Flammkuchen: Easy Oktoberfest Favorite

Flammkuchen is the addictively delicious German flatbread with a unleavened crust that’s topped with creme fraiche or sour cream, bacon, and onions. It’s savory, light yet hearty enough to make a simple weeknight meal. Best yet, it could not be simpler to make.

Taste	Texture
Bacon and onion	Crisp

Active time	Total time	Yield	Difficulty
10 minutes	1 hour	24 pieces	Easy

this …

What is Flammkuchen?

Flammkuchen is a favorite appetizer that has its origins in southern Germany and the Alsace region of France. It goes by many names depending on the region (Flammekueche: Alsace, tarte flambée: France, Flammkuche: Lorraine), but the name of all of them refers to being “baked in the flames”. Flammkuchen is very popular during Oktoberfest at beer gardens, which makes sense given its crunchy saltiness that goes great with beer. Though it’s sometimes labeled German pizza on menus, the only DNA it shares with pizza is a thin crust. This labeling is a bit confusing since Flammkuchen legitimately looks like pizza.

Flammkuchen is actually a savory flatbread. Like many flatbreads, it was originally cooked on the oven floor to use up all the heat from a wood fired oven at the end of a day or at the beginning of the day to test the oven’s heat. In days before gas or electric ovens, heat from an oven was never wasted.

The thin, cracker-like crust is unleavened and is topped with creme fraiche, speck or bacon, and onions. Unlike pizza, cheese is not necessary, but no one would say no to a little addition of Gruyere or my favorite, Butterkäse. It’s savory, crunchy, salty but not too heavy, and quite easy to make at home.

Why You Should Try Flammkuchen

1. Easier than Pizza: This truly is a perfect weeknight recipe, especially if you can buy pancetta that’s already been diced up. The dough comes together in about a minute, so the only real prep work you have is to slice the onion and maybe grate the cheese if you’re using it. The dough is easier to handle than pizza and it bakes quickly.
2. Utterly Delicious: You wouldn’t necessarily think to put the things on Flammkuchen that are on this savory flatbread, but they come together in the most impossibly tasty way. Every ingredient elevates the next. This is simple cooking at its best.
3. You Don’t Need Any Special Skills: Remove from your mind any anxiety about this dish that you need to have dough twirling skills of the best pizzaiolos to make Flammkuchen. If you can roll dough, you can handle this, and I have a couple tricks to make it even easier. Flammkuchen is meant to be a little rustic and imperfect looking.

What Kind of Bacon Should I Use for Flammkuchen?

Traditionally, Speck is used, but unless you live near a German butcher or deli, you’re unlikely to find it in the US.

Use the type of bacon you have or like, or use prosciutto or pancetta. As a bacon loving American myself, I’ve used all of the above, and they all result in Flammkuchen that’s worth eating.

How to Make Flammkuchen

1. Make the Dough: Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a large well in the center of the flour and pour in the water and olive oil. Stir everything together into a rough dough, and then knead it for about 10-15 times in the bowl. Cover the dough to rest for 30 minutes.
2. Heat the Oven: While the dough is resting, heat your oven to it’s highest setting (450-500 F). If you have a pizza stone, heat up the stone inside the oven for at least 15 minutes. If you don’t have a pizza stone, flip over a sheet tray and place it on the oven rack to heat. Overturned sheet trays are actually a decent substitution for a good pizza stone!
3. Roll the Dough: Spread a little olive oil on a piece of parchment

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   paper. Divide the dough into 2 pieces. Scoop out half the dough into the middle of the paper, lightly pressing it into a rough rectangle. Top the dough with about about 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil. Roll out the dough into a rectangle as close to the size of the parchment

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   as you can get it.
4. Add the Toppings: Spread a little sour cream on top of the crust. Scatter over bacon, onions, and cheese (if you’re using it). Crack some black pepper over the top.
5. Bake the Flammkuchen: Slide the parchment onto the pizza stone (or overturned sheet pan) to bake for 5 minutes. Scrape under the pie to remove it from the paper. Slide the Flammkuchen back onto the stone and bake until the edges are brown and blistered and the bacon is crispy, about 5-7 more minutes. Top the pie with chives if you’d like and eat it immediately. Repeat the rolling, topping, and baking with the second half of dough.

Pro Tips for Making Flammkuchen

1. Roll, Don’t Stretch: Don’t expect the crazy stretchiness you get from Overnight Pizza Dough. This dough is more like a cracker, and its lack of leavening will result in a more delicate dough that needs to be rolled, not stretched. Be patient with it–it will roll out easily enough, but if it starts resisting rolling, let it rest for a minute before trying again.
2. Use a Sheet Pan as a Pizza Peel

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   : With its rectangular shape, Flammkuchen can be awkward to get into the oven. To fix this, flip over a sheet tray and slide the bread in and out of the oven, using a large spatula to help slide it on and off the pan. In a home oven, where you’re not dealing with the ultra high temps of a pizza oven (hence the long handle), a sheet pan pizza peel

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   is more than adequate. If you make these things a lot, consider investing in an awesome pizza stone from California Pizza Stones (not sponsored, I just love these people); they custom make a stone that fits your oven.
3. Cutting the Bacon: If you’re not using pre cubed pancetta (my favorite for flavor and convenience), pop your bacon into the freezer for 15 minutes. The cold will firm up the fat and make it much easier to dice the bacon.

Fun Flammkuchen Variations

1. Sweet: Top the sour cream with any thinly sliced fruit and some cinnamon sugar. Apples, pears, or plums are all good choices. You could add some Streusel and gild the lily or add a sweet cheese like Gorgonzola and walnuts.
2. Salad Flammkuchen: Use prosciutto, but add fresh arugula drizzled with balsamic vinegar dressing and coarse salt over the top when the pie comes out of the oven.
3. Smoked Salmon Bagel Flammkuchen: Spread the Flammkuchen with cream cheese, and then top it with smoked salmon and everything bagel seasoning when it comes out of the oven.
4. Asparagus and Tomato: Top the Flammkuchen with asparagus and goat cheese with the sour cream. After baking, scatter over oil-packed sundried tomatoes.

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