Anne Lataillade's thin tarte flambée
Method sources: Anne Lataillade: Flammekueche
A delicate, crispy crust topped with creamy, savory delights that crackles with each bite.
Originated as flammkueche among Alsatian farmers as a bread-oven test bake — when the wood oven was hot enough to bake bread, the baker stretched a scrap of dough thin and threw it in for 90 seconds to gauge the heat. The dough became lunch, with whatever was on hand on top. The format moved from farmhouse to Alsatian winstubs (wine taverns) in the 19th century and to urban restaurants in the wider 'pizza craze' of the 1960s, reaching Paris and beyond.
Originally an Alsatian farmer's oven-test bake — a scrap of dough thrown into the wood oven for 90 seconds at 300°C+ to gauge bread-baking heat. The fromage blanc is structural: lower fat than crème fraîche, won't break.
A paper-thin rectangle of bread dough, no rising agent, blasted in a wood oven for two minutes. Topped with fromage blanc thinned with cream, raw onion in slivers, and lardons. Edges char black, center stays pliable. Eaten with the hands, often folded. The closest French analog to Naples pizza, and the wood smoke on the lardon is the marker — gas-oven versions never read right.
On the Palate
Where Tarte Flambée sits in the French flavor cloud
Ingredients
2 thin tarts or 1 very large tart
How it's made
4 steps · About 1 h 30 min, including the 1 h dough rest · About 20 min preparation; 1 h rest and about 10 min baking
- 11 h dough rest, after kneading
Mix flour, dough salt and oil, gradually adding warm water. Knead into a supple dough, cover and rest one hour.
- 2Onions 5 min; drain cooked lardons
Heat oven to 270°C, or its maximum. Soften onions in butter over low heat for five minutes without browning. Briefly fry lardons separately and drain.
- 3Check the stated endpoint
Mix fromage blanc and crème fraîche with topping salt, pepper and nutmeg. Roll dough 1–3 mm thick on a lightly floured surface; place on a prepared baking tray.
- 48–10 min at 270°C; longer at lower oven temperature
Spread dairy mixture, leaving a narrow rim. Add onions, lardons and rapeseed oil. Bake 8–10 minutes at 270°C until edges are golden and filling gently bubbles. Lower-temperature ovens need longer; watch those endpoints.
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