Tarte Flambée Pizza

prep time: 15 minutescook time: 25 minutesservings: 2

Sometimes, after a long day at work or being busy doing chores, cooking can really seem like a hassle. Luckily, on those days, when you are really not in the mood to do much but still want to enjoy a nice dinner, there are some quick and easy recipes which will still help you to put some delicious food on the table.

Take this tarte flambée pizza, as I call it. This is not your tomato-base, mozzarella-topped pie you might think of, but this recipe still got cheese and is so easy to make, yet it has time and time again impressed people at dinner parties or BBQs. It can be a quick and easy weeknight dinner for 2 or a great finger food option with about 8 portions when you have people over. It takes almost no time to prep, is easily assembled and needs about 25 minutes in the oven before serving.

When you have to make it quick, store-bought dough is a great shortcut, such as shortcrust pastry or puff pastry, which can be a bit tricky and tedious to make, so using a store-bought version is just incredibly convenient. You usually find pastry sheets, rectangular or round, in the refrigerated section of your supermarket, and they are usually quite inexpensive. However, I wouldn't necessarily recommend using straight up pizza dough for this recipe.

If I make this recipe for 2 as a weeknight dinner, I prefer a shortcrust dough as the puff pastry is just a bit heavier due to the large amount of butter that is being used. However, puff pastry is oh so buttery and crunchy, making it a more luxurious food experience. So, when I serve this as an appetizer and people will have smaller portions of this, I actually prefer to use the puff pastry. Whether you get a rectangular-shaped one or a round sheet is completely up to you, but if you want to serve it as finger food, I have found that the rectangular shape is best to cut out little, even bite-sized pieces.

The first step before turning on your oven, is getting your pastry sheet out of the fridge. Giving it a bit of time to warm up will make it easier to roll out on the baking tray. Usually, these pre-prepped doughs conveniently come with parchment paper, so you do not have to worry about that. Make sure to preheat your oven. When you are using shortcrust dough put your oven to 200° Celsius and for the puff pastry up it to 220° Celsius. The bottom-top heat setting works best.

Next step, wash the apple, quarter it, core and peel. I would recommend using a tart apple, such as Granny Smith, for this recipe, as it is a nice contrast to the creaminess of the goat cheese and the sweetness of the honey. However, any apple you have at home will work fine. Cut the apple into even slices, about 3 to 4 millimetres thick and put aside. Half a white onion, peel it and slice it into very thin half circles and put aside.

Next up is the sour cream. There are different sour creams available in stores, and they vary in fat content. I would recommend not to go below 20% fat content as the cream will disintegrate in the oven. Crème fraiche with around 30% fat is a safe bet here. Put 200 g of sour cream into a bowl and mix it with a very generous pinch or two of salt, freshly ground black pepper and spices of your choice, here you are really free to do how you want. I usually put in some thyme or oregano as they go well with the goat cheese and usually a pinch of cayenne or smoked paprika as well as garlic powder. I pinch of nutmeg also goes well with the dish. You should be quite aggressive with your seasoning of the sour cream and make sure to taste it. Cut the goat cheese roll into about 8 thick slices and chop up a handful of walnuts. To add a touch of sweetness to the dish I like to use runny honey or agave syrup.

Now start of the assembling process by spreading the puff pastry sheet on a baking tray and dock the pastry by pricking it all over with a fork. Using a tablespoon, evenly spread the sour cream on the dough and then place the onion slices and apples on top. How you arrange it, is up to you but I prefer to put the onions first and apples on top.

Evenly spread out the goat cheese rounds on top and sprinkle the chopped walnuts all over. Pour the honey or agave syrup over your pizza, making sure to hit each goat cheese round with a nice dose of sweetener. Spread the rest evenly across the pizza. You can leave it as it is, or you can add some optional toppings, such as ham or lean bacon bits if you want some meat and make it nice and savoury. Instead of the apple you could also use pears.

After you assembled your pizza, put it on the lowest rack of your oven. If you are using shortcrust dough (200°), leave it for 10 minutes before transferring it onto the middle rack for another 10 to 15 minutes until it has browned to your liking. For the puff pastry (220°) leave on the lowest rack for about 20 minutes until the dough has puffed up nicely and is starting to brown. To crisp up the top and let the goat cheese caramelize put the baking tray on the second highest rack for a couple of minutes to finish it off. Let the pizza cool for a couple of minutes before serving. This can be served warm or cold and can be prepped ahead of time.

If you want to prepare this as an appetizer for a party, prep all the ingredients as described above but cut the puff pastry sheet into 8 equal pieces and assemble, leaving a 2 cm edge on all four sides. Put one slice of goat cheese roll in the middle of each little puff pastry tart. After the assembly, fold over the edges and coat it with some egg wash (for the egg wash mix one egg with a tablespoon of milk or water). Bake at 220° Celsius for 20 minutes on the lowest rack and finishing it off on the second highest rack in the oven. Whenever I took this to a party or served it as finger food at my house people would ask me for the recipe. This is definitely a recipe for those of you out there who want to show off but do not have the time to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. A guaranteed crowd pleaser that is incredibly easy to make.