Tarte Flambée

Name: Tarte Flambée
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: french
Ingredients: 1/4 cup crème fraîche; 1/3 cup fromage blanc; 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg; 1 teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste; Freshly ground black pepper, to taste; 7/8 cup/110 grams all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting; 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder; 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil; 1 large egg yolk; 2 strips/100 grams thick-cut smoked bacon, finely diced (about 2/3 cup); 1/3 cup finely chopped white onion

Recipe from Gabriel Kreuther

Adapted by Melissa Clark

Tarte Flambée — Francesco Tonelli for The New York Times

Total Time: 40 minutes
Rating: 4(208)
Comments: Read comments

Traditionally, this onion and bacon tart was a baker’s treat made from dough scraps leftover from bread baking. The scraps were rolled out, topped with raw onion, bacon and fromage blanc (a soft, yogurtlike cheese) and baked until the dough puffed and the onions singed at the edges. Now you’re as likely to find this savory tart at a restaurant or coming straight from someone’s kitchen as at a bakery. This version, adapted from the chef Gabriel Kreuther, uses a biscuitlike crust made with baking powder instead of the usual yeasted dough. Since you don’t have to let the dough rise, you can have a tarte flambée on the table in under 45 minutes. Serve this as an appetizer, a light main course, or for an unusual brunch offering. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master. —Melissa Clark

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Ingredients

Yield:8 servings

¼cup crème fraîche
⅓cup fromage blanc
⅛teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
⅞cup/110 grams all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1½teaspoons baking powder
1½teaspoons olive oil
1large egg yolk
2strips/100 grams thick-cut smoked bacon, finely diced (about ⅔ cup)
⅓cup finely chopped white onion

Ingredient Substitution Guide

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Preparation

Step 1
If you have a pizza stone, place it on the middle rack of your oven, top with a baking sheet, and heat the oven to 425 degrees. (If you don’t have a stone, just place the baking sheet on the oven rack).
Step 2
In a medium bowl, combine crème fraîche, fromage blanc, nutmeg, ½ teaspoon salt and the pepper. Set aside while you make the dough.
Step 3
In a separate medium bowl, whisk to combine flour, baking powder and remaining ½ teaspoon salt. In a small bowl, whisk to combine olive oil, egg yolk and ¼ cup water. Add to dry ingredients and use a fork to combine until it creates a shaggy dough.
Step 4
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 1 minute, until the dough is uniform and elastic. (Flour your hands as necessary to keep the dough from sticking.) Roll out to a 12-inch round, then transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet without a rim (or use an overturned rimmed baking pan).
Step 5
Spread fromage blanc mixture evenly over the dough, leaving a ½-inch border along the edges. Sprinkle bacon and onions over fromage blanc. Slide tart, still on parchment paper, off baking sheet and directly onto baking sheet in oven.
Step 6
Bake until top is beginning to brown, and sides are golden and crispy, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and slide off parchment paper to serving platter. Serve warm.

Ratings

4 out of 5

208 user ratings

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Comments

Todd6 years ago

Classic responses to your recipes that I'll never understand: I didn't have the fromage blanc, so I used ketchup, and all that flour seemed messy so I used left over mashed potatoes. It seemed to bake unevenly and was never quite crisp enough to cut. or This was delicious. Made it exactly as you instructed but, instead of crème fraîche, I used mozzarella. Also, we had no onions, so I used mushrooms. The bacon seemed unnecessarily fatty and so I skipped that and added celery for crunch.

EW6 years ago

Classic is right. “I made a dish that didn’t resemble the original recipe in any way, however I felt compelled to write a review” How ketchup is a substitute for fromage blanc in anyone’s mind is well beyond my powers of imagination

Jasmine 6 years ago

I skipped making the dough and purchased a frozen puff pastry one, thawed it out, then rolled it to double the size and pierced with a fork a bunch of times. Quick tip my chef in France taught me! I couldn’t find fromage Blanc so I went with marscapone. This was marvelous. So little effort, a big crowd pleaser.

quaas2 weeks ago

Excellent. Added some mushrooms.

emily1 month ago

We spent part of our honeymoon in Alsace and fell in love with the crisp, dry Rieslings that pair so well with this light meal/snack - which is rich but not overpowering or heavy in the stomach. I was disappointed in this recipe! Perhaps it’s because I doubled the dough, but I found it dry and cracker-like, not at all like the springy crusts we had in France which feel so much closer to bread than pizza. No fromage blanc in the Canadian prairies, and crème fraiche is hard to find in a regular supermarket, so I tried cream cheese mixed with buttermilk for tang. Found it to be close enough to the original - but would have added a bit more nutmeg in hindsight! Partially cooked the bacon in the pan before putting it on the tarte and baking, no idea how it could cook properly in such a short bake time otherwise.

Yaune5 months ago

1/3 cup creme fraiche = 78 gram

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