hi all! はじめまして！ i’m janet, and this is my first post on this journal (though i’ve been lurking around here for quite some time =P). i’m a friend of kookie’s, whom i met back in september ’08 when i was doing my practicum in saarbrücken =) i’m living in vancouver at the moment, and i’m not a Ph.D student (i’m not even a Master’s student…yet), but i DO love food and writing about it, so here’s my first (of hopefully many) contribution to this journal!
i dunno why i was suddenly inspired to make German food (maybe it has something to do with the fact that Silke finally replied to my email from a a month ago!), but i decided that i should try to make flammkuchen, since i really missed it. i also made blueberry pie – the local white spot makes a delicious one that mines is based off of – because it’s been blistering hot here, and blueberries were on sale (and if there are two foods that i think define vancouver, they’re fresh fruits and lots of seafood) =)
Flammkuchen (makes 4)
1 pkg dry yeast (8g)
2 tsp sugar
200ml lukewarm water
10g salt
500g wheat flour
200g quark (40%)
4 Tbsp creme fraiche
150g smoked bacon
1 large onion
1 egg yolk
nutmeg
salt, ground pepper
1. Dissolve yeast in sugar and water. Mix dry ingredients for dough together and pour the yeast into a well in the middle. Knead until smooth and let rest in a warm place for 30 min.
2. Mix the creme fraiche, quark, and egg yolk together, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
3. Cook bacon and onions (don’t fry).
4. Roll out dough very thinly and prick furiously with fork =)
5. Top with quark, then bacon and onions.
6. Bake in a very hot oven (425F) for 10-15 minutes until the edges start to burn.
7. Remove and serve hot!
it’s probably me, but every time i try to make yeast dough, it never works out for me. it probably also had something to do with the fact that i rolled it out far too thick, but the flammkuchen was rather bready, and didn’t have that nice thin-ness to it =( i’ll probably use flaky pastry next time (i don’t ever seem to have trouble making that, and i never even follow a recipe). i also forgot to season it with salt and pepper, and added WAY too much bacon, lol!
blueberry pie
2 lb fresh blueberries
lots of sugar
water
pie crust
1. boil sugar, water, and a few blueberries (for colour) until the mixture becomes relatively thick (make sure you don’t boil it for too long, though, otherwise it’ll become hard candy – see below!)
blueberries encased in hardened sugar – pretty, but doesn’t really work for the pie…=(
2. Bake pie shell according to directions.
3. Coat blueberries in syrup and fill pie crust.
it can be served with fresh whipped cream, like at white spot, or ice cream, but it’s also pretty good on its own =) once you have blueberry pie with whole blueberries in it, you’ll never go back to the jam-y kind =S
PhooD Journal 
aaach Flammkuchen! I saw this on your FB photo page and I was hoping you’d write something about it.
That messed up glazed blueberry looks like a piece of artwork.
Kathrin said you shouldn’t use yeast for the dough. Blätterteig is the best one to use for homebaked flammkuchen.
yea, i figured as much…it’s really hard to roll out yeast dough thin enough =S i will keep that in mind next time i try to make it (which probably won’t be until i go to Germany)!
ooooh, blueberries!!! one of my favorite non-tropical fruits! i love it that you did not scrimp on it for the filling.
and the hardened blueberries can stand in for candied fruit. 😀
i have loads of blueberries at home – every drawer in the fridge has a bag or carton of blueberries XD
i tried eating the hardened blueberries, but i cut my fingers trying to break it into edible pieces! =)
“…and added WAY too much bacon, lol!…”
But bacon makes everything better, doesn’t it? 🙂
it looks delish!