Alsatian Bacon & Onion Tarte Flambée

Tarte Flambée is an Alsatian dish, specialty of the Alsace region in France. It is the French version of pizza, and can be served as an appetizer, main dish or even for breakfast. We discovered this tasty dish while eating at the French restaurant Patisserie Amie in Traverse City, MI. We heard about this restaurant and tried it for breakfast while vacationing. If you go, and we highly suggest you do, expect to wait at least 30-45 minutes to be seated. It is definitely worth the wait. I ordered the Tarte Flambée with a sunny-side-up egg and it was so delicious that I have had it every time we go to this restaurant. So, I said to Leigh ‘I can make that.’ I did not have access to Patisserie Amie’s recipe so I set out to recreate this dish at home.


Tarte Flambée

Ingredients

  • 12 cup crème fraîche
  • 1 cup fromage blanc or cream cheese at room temperature
  • 18 tsp. nutmeg, freshly grated
  • 1 tsp. kosher salt, plus more to taste
  • Freshly ground white pepper, to taste
  • 8 strips smoked bacon, finely chopped
  • 1 medium white onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 cups flour, plus more for dusting
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 3/4 tsp. salt
  • 2/3 cup of lukewarm water
  • 1-1/2 tsp. instant yeast
  • 3 tbsp. olive oil
  • 2-4 Eggs, if serving for breakfast

Tarte Flambée Ingredients

Intructions

  • Heat an oven to 500° with a pizza stone positioned on center rack.
  • Mix crème fraîche, fromage blanc, nutmeg, and salt and white pepper in a bowl. Set aside.
  • Whisk yeast and lukewarm water together in a medium bowl until yeast dissolves.
  • Whisk flour, baking powder, and 1 tsp. salt in a bowl; make a well in the center.
  • Whisk oil into the yeast and water and pour into well. Using a fork, stir until a loose dough forms.
  • Turn out onto lightly floured surface; knead dough for 1 minute.
  • Divide dough into 3 pieces. Working with 1 piece of dough at a time, roll into a 12″ circle, and place on a parchment paper—lined baking sheet.
  • Spread 12 cup cheese mixture over circle, leaving a 12” border around edge.
  • Sprinkle with a little of the bacon and onions.
  • Transfer dough (on parchment paper) to pizza stone.
  • Bake until lightly browned and crispy, 8–10 minutes. Repeat.
  • Note: This can also be prepared by dividing dough into 9 pieces to make it as individual appetizers.


Tarte Flambée is best right out of the oven, buy can easily be reheated later or next morning for breakfast. I hope that you enjoy, Bon Appétit!

4th Annual Hunt Christmas Cook Off!

2018 Family Christmas Picture

Merry Christmas! Once again we had our Annual Christmas Cook Off – This tradition started out as a fun way to get everyone’s involvement in meal preparation when we rented a cottage near Traverse City, MI, between Christmas and New Years a few years back. Throw in some prize money and everyone loved the idea.

‘This years cook off had each couple prepare three dishes, typically an appetizer, entrée and a dessert, but not required. We kicked it up a notch this year and added a theme/specialty drink from each of the teams. After all the dishes are prepared (sort of, some still in preparation) each type of dish would be presented by all the teams to the other participants and voted on for taste/aroma and appearance/presentation. Leigh’s mom (Grandma) did not participate in the preparation, but was a highly sought after vote in the competition.

The voting was done after all dishes and drinks were tasted. We have a slightly over complicated score sheet, that is then entered into a spreadsheet and tabulated to determine the winner for each category and the overall winner. This year, it was yet another close competition with the difference in scoring being less than five points between 1st place and 4th.

Enough talk… here are some pictures of the dishes and all of us enjoying Christmas Eve 2018 together.

The Teams

Tom & Leigh Hunt (T&L)
Thom & Erica Hunt (T&E)
Nathan & Libby Boot (N&L)
  John Hunt & Abby Miller (J&A)

The Appetizer Round!

The Entrée Round

Dessert Time!

Specialty Theme Drink!

We hope that you enjoyed this post and we will be sharing some of these recipes in the weeks and months to come. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!