Give Your Quiche A Crunchy, Flaky Crust Using This Frozen Food

The box of chocolates of breakfast, you don't quite know what you're going to get when you bite into a quiche, but it'll always leave you satisfied. The fluffy tart can come loaded with all kinds of meats and veggies, a testament to the versatility of eggs. While it's fun to experiment with quiche fillings, its outside deserves love, too. Skip the usual pastry crust and give your quiche a crunchy coating with hash browns.

Eggs and hash browns are a common breakfast pairing, and there are so many ways to serve up the two besides serving scrambled eggs with shredded hash browns or placing the crispy patties in between your egg McMuffin. A hash brown-crusted quiche combines the two seamlessly, making for an elevated dish to serve at brunch or enjoy on a lazy weekend morning. The potatoes contrast with the pillowy quiche beautifully, serving as a crispy welcome before getting into the tender tart.

To get your hash browns to be crisp, though, you'll need to prep them correctly. The frozen breakfast item can easily turn to mush, so press out as much moisture as you can from the thawed hash browns. Afterwards, mix it with melted butter, salt, and pepper before spreading it across a pie dish. Parbake the crust at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 minutes, or until golden brown and crunchy. Pour the whisked eggs into the pie dish, along with any fillings, and bake the quiche at 350 degrees for around 30 minutes.

Adding the breakfast staple to quiches is a creative way to use hash browns, especially since the mild ingredient can be used with a wide variety of flavors. A hash brown crust works well with a sweet and savory butternut squash and bacon quiche, giving the bold tart an earthy, crispy exterior. Aside from the squash and bacon, the tart is flavored with various cheeses and sage, ingredients that can easily be incorporated into the crust.

When mixing the thawed hash browns with butter, sprinkle in some dried sage and shredded Parmesan cheese for an even more savory finish. The same method can be done for a bacon, onion, and goat cheese quiche. Shredded hash browns always take on a richer flavor when sauteed with diced onions; incorporating the alliums into the crust amps up the sweet, pungent taste of the quiche.

You can also flavor the crust with ingredients that complement your quiche's filling, even if they're not in the original recipe. Easy Quiche Lorraine gets a savory, woodsy flavor from bacon and nutmeg, and a sprinkle of dried mushroom powder stirred into the hash brown crust amplifies these ingredients. Dried mushrooms pack an umami punch, but they're also earthy, pulling out more of the nutmeg's warm taste.