As it's my second easter holiday in Switzerland I thought it would be time to bake the traditional easter rice tartletts, better known as "Osterchüechli" in swiss german or "Osterküchlein" in german. Literally translated it simply means "little easter cake". The base of this tartletts is a standard short crust pastry with a rice pudding filling and raisins. When you're in Switzerland you can buy these even in supermarkets and in almost every bakery.

Here's the recipe:

110 g cake flour (plain)
50 g butter
1 small egg yolk
1 pinch of salt

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2 tbl fine bread crumbs

Mix the ingredients quickly with your fingers until you can form a ball. You can either chill the dough now or try to roll it out and line 4 small buttered tart moulds (10 cm diameter) with the dough. Then chill the tartletts for at least 10 minutes.

For the filling:

1/2 vanilla pod (cut open)
350 ml milk
40 rice (for rice pudding)
30 g raisins
25 g semolina
50 g sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 generous pinch of salt

Confectioner's sugar for dusting
12 sugar eggs

Bring the milk and the vanilla pod to a boil. Add the rice and let it cook for about 10 minutes. Don't forget to stir from time to time to prevent the milk from burning. Then add the raisins, semolina and sugar. Cook for a further 15 minutes on low temperature. The mixture has a thick consistency. Add two egg yolks.
Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt. Gently incorporate the egg whites into the rice mixture.
Get the tartletts out of the fridge. Pinch the base several times with a fork. Sprinkle the bread crumbs evenly on the pastry base. Fill in the filling and bake in a preheated oven (180° C) for 30 minutes. Check after 20 or 25 minutes to be sure not to overbake the cakes. Transfer the tartletts to a wire rack and let them cool. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar and decorate with small sugar eggs.

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