Method

Cheesy Shortcrust Pastry

Place the flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Add in the butter and cheese, and then using your hands, rub into the flour until it resembles a crumble.

Pour in the cold water and work it into the flour mixture until it comes together, being careful not to overwork. Cover the dough with cling wrap and rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Pie Filling 

Preheat oven to 200 ºC.

Melt the Spreado in a medium-sized frying pan over medium heat. Add the leeks and sauté until soft, remove and set aside. Add the chopped bacon to the same pan and cook for 5 minutes to allow any bacon fat to render, remove and set aside. Lastly, add your cherry tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes, remove and set aside.

Whisk together the eggs and cream and season with salt and pepper. Add the fried filling ingredients to the egg mixture and set aside.

Dust a work surface and rolling pin lightly with flour; tip the dough out and roll out to a disk about 3mm thick, large enough to line the bottom and sides of a 22cm loose bottom tin. Lay the pastry into the tin and press in to cover the bottom and up the sides. Use a fork and prick the pastry to prevent it from bubbling when baking.

Place baking paper over the pastry and fill with baking beads, rice or dried beans to weigh it down. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven. Carefully remove the baking paper and beads, then return to the oven to bake for a further 5 minutes until golden.

Decrease the oven temperature to 180 ºC.

Place the boiled eggs into the pastry casing and pour the filling over. Sprinkle the top evenly with the cheese.

Bake for 50-60 minutes until golden on top. When the pie has finished baking, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool completely before removing it from the tin and onto a serving dish.

Garnish with micro herbs, slice and serve.