Chef Klaus
Bauernbrot
The farmhouse loaf that made sense of a weekly oven firing: rye for keeping, wheat for lift, sourdough for the crumb, and a dark crust that earns its crack.
Culinary Explorer
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Badische Dinnele
Created by
The Baden flatbread that keeps its bread body: sour cream, onion, and Speck on a yeast dough baked hard and hot until the edges blister.
Breads
German
Weeknight
Outdoor Dining
Potluck
25 min
Active Time
12 min cook•1 hr 45 min total
Yield4 flatbreads
Badische Dinnele belongs to the southwest, especially Baden and the Kaiserstuhl wine country, where it sits well on a weeknight table and even better outside with a glass of local white wine. It is the thicker cousin of Flammkuchen, not a copy of it. Across the Rhine in Alsace and up through the Palatinate they argue for a thin, crackling Flammkuchen; in Baden and Swabia the Dinnele, or Dinnete, keeps a small bread chew and a stronger rim. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders, and here the argument happens within sight of the vineyards.
The technique that decides it is heat. The dough is yeast dough, but it must be rolled thin enough to bake through before the sour cream wets it, and the oven must be very hot so the base sets fast while the onions soften and the Speck gives up its fat. Bake it gently and you get pale bread under dairy. Bake it hard and the edge blisters, the bottom firms, and the topping stays creamy instead of soaking down.
Use Schmand or a thick sour cream, not a loose sauce from a tub that runs like milk. Nicht aus dem Glas. Slice the onions thin, because thick onion stays raw while the dough is already done, and cut the Speck small so its fat seasons the cream instead of sitting in rubbery strips. That is the whole dish: flour, dairy, onion, cured pork, and enough heat. Schön ist, was schmeckt.
Dinnele, also called Dinnete in Swabian areas, comes from the Alemannic bread-oven belt of Baden, Württemberg, and nearby Alsace, where small flatbreads were baked around the main bread firing to use the hot oven and test its heat. The related Flammkuchen takes its name from the flames of the wood oven, and the regional split still shows at the table: Alsace and the Palatinate favour a very thin tart, while Baden and Swabia keep a thicker yeast-dough fladen. On the Kaiserstuhl, the dish became tied to wine festivals and new wine, a practical oven bread turned into vineyard food.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
bread flour or strong plain flour
Quantity
500g
instant yeast or fresh yeast
Quantity
7g instant / 21g fresh
lukewarm water
Quantity
300ml
neutral oil or melted lard
Quantity
2 tablespoons
fine salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon
Schmand, crème fraîche, or thick sour cream
Quantity
250g
quark or full-fat Greek yogurt
Quantity
100g
egg yolk
Quantity
1
freshly grated nutmeg
Quantity
a pinch
black pepper
Quantity
to taste
freshly ground
onions
Quantity
2 medium
very thinly sliced
smoked Speck or streaky bacon
Quantity
150g
cut into small lardons
chives (optional)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
chopped
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| bread flour or strong plain flour | 500g |
| instant yeast or fresh yeast | 7g instant / 21g fresh |
| lukewarm water | 300ml |
| neutral oil or melted lard | 2 tablespoons |
| fine salt | 1 teaspoon |
| Schmand, crème fraîche, or thick sour cream | 250g |
| quark or full-fat Greek yogurt | 100g |
| egg yolk | 1 |
| freshly grated nutmeg | a pinch |
| black pepperfreshly ground | to taste |
| onionsvery thinly sliced | 2 medium |
| smoked Speck or streaky baconcut into small lardons | 150g |
| chives (optional)chopped | 1 tablespoon |
Equipment Needed
- •Baking stone or heavy baking tray
- •Rolling pin
- •Baking parchment or pizza peel
Instructions
- 1
Mix the dough
Mix the flour, yeast, lukewarm water, oil or lard, and salt into a soft dough, then knead for 8 to 10 minutes until smooth. The water should feel warm, not hot, because heat that feels sharp to your finger weakens the yeast before it can lift the dough.
- 2
Let it rise
Cover the dough and leave it until doubled, about 60 to 75 minutes. Das braucht seine Zeit. The dough must ferment enough to give a light bread chew, but not so long that it collapses and bakes flat and sour.
- 3
Heat the oven
Put a baking stone or heavy tray in the oven and heat it to 250C, or as hot as your oven honestly goes, for at least 30 minutes. The stone stores heat, so the base sets before the sour cream can soak into the dough.
- 4
Make the cream
Stir the Schmand, quark, egg yolk, nutmeg, and plenty of black pepper together until thick and spoonable. Add only a small pinch of salt, if any, because the Speck will season the topping as its fat renders.
- 5
Shape the fladen
Divide the dough into 4 pieces and roll each one into a thin oval, about 3mm in the centre with a slightly thicker edge. Keep the middle thin because the topping sits there; leave a rim because Baden Dinnele is not the paper-thin Alsatian tart.
Roll on baking parchment if you don't use a peel. You can slide the whole sheet onto the hot tray, and you won't lose half the topping on the way to the oven. - 6
Top lightly
Spread a thin layer of the cream over each oval, stopping short of the rim, then scatter with onion and Speck. Do not bury the dough. Too much topping turns a flatbread into a wet casserole, and nobody asked for that.
- 7
Bake hard
Slide each Dinnele onto the hot stone or tray and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the rim is blistered and golden, the underside is firm, and the Speck has glossy edges. Runter mit der Temperatur is good for a roast, not here; this one wants fierce heat and no dithering.
- 8
Finish and serve
Scatter with chives if you like, cut into strips, and serve at once while the base still has bite. Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss: taste one piece before adding more salt, because smoked pork gets louder after the bake.
Chef Tips
- •Use Schmand if you can get it. It is thicker than ordinary sour cream, so it sits on the dough instead of running into it.
- •Slice the onions very thin. They only get ten or twelve minutes in the oven, so thick half-moons stay sharp and raw while the bread is already finished.
- •Speck trim is welcome here. Cut it small and let the fat season the cream. Weggeworfen wird nichts.
- •A baking stone helps, but a heavy tray heated hard will do the job. What matters is stored heat under the dough.
Advance Preparation
- •The dough can be mixed the night before and left covered in the refrigerator. Bring it back toward room temperature for 45 minutes before rolling, or it will fight you.
- •The cream topping can be stirred together up to a day ahead. Keep the onions and Speck separate until baking, because salted pork pulls water from the onion and makes the topping wet.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 330g)
Calories
885 calories
Total Fat
41 g
Saturated Fat
17 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
24 g
Cholesterol
125 mg
Sodium
1260 mg
Total Carbohydrates
100 g
Dietary Fiber
5 g
Sugars
6 g
Protein
26 g
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