Flour your work surface and roll out your shortcrust pastry to about 2-3mm thick.
Roll the pastry back over the rolling pin to lift it. Lay it gently over the quiche tin and lift the sides to let it fall in to the bottom. Cut off some of the excess and form it into a ball. Use this ball to press the pstry into the corners and into the flutes of the tin.
Trim the edges, leaving a bit of extra around the top. Your pastry will shrink a little as it cooks, so you want to give it some leeway.
Heat your oven to 220°C and put the pastry in the fridge to chill the tin for 30 mins while the oven heats up.
Line your pastry with baking paper or tin foil. Fill it with baking beans, use uncooked rice if you do not have any baking beans.
Bake for 10 mins with the beans in. Remove the beans and bake for a further 10 mins uncovered. Remove and set aside and turn the oven temperature down to 180°C.
While the pastry is baking heat a pan over medium heat and add the lardons. Cook until the liquid they release is gone, but don't brown them too much. Set aside and let cool.
Mix the eggs in a bowl and beat in the cream and milk.
Add in the pepper and nutmeg and mix.
Split the gruyere in half. Grate one half and cut the other half into small cubes.
Add the lardons and grated gruyere to the egg mix, holding back a small amount of lardons to scatter on top.
Scatter the cubed gruyere across the bottom of the pastry base.
Pour over the filling mix.
Scatter the remaining lardons over the top.
Bake in the oven for 25 mins at 180°C. Check to see if it is done. If it is, it will be just slightly jiggly and browned in spots on top. If you stick a knife in, it should come out clean with no egg mix sticking to it. If it is not done, put it back in the oven for a few more minutes and check again.
Serve and enjoy!
