I don’t know how this happened. Marty is from Germany, and I am a lover of all things from France, and yet, we never heard of flammkuchen until early last year. The direct translation is “flame cake” or “pie cooked in flames.”
We have a wholesale restaurant account in Greenwich, NY, not far over the New York border. The restaurant is called Elsasser’s Beim 111. A year and a half ago, the chef & owner, Chris, contacted us and wanted to use our spätzle on his Germanic food menu.
That’s another thing we never heard of either; Germanic food. Chris’ new restaurant serves flammkuchen, many kinds of brats, and different dinner specials weekly. We have made deliveries to his place but have never eaten there since we are there at weird times of the day.
Lately, I’ve been watching a cooking and travel series on BBC television with Chef Rick Stein. I like Chef Stein’s approach to food and travel; it’s different from others I’ve watched in the past. He uses literature, history, and art to describe or tell about an area and the food.
I am watching Rick Stein’s “Secret France” series, and of course, I love it. On this food adventure, he takes you to hidden food treasure stops, not tourist trap restaurants or even places in big cities in France. These gems are where the locals eat, and the chefs cook with their souls using whatever fruits, nuts, vegetables, meats, and dairy is right around them.
When Chef Stein was in the Alsace region of France, he made flammkuchen. He called it Tarte Flambée because he was in France. The Alsace region went back and forth between Germany and France and thus created Germanic cuisine. Huh, now I know.
Flammkuchen is a German/French pizza with a very thin crust and is topped with creme frâiche, thinly sliced onions, bacon, or lardons, which are thick chunks of bacon, sometimes with Swiss or Gruyere, grated nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
How could we not of heard of this type of pizza before? Flammkuchen was originally made by German farmers who made bread once a week. To test the temperature of their wood-fired oven, they would scrap aside the embers and throw in a thin piece of dough that should be cooked in a minute or two if the temperature is correct.
The farmers later began topping their “test” dough and had themselves a nice lunch or snack. The rest is flammkuchen history, you might say.
After watching Chef Stein make his tarte flambée or flammkuchen, I knew I needed to make it too. I found his recipe online, see the link above, and decided to make the one I just watched him make. Unlike pizza crust, it is an unleavened dough that doesn’t contain yeast. Of course, I made a gluten-free version.
You must use creme frâche for flammkuchen, which cannot be substituted with sour cream because it is too sour. Creme frâiche has a less sour and almost nutty taste. I decided to make my own since it seemed easy enough.
When I looked at creme frâiche recipes, I saw it takes a minimum of 24 hours to make. Besides time, the recipe only calls for two ingredients, heavy cream, and buttermilk or sour cream.
I used a glass measuring cup and added a cup of heavy cream with three tablespoons of sour cream. I covered it with a towel and let it sit for 24 hours at room temperature.
It was like a science experiment as I kept checking the consistency and smell. As I watched it thicken, I saw the chemical reaction of the butterfat and bacterial culture turn into creme frâiche. No thickening agents are permitted in creme frâiche; this is serious business in Europe, so I used the word permitted above.
The creme frâiche had a consistency of a firmer whipped cream with a slightly tangy and nutty flavor. It was nothing like whipped cream or sour cream; it had its own flavor. This was my first time trying it.
I used regular bacon since I had no lardons on hand, which I sautéed a bit before adding to the flammkuchen. I sliced onion on my mandolin so I could get paper-thin slices. I grated some Swiss cheese and grabbed my nutmeg rasp (grater) and whole nutmeg.
I made the dough and rolled it out on parchment paper. I slathered on the creme frâiche and then topped it with the sautéed bacon pieces, thinly sliced onions, a small amount of Swiss cheese, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
It looked weird going into the oven but immediately started smelling delicious. When I pulled the flammkuchen out of the oven, I couldn’t wait to try some.
Ok, this surprised me; it was my best bite of 2022 so far this year! It was that good. It has a different texture than pizza, and the combination of ingredients was a home run! Marty and Sam loved it as much as I did. Holy shit, it was good!
The next day, I told Marty I couldn’t stop thinking about the flammkuchen. When Sam woke up, he said the same thing to me, “I don’t know why but I keep thinking about that flammkuchen.” He loves the same type of food as I do and is also a foodie, always thinking about food.
I just looked at the menu at our customer’s place, Elsassers Beim 111, and the menu looked delicious and reasonably priced. It is right on Main Street in Greenwich, NY. 111 Main Street, to be exact. His flammkuchen looks delicious! Now I know how you can have an entire restaurant concept centered around flammkuchen. Chris makes a traditional flammkuchen along with several different types of toppings.
Today, I made a second batch of creme frâiche. I used a creamer warmer that I got from a couple of friends of mine, MJ and Stephanie. They didn’t know what to do with it, but now I do! It’s my new handy-dandy creme frâiche maker, and I love the look and design of it.
Flammkuchen has been requested over the weekend; they don’t care when or with what; they just want it. I do too! Trust me; it’s that good! yum!