Recipe for Maroilles Tart

This recipe for Maroilles tart – Flamiche au Maroilles in French – is absolutely delicious.

Maroilles cheese has been made for at least 1000 years in northern France where it is nicknamed the king of the Cheeses. It was said to have first been made by a monk in the Abbey of Maroilles in the mid 10^th century though some historians claim that the recipe was known in the 7^th century. Ripened for four months, it’s a pungent (pongy) cows milk cheese with a red crust. It was a favourite of French Kings Philip Auguste (1165-1223) and Henri IV (1553- 1610), who called it “the marvel of Maroilles.” The great French food critic Curnonsky said of it: “the vehement Maroilles, king of cheeses whose thunderous flavour resonates like the sound of the saxophone in the symphony of cheeses”.

This recipe makes two tarts, just halve the ingredients if you only want one.

MAKES 2 × 9½-IN. (24-CM) TARTS

Active time: 40 minutes
Rising time: About 1 hour 10 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour

INGREDIENTS

⅓ cup (80 ml) water
⅔ oz. (20 g) fresh (cake) yeast
1 tsp superfine sugar
½ tsp salt
¼ cup (50 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
2 eggs
1⅔ cups (7 oz./190 g) all-purpose flour
2 × 7-oz. (200-g) squares Maroilles cheese
A little freshly grated nutmeg

METHOD

Heat the water until it is just lukewarm (no hotter than 115°F/46°C; about 15 seconds in a microwave). Pour it into a mixing bowl. Crumble in the fresh yeast, add the sugar and salt, and stir until dissolved.

Let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk in the olive oil. Add one egg and whisk quickly, by hand, to blend, then add the second egg and whisk even more vigorously. Add the flour and whisk it in until just smooth. Avoid over-whisking, which could make the dough dry. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Line two 9½-in. (24-cm) tart pans with parchment paper. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and place in the tart pans. Using a flexible spatula or your hands, press the dough evenly over the bases of the pans and up the sides. The dough layer will be thin, but it will rise when baked.

Remove the rinds from the sides of each Maroilles square, but leave the top and bottom rinds on. Cut the cheese into slices and arrange in a crisscross pattern over the dough, leaving a 1¼.-in. (3-cm) border. Sprinkle the tops lightly with grated nutmeg. Let rise for about 40 minutes at room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C/Gas Mark 6) on fan setting. Bake one tart at a time for about 30 minutes, or until deeply golden.

Extracted from The Complete Book of Cheese: History, Techniques, Recipes, Tips by Anne-Laure Pham and Mathieu Plantive (Flammarion, 2024).