käsefladen — Switzerland

Käsefladen is an open, single-layer cheese tart: a thin sheet of pastry or bread dough is spread with a savoury custard built from eggs, cream and grated cheese, then baked until the top puffs and colours. The word itself simply combines 'cheese' with 'fladen,' a flat, round baked item found across German-speaking regions. It is reported from Switzerland, where flat, open tarts of this kind sit alongside other regional bakes built on a shared idea of a thin base carrying a rich topping, prepared at home and in bakeries for a light meal or between-meal food. To prepare it, a simple pastry or bread dough is rolled thin and pressed into a tin or onto a baking sheet with a low rim. Eggs are beaten with cream, seasoned with salt, pepper and a little nutmeg, then mixed with grated hard cheese such as Gruyère or Emmental and poured over the base before baking in a hot oven. What sets this version apart is its thinness and simplicity compared to richer, deeper tarts of the same family: the base stays crisp, the topping is shallow rather than custard-deep, and the cheese used, along with the exact ratio of egg to cream, changes from one household or bakery to another.