I’m about to embark on a hash brown crusted potato quiche. My mom uses butter on the crust when we pre-bake it. I’m wondering if an egg wash will work on potatos as well, and if there are any advantages/disadvantages to changing it up. I’m trying to make it a little healthier (less cheese, 2% milk instead of half and half), and a half to one egg vs a few pats of butter sounds better.
The butter, I’m guessing, helps with the browning of the crust during baking, so you end up with a surface on the crust that the liquid ingredients won’t penetrate as easily. An egg wash would help with that, but not the browning. And unless the hash browns are pressed in the pan pretty well, it might be a bit of a challenge to apply the egg wash.
I’ve become a complete convert, BTW, to Land O Lakes fat-free half-and-half (an oxymoron if there ever was one). It has more body than 2% milk.