If you fancy a change from pizza or are thinking brunch with friends from the wood-fired oven would be a great way to start the weekend, try this Flammkuchen – thin, crispy and full of flavour. If you don’t eat meat, no problem – you can also used roast sliced field mushrooms instead of the bacon lardons which give a delicious and darkly savoury hit.

Ingredients

250g ‘00’ flour

5g fine sea salt

3g fast acting yeast

15ml olive oil

150ml warm water

1 medium red or white onion, peeled and very thinly sliced

90g smoked bacon lardons cut very small

120ml crème fraiche

Salt and pepper

Method

1. Get your oven good and hot with a bed of embers on one side, flames coming over the top of the oven and the floor cleaned – just a little cooler than for pizzas. Have a stack of small pieces of kiln-dried wood chopped up in advance so you can add them to the fire as 

needed to keep the temperature up; small pieces of kindling give you much more manageability with the fire than great big, uncut logs.

2. Mix together the flour, yeast, salt, water and oil. Knead for 10 minutes to get a smooth dough. Leave in a clean bowl and cover until well risen and puffy – about 2 hours.

3. Divide the dough into two and roll out to get two 30cm squares. Put one of the dough squares on to a well-floured peel.

4. Spread half the crème fraiche on the top all the way to the edges and scatter over half the red onion slices and half the bacon lardons

5. Sprinkle over a little salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper

6. Place the flammkuchen on to the oven base and bake in the hot oven for 3 minutes until the base is cooked through, turning it round in the oven halfway through the cooking time so the side closest the door is closer to the fire. Repeat with the other dough square and the rest of the ingredients.

This is one of our recipes from our Woodfired Flatbreads & Pancakes book so check that out on Amazon for more delicious recipes and ideas.