‘The perfect winter snack’: how to make flammekueche

There are times in the year that call for snacks. Rather than embracing the various diets and other forms of self-flagellation that sweep over us at the start of the year, we need every joy we can get during endless January, with its dark, short days and cold nights. Right now, we are in such territory. Open those posh crisps, order the triple-cooked chips, invite joy in.

I have strong ideas about the platonic snack for winter: something hot, ideally, to accompany a glass of something cold as you while away the dark evenings. The ideal contrast between crisp and yielding, sweet and salty – something that can be picked up one-handed and is substantial enough to satisfy, but still leave you wanting more. Flamme-kueche fits the bill pretty well.

Flammekueche is a speciality of the Alsace region: a rectangle of dough, topped with onions, bacon and crème fraîche.