I don’t know what took me so long to review this, Trader Joe’s has had this in the stores for a couple of years. I did a review of the Trader Joe’s (Maitre Pierre) Tarte D’Alace a couple of years ago and it’s been one of my most viewed pages on this website. And for good reason, Trader Joe’s Tarte d’Alsace is a very high quality product that is easy to make and very delicious. I was cruising the freezer section as I do when I am looking for something I might want to eat and also something to review and realized I hadn’t reviewed this one in a while.
Here we have Trader Joe’s Tarte au Brie et aux Tomates or in English, Trader Joe’s Tart of Brie and Tomatoes. It’s another one of those pizza-like flatbread round things you bake in an oven, just like a pizza. Tarte D’Alsace aka Tarte Flambee is a pizza like concoction that is served all over eastern France near the German border.
When I visited France a few years ago, almost every restaurant in the Alsace had some version of this. The traditional one is just cheese but some have ham and mushrooms and/or tomatoes on them, but never tomato sauce and pepperoni. The crust is much thinner and more cracker like, especially around the edges. It is meant to be an appetizer or a whole meal. You could share one with someone if you had a salad or some soup and I think this is exactly what this is good for.
There are a couple of tricks to get a nice crispy bottom since the cheese and tomatoes can be quite wet. The best way to bake this is on a pizza stone if you have one, that will cook it very evenly and crispy on the bottom. Just make sure your stone has been warmed up to the proper temperature about 15 minutes before you use it.
If you don’t have a pizza stone, the next best thing is to put a baking sheet in the oven and get it warm and then put the tarte on it. You might want to put the tarte on some parchment paper first. You don’t just want to put the tarte in the oven on a cold baking sheet. When I’ve done that, it just never cooks in the middle and gets soggy.
As you can see, straight out of the box it looks pretty yummy already. I did the hot baking sheet hack to make sure I got a nice crisp bottom and it turned out great!
This whole Tarte was about 600 calories so for me that was a whole meal. The bottom and the edges turned out nice and crisp. There was a perfect blend of cheese and while I wish the tomatoes were more evenly spaced, they cooked up nicely too. I tried to move the tomatoes around but they were frozen solid so I just went with what I had. The cheese melts perfectly and the Brie gives a nice tang that is very different than your regular bland mozzarella. I ate the whole thing myself but at 600 calories, that is a meal for me. You might want to split and serve a salad or cut into smaller pieces for an appetizer!
Final Verdict
This is another amazing product by Trader Joe’s and I will always have a couple in the freezer for dinner or for when friends come over. I will rate this 9 out of 10 bells!
INGREDIENTS:
WHEAT FLOUR, WATER, CHERRY TOMATO, CREME FRAICHE (CREAM, LACTIC ACID), BRIE CHEESE (MILK, SALT, MICROBIAL ENZYME), SUNFLOWER AND/OR CANOLA OIL, WHOLE GRAIN MUSTARD (WATER, MUSTARD SEED, DISTILLED VINEGAR, SALT, WHITE WINE VINEGAR, SUGAR, SPICES), SALT, SAUCE MIX (LACTOSE, MILK PROTEINS, MODIFIED POTATO STARCH, SKIM MILK POWDER, RICE STARCH), BASIL.
CONTAINS MILK, AND WHEAT.
MAY CONTAIN EGGS.
