tarte flambée — Germany

Flammkuchen, known across the border as tarte flambée, is a thin, oblong or round bread-dough base spread with a layer of soured cream or curd cheese and scattered with onions and diced bacon before baking. In its German form the dish belongs to the everyday repertoire of the Rhineland and the regions bordering Alsace, where it is said to have been used by bakers to test the heat of a wood oven before the day's bread went in. This version is reported from the German side of the upper Rhine, particularly Baden and the Palatinate, and from Basel just across the Swiss border, areas that share a dialect and a food culture with neighbouring Alsace. Restaurants and bakeries in these regions serve it as a starter or a light meal, often on market days or at wine-harvest gatherings, cut into strips and eaten with the hands. To prepare it, a lean bread dough is rolled out until almost translucent, so that it crisps rather than puffs during baking. It is covered edge to edge with soured cream or fromage blanc, then topped with thinly sliced onions and small strips of smoked bacon. The tart is slid onto a very hot oven floor or stone, where the high heat scorches the edges and sets the topping within a few minutes, giving the dish its name — cooked "in the flames" rather than beside them. What sets this German preparation apart within the wider Flammkuchen family is mainly a matter of local habit: the thickness of the cream layer, the cut of the bacon, and whether the onions are raw or lightly softened beforehand vary from one bakery to the next. Some cooks add caraway seeds to the dough or swap bacon for ham, while others keep to the plain onion-and-cream version and let the crust speak for itself.