Tarte Flambée — Alsatian Thin-Crust Flatbread

Ingredients

• For the dough
• 250 g strong white flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp dried yeast
• 1 tbsp neutral oil
• 130 ml warm water
• For the topping
• 200 g fromage blanc, well-drained; or substitute equal parts quark and crème fraîche
• 2 tbsp crème fraîche
• 1 pinch nutmeg, freshly grated
• 1 pinch salt, to season the fromage blanc
• 1 pinch white pepper, to season the fromage blanc
• 2 medium white onions, thinly sliced, raw
• 150 g lardons, smoked bacon cut into thin matchsticks
• For the peel
• 1 tbsp fine semolina, for dusting the peel or upturned baking sheet

Method

1. 1
   Combine the flour, salt, and dried yeast in a bowl. Add the oil and warm water. Bring together into a rough dough, then turn onto a work surface and knead for 8–10 minutes. The dough is ready when it is smooth, elastic, and springs back when pressed with a fingertip.
2. 2
   Shape the dough into a ball, return it to the bowl, cover, and leave at room temperature for 1 hour. It is ready when it has doubled in volume and a floured finger pressed into the surface leaves a clean indentation that does not spring back.
3. 3
   Place a pizza stone or pizza steel on the highest shelf of the oven and heat at maximum temperature for at least 1 hour. A domestic oven will reach 250–275 °C; a pizza oven should reach 350–400 °C. The stone is ready when a pinch of semolina dropped onto its surface turns golden within seconds.
4. 4
   While the oven heats, drain the fromage blanc thoroughly — excess moisture is the principal cause of a soggy centre. Mix the drained fromage blanc with the crème fraîche, a grating of nutmeg, salt, and white pepper until smooth and spreadable.
5. 5
   Divide the dough into four equal portions. Working one at a time, roll each portion on a well-floured surface as thin as physically possible without tearing — ideally translucent when held briefly to the light. This is where the dish lives or dies: a thick base will never achieve the defining cracker-crisp, blistered character of tarte flambée regardless of oven temperature. Transfer each shaped disc to a peel or upturned baking sheet dusted with semolina.
6. 6
   Spread a thin, even layer of the fromage blanc mixture over each disc, stopping 1 cm from the edge. Scatter the raw sliced onions and lardons sparingly over the surface. The topping should be light — this is not pizza.
7. 7
   Slide the tarte onto the hot stone. In a pizza oven at 350–400 °C, bake for 2–3 minutes; in a domestic oven at maximum, bake on the highest shelf for 6–8 minutes. The tarte is done when the edge is blistered, charred in spots, and crackling-crisp, the fromage blanc centre is just set rather than liquid, and the lardons are sizzling and lightly coloured.
8. 8
   Remove from the oven and cut immediately with scissors — the traditional Alsatian method. Eat at once; the tarte does not hold.