What is an Egg Wash?
Question:
When speaking of
food, what is an egg wash?
Is it necessary to use an egg wash?
Can an egg wash be done without using eggs?
Answer:
An egg wash is a term used for brushing beaten
eggs onto a pastry top prior to placing it into
the oven.
An egg wash provides a shiny appearance to the finished product and helps to provide an even and more appealing browning color to the top. An egg washed pastry is often described as having a glistening, golden brown crust.
What is an Egg Wash?
Egg Wash
What’s the purpose of an egg wash?
Egg adds a layer of protein on top of the pastry,
allowing for a quicker reaction to the heat of the
oven and thus a nice golden sealed appearance on the
outside of the baked good. An egg wash should be
added to the top only of certain baked goods where a
nice shiny golden crust is desired. An egg wash is
generally the final step in most flaky pastry
recipes including scones, pies and even some types
of bread, like brioche.
How to make an egg wash?
An
egg wash can be made simply by beating an egg in a
bowl with a small whip.
Don’t beat it to stiff peaks like a meringue,
but only until you’ve got soft bubbles.
Most of the time only the egg white is used
for a wash, for instance on a pie crust or scone,
but the whole egg is often used for a bread or
brioche.
To make an egg wash easier to work
with and apply more evenly, it is beneficial to add
a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of water to the egg
white before whipping.
How to apply an egg wash?
Brush the beaten egg onto the top of the
pastry with a pastry brush.
Be sure to only brush the top of the pastry, as egg
dripping down the sides of the pastry can cause the
layers to stick together and therefore the pastry
will not rise properly. And, if the egg drips all
the way to the pan below, it can create a rather
difficult pan to clean.
What are the results of using an egg
wash?
The pie to the left with the leaf crust had an egg
wash (as in the above picture) and the pie to the
right with an acorn crust had nothing applied to the
crust. The two crusts were then baked together,
exactly the same, on the same baking pan. Note that
the egg wash crust is shiny, browned, appears
flakier, rose higher and generally is just more
appealing than the other crust which really
didn’t even get cooked thoroughly in the same
amount of time. An added benefit is that an egg wash
can be used to bind crusts together, the top and
bottom crust did not separate on the leaf pie, but
the acorn did come apart and lift from the crust.
Is the egg wash step really necessary when called
for in a recipe?
It does make it nicer – not only in
appearance and color, but also adds a tiny little
crunch when first biting into a baked good. So no,
it is not necessary but is highly recommended.
Out of eggs?
If an egg wash is
desired, but not possible, then brush some milk or
cream onto the pastry tops.
No milk? Even a
little brush of water on top will help to promote
the browning process.
What is an Egg Wash?
Additional Information
To find out how long eggs last please visit our egg page.
To make a super simple pie crust, see our easy pie crust recipe.