Alsatian Flammkuchen
Units
Temperature
Servings
Ingredients
Unleavened dough
- 250 g plain flour rounded
- 125 ml water rounded
- 20 g neutral oil rounded
- 5 g fine salt rounded
Method
Method
- Mix the flour, water, oil, and salt until no dry flour remains, then knead for 5 to 7 minutes until smooth. The unleavened dough weighs exactly 400 g. Cover and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes so it rolls without springing back.
- Put a baking steel or stone on the upper-middle rack and preheat the home oven at its maximum, ideally 250 to 275°C, for 45 minutes. Divide the dough into two exact 200 g portions.
- Roll one portion directly on baking paper into a 30 x 40 cm rectangle, about 1 mm thick. It should be nearly translucent and ultra-thin through the centre, with no raised pizza rim. Keep the second portion covered while the first bakes.
- Use the topping selector below for exact quantities, preparation, and before-bake and after-bake steps. Choose a Flammkuchen-compatible topping and spread it very thinly, leaving open spaces for steam. The Hohenloher Blootz option is the closest shared house route, but it is not a claim of traditional Alsatian formulation.
- Slide the paper and topped Flammkuchen onto the hot steel or stone. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes, pulling away the paper after 3 minutes if it releases easily. It is done when the base is crisp through the centre and the rim blisters dark brown. Repeat with the second 200 g portion.
- Follow the selector for any finishing ingredients. Cut immediately into rectangles and serve hot. Do not stack the pieces, because trapped steam softens the ultra-thin base.
Notes
- Baker’s percentages: plain flour 100%, water 50%, neutral oil 8%, and salt 2%. There is no yeast. The exact 400 g batch makes two 200 g sheets, each rolled to 30 x 40 cm.
- Flammekueche is the Alsatian name, Flammkuchen is German, and tarte flambée is French. The flatbread arose around the fierce heat of bread ovens in Alsace and neighbouring regions.
- This is pizza-adjacent, not an Italian pizza style. Its quick unleavened dough is rolled with a pin until ultra-thin, it has no risen rim, and crème fraîche replaces tomato sauce and mozzarella.
- The classic regional context is crème fraîche or fromage blanc, paper-thin onion, and bacon. The shared selector deliberately offers a related house adaptation rather than presenting it as the definitive traditional formula. This page teaches only the ultra-thin base and bake.
- A home oven cannot reproduce the flame and extreme heat of a traditional wood-fired bread oven. A fully heated steel or stone and two separately baked thin sheets give a crisper result than crowding one ordinary tray.
- Eat immediately. Refrigerate leftovers for up to 2 days and reheat on a bare rack at 220°C, though the base will never be quite as crisp as it was from the oven.