Here’s the good news about egg washes: You really can’t mess them up.
What is an egg wash anyway? An egg wash is egg (white, whole, or yolk) beaten with water, milk or cream. You can use an egg wash to seal edges together, add shine, or enhance the golden color of baked goods.
To start, mix egg plus 1 tablespoon of liquid (water, milk, or cream) in a small bowl with a fork until combined. You’ll apply it with a pastry brush.
Egg white + water. This is the egg wash I use most often in my kitchen. One of my very favorite kitchen tricks is to brush a bottom pie crust with an egg white wash before filling. This keeps the filling from seeping into the crust and creating a soggy bottom. I like to avoid soggy bottoms at all costs.
Egg white and water is also perfect for sealing edges, like when making a pie. Brush a layer of egg wash around the edge of a pastry to be filled, place on the top, and press to seal.
This application is not limited to just pie crust. These cinnamon roll cookies stay together with the help of an egg wash, too.
If you’re adding decorative cut-outs to top to a pie crust, use egg wash to keep them in place.
This might be a good place to tell you my egg wash story, a.k.a. when I realized we might be watching too much Food Network in our house. My son Jack was 5 or 6, and we saw an ad for the Taco Bell Double-Decker Taco—a crunchy taco inside a soft taco. Jack piped up, “I bet they use egg wash to hold that together.” Ha! I think it was refried beans, kiddo, but all of that Food Network watching really paid off.
(Note: Please don’t substitute refried beans for an egg wash.)
You’re not limited to egg whites. You can also make an egg wash with the yolk or the whole egg.
Whites only will give a shine, while baked goods brushed with yolk or whole egg washes will bake up more golden.
Egg washes can be made with milk or cream instead of water. I brushed bread with three egg washes made with whole egg. You can see that you really can’t go wrong here. All of the washes give the bread a shiny surface and pretty golden color. The bread with the cream is a little glossier, but not substantially.
Egg washes. Pretty shine and golden color with not much effort. I love them!
