It's a dark photo, but then the days have been dark lately. Lots of that nasty weather moving through. But we can't let that stop a pastry project, now can we? I start with my puff pastry scrap ball (a little brain-looking thing that was previously frozen, now completely thawed). If you don't collect your own — start! Otherwise some nice flat store-bought puff pastry will do just fine.

Roll it out into a circle of whatever thickness you'd like. I'm rolling mine out as thin as I can because it's going into a brick oven at very high heat. So, the thinner the better to prevent the center from ending up soft or mushy.

Trim it up however you'd like with a pizza cutter, then dock the dough to let steam out (you don't want it puffing up very much).

Grab your pan of lightly caramelized onions...

...add your cream or crème fraîche and stir it in. Salt the mixture lightly (you'll be adding bacon to it later).

Spread it over the dough round (very thinly if you're using a brick oven, thicker if you're using a standard oven).

Then sprinkle on your blanched bacon. This is some hog jowl bacon I found here locally (Oh, Kentucky, how do I love thee...?).

Push the coals aside in your Electrolux EZ-Bake brick oven, and sweep the floor. (If you don't happen to have one of these, simply follow the standard oven instructions below).

Slip the tart onto a lightly floured peel, and jiggle it to make sure it isn't sticking.

Then slide the tart onto the floor of the oven.

It'll be ready in under two minutes, provided the oven is well heated (I'd already fired my oven for bread, which is what I baked just after this). The tart should come out blackened around the edges, which is traditional, or so I'm told. Note for brick oven users: you'll want to pick the tart up with a metal peel, not a wooden one, since there'll likely be a bit of scraping involved. Onion tarts are wetter and heavier than pizzas, so be prepared.

How did it turn out? Very well. Puff pastry, when it's cooked that fast, is bound to be at least a little underdone on the top. My guess is that puff pastry was not the original dough for onion tarts back in Alsace. They probably used a leaner bread or short crust dough of some sort, which would make a lighter, though considerably less decadent, tart.

An onion tart isn't an easy thing for me to quantify, since I generally just wait until I have a baseball-sized mass of puff pastry scraps in my freezer, then make one. I'll give it a try though.

About 10 ounces puff pastry
2-3 large onions, chopped or sliced
1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1-2 tablespoons cream or crème fraîche
2-3 ounces thick cut bacon, cubed

Preheat oven to 375. Gently cook onions in the oil over a low flame for about half hour, until they are soft, sweet and golden colored. Allow to cool. Blanch bacon for one minute in boiling water and cool. Roll the pastry out into a thin circle, remove to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and "dock" it with a fork (i.e. punch holes all over it). When oven is hot, stir the cream or crème fraîche into the onions and spread thinly over the dough circle. Sprinkle on bacon. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the dough is puffy around the edges and golden brown. Optionally, finish by employing a blowtorch to crisp the top. Serve immediately.