Tarte Flambée

A dough rolled paper thin and never proved, baked as hot and as fast as the oven will go.

Not vegetarian — contains lardons, which are pork.

Ingredients

For the dough

• 300 g plain flour
• 170 ml water
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

For the topping

• 200 g fromage blanc, or quark
• 100 ml crème fraîche
• 200 g smoked lardons
• 2 onions, sliced very thin
• 1 tablespoon oil
• a grating of nutmeg
• salt and pepper

Method

1. THE DOUGH IS ROLLED PAPER THIN AND NEVER PROVED. No yeast, no rising, no waiting: flour, water, oil and salt, rested thirty minutes only so it rolls, then taken out to the thickness of a coin -- thin enough to see the board through at the edges. The whole character of this is a crisp sheet that snaps, and any rise at all turns it into a pizza, which is a good thing and not this thing.
2. WHICH IS THE OPPOSITE OF THE PISSALADIERE ON THIS SITE. That one is a proved bread base a centimetre thick and wants to be soft and bready under its topping. Same family, opposite decisions, and worth knowing which you are making before you start.
3. THE OVEN GOES AS HOT AS IT WILL GO, with a steel or a stone in it. 250C or more, and the tart is done in eight to ten minutes. Lower and slower, the topping dries out and the base goes biscuity instead of blistering.
4. THE TOPPING GOES ON COLD AND THIN. Fromage blanc and crème fraîche straight from the fridge, spread in a layer you can still see the dough through. Piled on, it steams and the middle never crisps.
5. AND THE LARDONS AND ONIONS GO ON RAW. Pre-cooked, they burn in the time the base needs. Raw, they cook exactly as fast as the tart does.
6. Flour and salt in a bowl, the water and oil added, mixed and kneaded 3 minutes to a smooth firm dough.
7. Wrapped and rested 30 MINUTES at room temperature. No proving.
8. The oven to its maximum with a baking steel or heavy tray inside, given 30 minutes to get properly hot.
9. Fromage blanc, crème fraîche, nutmeg, salt and pepper stirred together and kept COLD.
10. Onions sliced as thin as you can manage.
11. The dough divided in two and each piece rolled out on paper to a thin rectangle about 2 mm, almost translucent at the edge.
12. The cold cream mixture spread thinly right to the edges.
13. Lardons and raw onion scattered over, not heaped.
14. Slid onto the hot steel and baked 8 to 10 minutes until the edges are dark and blistered and the base lifts stiffly. Eaten straight away, cut with scissors, while the second one bakes.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes