We recently checked out the Trader Joe’s Tarte aux Champignons Flatbread, and we made a startling discovery. No, the discovery wasn’t the fact that we couldn’t resist calling it a pizza over and over again, though we did learn that as well. What we learned was that this tarte was actually a product by the French brand Maître Pierre. So it makes sense that we’d later find a Maître Pierre product in the freezer aisle at Trader Joe’s.
Today, we’re checking out the Maître Pierre Tarte d’Alsace Flatbread Pizza, which is sold at Trader Joe’s. We have a feeling we’ll see this with a Trader Joe’s logo on the box at some point (as was the case with the Tarte aux Champignons), though we haven’t seen that yet.
This is actually pretty fast to cook. It just requires eight to ten minutes in the oven on a baking sheet. We’re used to frozen pizzas taking twice that long (though we keep having to remind ourselves this isn’t a pizza; it’s a tarte). Also, we should point out that we gave ours a few extra minutes (about 12 in total), so that number might be a little overly optimistic.
One of the standout features of the Tarte aux Champignons was the pastry-like crust, and that’s put to great use here as well. This has a warm, wheaty flavor and a lovely soft-yet-crispy consistency. It’s good stuff, and it works wonders for the pizza (ahem, tarte).
The sauce here is actually a crème fraîche, and it’s an astonishingly good pairing with this crust. It’s creamy with a bit of sourness to it, like an aged cheese, and it really stands out. And since it’s topped with gruyere, it brings the flavor profile together in a way that feels kind of fancy.
The toppings are caramelized onions and cuts of ham. The onions are a good pick, with a little bit of sweetness to them that contrasts nicely with the crème fraîche and gruyere
Unfortunately, we’re actually not fans of the ham. It’s alright, but there’s too much of it, we think. It hogs (see what we did there?) the flavor profile, forcing everything else into the background a bit. Since all of that other stuff is so good, and the ham is decent but not great, this ends up being a net negative. We don’t even think it should be removed entirely; we think that a reduced portion would have served this pizza well. Of course, people who can’t get enough ham are definitely going to disagree with us on this.
According to the box, there are four servings here. We think that’s ridiculous, as a single person wouldn’t have trouble polishing off this whole thing in a sitting. If you stick with the box’s recommendation, you’re looking at 140 calories (60 from fat) and 260 mg of sodium. If you do what we did and chow down the entire thing, you’re up to 560 calories (240 from fat) and 1,040 mg of sodium.
The Maître Pierre Tarte d’Alsace Flatbread Pizza is great, though we think it has a bit too much ham for our liking. Because of this, we prefer the Tarte aux Champignons to this one. Don’t get us wrong, both are delicious, but the Tarte d’Alsace is just not as good as the Tarte aux Champignons in our opinion.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this flatbread tarte, check out our package scans below.
this is tasty, i cut up onions and throw them on there and when it’s done olive oil salt and pepper.
how do you get the center of the crust crisp; it’s always soggy on mine.
Cooked half the time on a pan and the last half on the rack directly. Perfectly crisp. Total cooktime about 13 minutes.