Flammkuchen

Ingredients

• 400 g pizza dough
• 1 onion
• 150 g bacon
• 2 tbsp sour cream or crème fraîche

Method

Roll the dough between two sheets of parchment to 1–2 mm thickness. You're aiming for something you can almost read through — this isn't focaccia. Use a bottle or your knuckles, working from the centre outward, rotating the dough a quarter turn every few passes. Don't tear it; if you do, pinch it shut. The dough needs to be thin enough that the pizza-dough base crisps rather than bread, and wide enough to cover a standard baking sheet (roughly 35 × 25 cm). Two sheets gives you two individual flammkuchen.

Peel away the top parchment and transfer the dough directly to a baking sheet lined with the bottom parchment still attached. Crank the oven to 240–260°C. Spread the sour cream in a thin, even layer — no thicker than 2 mm — across the entire surface. The cream acts as a moisture barrier, stopping the base from absorbing steam from the toppings, which keeps the flatbread crisp. Too much and you'll steam it; too little and the onion weeps into the dough.

Slice the onion into thin half-moons (roughly 3 mm) and scatter them evenly. Cut the bacon into lardons about 1 cm wide and 2 cm long — don't use bacon bits. Raw bacon will render as it bakes, fat and all, and render evenly distributed across the surface. The lardons stay distinct rather than dissolving into the cream, which is what you want for bite.

Bake for 8–12 minutes. Watch it; ovens vary. The edges should darken first — they'll turn light golden-brown where the dough catches the oven's radiant heat — and the surface will blister slightly. You're looking for the edges to be biscuit-brown and the thin parts (especially the centre) to show a little colour without being deep brown. The bacon should be crisped at the edges but still yield in the middle.

Pull it from the oven and season with fleur de sel and cracked pepper immediately. Leave it on the sheet for 1–2 minutes so it firms slightly, then slide it onto a chopping board and eat it at once. The base cools fast and loses its crispness within five minutes, so don't wait.