This German "Pizza" Tastes Amazing

Say it again. Flammkuchen. Say it a bit louder. Kuchen. No, just say it a bit louder. Flammkuchen. Is delicious. It's a thin, crusty, flatbread-type dough that is topped with back, which is bacon, creme fraiche, lots of onions, and baked in a hot oven. So it can be on the table, start to finish in 30 minutes. But how good is it? Yeah, it's very good. Very, very, very good. Not necessarily full meal, but I think I ate the whole tray. You did, darling. I did. You did. You didn't? We had one each. You didn't? I did too. Oh, there you go. And you know what's so wonderful about it? It converts our maize into gluten-free. So today I made one for Mike, non-gluten-free, and one for me, gluten-free. And this is how I did it. Thanks, Mike. You're welcome. So I'll start with the toppings because it's really quick once you make the dough. It's straight into the hot oven. And you'll need one large onion per flam kuchen. All you want to do for these is just slice them into very thin half-moon slices. So not too thick at all, really thin. These ones are like a medium onion. I'm just using one and a half of them. But I've got two bowls of onions because I'm making two flam kuchens. The recipe calls for speck, or you could use bacon. It's the same sort of thing. Speck is like a cured ham. And you can buy it at Aldi's. It's the cheapest place. And you'll need 150 grams of streaky bacon or speck. And that's like a 400-gram piece, so probably about that much. And I just remove the rind. If you're using bacon or speck, you'll want to just cut it into thin strips. And you'll end up with about that much. I'm super impressed with this gluten-free flatbread dough. So all you need to do into a bowl is put 200 grams of gluten-free flour. And, you know, I like to sift it. And it just gives it a little bit of a lighter crust. A half a teaspoon of salt goes into the bowl. And this is optional, but it's my safeguard when I do any gluten-free baking. And it's one teaspoon of psyllium husk. Not the powder, just the husk. And I'll just mix the flour, the salt, and the psyllium husk together. So in this little jug, I have a half a cup of water, which is 125 ml. And to it, I'm going to add one teaspoon of vinegar. And I'm just using the white wine vinegar, but white vinegar, apple cider vinegar will work as well. And two tablespoons of olive oil. Or you can just use a neutral flavoured oil. Any oil you like, actually. And then all I do is add the oil, the water, and the vinegar to the flour mixture. And it will come together like that. Now you might need a little bit more water. So on a lightly floured surface, tip it out and see how it feels. This one feels really good. Feels nice and soft and pliable. Now, gluten-free dough can benefit from a little bit of a rest. And, you know, lets the time for the psyllium husk to absorb. But seriously, I don't really think this one needs it. So what I do now is try and roll this out as thin as I can. The thinner, the better. Oops. It is gluten-free, so it's not as easy to work with as gluten flours. However, I've found this works really well. So I roll it out as much as I can. Without it falling apart. And then I unroll it onto a sheet of baking paper. Now you'll need a big tray. So what I'm going to do now is make sure it will fit the tray. And try and get it into like a rectangular shape. And that might mean you have to fold over the edges a little bit and re-roll it. And it's a really hot day today. And this pastry, or well, this flatbread is still behaving okay. But I want it as thin as possible. And this is the size of my tray, which it has to fit on. So I'm just going to roll it a bit more. And you want it a little bit thinner in the middle. Oh, I can make it a little bit bigger. I like to try and fill the whole tray just a little bit bigger. So that's right to go on the tray. But I don't put it on the tray yet because when I go to bake it, I preheat the oven really hot and I leave the tray in the oven. So it's just an extra little bit of boost to make the crust as crispy as possible. And I'm going to make it as thin and crispy as I can. I hope that all makes sense. So I'll set that aside for a moment. So I've just made the gluten-free one here. So excuse the mess. Slightly different measurements for the non-gluten-free one. So into a bowl, I place 250 grams of just all-purpose plain flour. Not necessary to sift it, but I just think it makes a little bit of a lighter crust. And a half a teaspoon of salt. Give that a little stir just to distribute the salt through the flour. Then into the jug, I have measured a half a cup, which is 125 mils of water, to which I add two tablespoons of olive oil, or you could use a different oil. And one teaspoon of vinegar. I'm just using a white wine vinegar, but white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, they all work. And the vinegar just helps it, the crust color a little bit, and also helps it get a little bit more crispy. And then I just add that to the flour. And you may need more water depending on your flour. And I think I need just a drop more water. And the best way to determine if you need more liquid is just to tip it out and bring it all together. And just knead it for a few minutes. Well, I just knead it until it goes smooth, actually. But you don't need too much more water. I'm feeling that's pretty good. Feels good enough to roll. Now, when you roll it out, you want to get it as thin as possible. And roll it into as large a sheet as you can that will fit on your tray. Your oven tray. And this doesn't need to rest. It's actually better if it doesn't. So roll it out. Then we put on the toppings and we put it in the hot oven. I just want to get it to a size that will fit my big tray and still look neat. So I sort of try and make it into a rectangle. Such an easy dough to work with. If you had a pizza oven, then these would be brilliant in a pizza oven. Now, this is the size of my tray, and I want to fill it thinner and bigger. That looks pretty good to me. Nice and rustic. So because I'm filming, I have to adjust the cameras and that, but normally I would preheat my oven before I even start this because you need a very hot oven. It needs to be 230 degrees Celsius with a fan or 250 degrees Celsius without a fan. And what I like to do is put the tray in the oven while it's heating up so I get a really hot tray that I put the flatbread on with the toppings. So it gives it that head start to get a crispy base. And the middle of the oven is the best I've found. So I've had a quick cleanup for the camera and I've got the gluten-free one here and the non-gluten-free. I'm going to cook them separately because I just think that they cook better in the middle of the oven by themselves. And the gluten-free one, it doesn't matter if it rests. So what I have here is a tub of creme fraiche and creme fraiche has that beautiful tangy taste. Now I'll just put my glasses on and this is a 200 ml tub of creme fraiche and you'll need the whole tub for each flatbread. And just spread that all over the flatbread, every last bit. Now, you know, I suppose you could sub sour cream but creme fraiche has just got this beautiful taste and seeing it's only three ingredients on the top, I think you need to stick with creme fraiche, just my opinion. And then very important, what goes on next, I don't really count it as an ingredient but is a good sprinkle of salt and as much or as little pepper as you please. Then I get the speck or bacon if you're using and sprinkle that over and then the onion and I probably chopped up too much onion, also known as swiebel in Germany. My German's really bad but I know a lot of cooking terms. And then I get the really hot tray out of the oven and usually Mike helps me with this but he's outside. I'll get him. One, two, three. Beautiful, thank you. Back with you the other day. Yes, that's right. And now I'll do the gluten-free one which is exactly the same topping. I asked Mike the other day, I said, do you think this is sufficient for dinner? And he said, if we had one each. So that's why I have got this whole gluten-free one to myself and Mike has got the gluten one. And you know, I live by the 80-20 rule. 80% healthy and 20%, you know, let your hair down and I've been saving up my 20% all week so I can eat this today because it's just so delicious. It's my double onion gluten-free one. That looks beautiful. And I'll put the tray in to warm up for the gluten-free one just a little bit. Absolutely optional but I happen to have some chives. Just a light sprinkling of chives will give it that pop of colour. So that had 17 minutes in my oven. All ovens are a little bit different so you just have to check them. But when it's brown like that around the edges, it's a good indication it's ready. And it's nice and crunchy. And this is all for Mike. And look at that. It's golden underneath. Can you see that? It's just absolutely delicious and super easy. Yeah, I think that's ready. And that's the gluten-free flam kuchen. Look at that. A thin, thin crisp bread. That's gluten-free. Eat chives if you've got them, if you want them. Just as delicious without them. I really encourage you to try this at least once. It is so yum. For what it is, it's simple and seriously, you can have it on the table within 30 minutes. I think we're gonna start having Friday flam kuchen nights. Thank you so much for watching. I hope, I really hope you try this one and I hope to see you again soon. And I actually found this recipe in the gluten-free cookbook that my mother-in-law sent me from Germany and it is all in German. But I have heard of this before and so there it is, I made it. And I was so excited about it that I've made it a couple of times in less than a week. No, it's not flam, flam. Flam kuchen. Kuchen. No. Let's move on.