Grandma's rice pudding with sour cherries

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1 liter of milk
• 250 g rice pudding
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 250 g low-fat curd cheese
• 1 tsp lemon peel, grated
• 1 pinch of vanilla (bourbon vanilla) or 1 packet of vanilla sugar
• 4 eggs, separated
• 1 jar sour cherries, drained
• 1 pinch of salt
• some butter
• some cinnamon
• some sugar

Instructions

Working time approx. 25 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour 20 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 45 minutes

Bring the milk to a boil with 4 tablespoons of sugar and a pinch of salt. Stir in the rice pudding and simmer gently in an uncovered pan over low heat for about 40 minutes. Stir frequently, as the rice will thicken slightly. After the cooking time, remove the pan from the heat and let the rice pudding cool. Then add the quark, 4 egg yolks, lemon zest, and bourbon vanilla and stir in. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold in. Grease a sufficiently large casserole dish with butter. Pour half of the rice pudding into the dish and scatter the drained cherries on top. Then pour the second half of the rice pudding on top and smooth it down so that no cherries are visible. Now scatter knobs of butter over the casserole. Bake in a preheated oven on the middle rack at 180°C (top/bottom heat) for about 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the desired degree of browning. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar before serving. The casserole tastes great warm as a sweet lunch, but can also be eaten cold as a rice cheesecake with coffee. My kids absolutely love it and ask for it almost weekly.