rings with a sharp knife, so thin they're almost transparent. Cut the bacon into rough 1 cm cubes and leave it raw — it will finish cooking on the tarte in the high oven heat.
- Divide the dough into four equal pieces. Roll the first one out on a sheet of parchment paper into an elongated oval, 2-3 mm thick, so thin you can just make out the parchment through it. The base needs to be able to crisp up in the few minutes it's in the oven. ⏱ 15 minChef's tip If the dough pulls back when you lift the rolling pin, let the piece sit another 5 minutes and then start again — force it and you'll roll it thin only to have it shrink back thick in the oven.
- Spread a quarter of the cream mixture over the dough in a thin layer with the back of a spoon, leaving a half-centimeter border free. Distribute a quarter of the onions evenly on top and scatter a quarter of the bacon cubes among them, so every bite gets a bit of both. ⏱ 10 minChef's tip Spread the cream thin enough to see the dough shadow through it. A generous layer steams from below, and the base stays soft where the crust never gets a chance to dry out.
- Slide the parchment with the tarte onto the scorching-hot baking steel and bake for 10-12 minutes. It's done when the edge is deep golden and has puffed up, the cream has set, and the bacon cubes are crisp and fully cooked. ⏱ 40 min–50 min · passive
- Slide the finished tarte onto a wooden board and cut it into rough squares with a large knife. Pass the board around right away, and eat the pieces with your fingers while they're piping hot. Meanwhile, roll out the next piece of dough and top it with cream, onions and bacon just like the first. Bake it the same way, so the tartes come to the table one at a time.Chef's tip The steel gives up heat to every tarte and to the open oven door. Give it 5-10 minutes with the door shut before the next one, or the second base comes out noticeably paler and chewier.
