Day Three: Flammkuchen, or Pizza the Alsatian Way

Once upon a time there was an Alsatian who wanted to bake pizza. Unfortunately, he had run out of most of the basic ingredients: he didn’t have tomatoes, he didn’t have yeast, nor cheese. But he insisted on baking pizza anyway - and invented Flammkuchen - or tarte flambée! Good for me, because I’ve run out of tomatoes and yeast as well, and the rest of our cheese is already earmarked for something else ;)

Flammkuchen is a pizza-like bread topped typically with sour cream, ham, and onions. In my veggie version, I used smoked tofu, chopped carrots and red pepper, corn, and onions. It was a good combination, but I’m so going to try with fresh tomatoes and rucola once this no grocery shopping week is over..!

Flammkuchen exists in sweet version as well. On top of my sweet Flammkuchen I spread sour cream, sour cherry jam, some sugar, and almond flakes. I was very pleased with myself for having thought of a use for my delicious cherry jam - that for some reason no-one eats! - and for the almond flakes that were left over from Christmas baking. And it tasted great as well! The traditional sweet topping would be apples, sugar, and cinnamon, and I’m planning to give that a try later, too.

One big Flammkuchen is enough for two eaters - especially if the dessert is half of a sweet Flammkuchen :)

For two big Flammkuchen you need:

• 300g flour


• 4g salt


• 2 Tbsp oil


• 125-150ml water (a bit more if you use plain flour, a bit less if not)

Salty topping:

• 150g sour cream


• 2 Tbsp water


• salt and pepper to taste


• any veggies of your liking


• smoked tofu, cut in small cubes


• onions, cut in thin rings

Sweet topping:

• 150g sour cream


• 2 Tbsp water


• 2-3 Tbsp sugar


• 150g sour cherry jam (or other jam you’d like to get rid of :) )


• a handful of almond flakes

First set your oven to 225 Celsius. Then prepare the dough: in a bowl, combine flour and salt, then add water and oil and work until it’s easy to form a ball out of the dough. Take half of the dough and roll it out on a floured work surface. Place the Flammkuchen on an oven pan covered with a parchment paper.

For the filling, combine sour cream and water (and salt and pepper for the salty version) in a bowl. Spread the mixture on the Flammkuchen. Then add the other ingredients you’ve chosen for the topping.

Bake in the oven until the edges start to get colour, or about 15 minutes. Flammkuchen is supposed to be really, really crispy, so don't underbake it!

This was a very practical dish: while we were eating the salty Flammkuchen, the sweet one was in the oven - and it was ready just in time for dessert! A Güeter!

P.S. I have no idea how this dish REALLY was invented :D