Hash Brown Quiche

Paula Deen does it again.  Oh so good yet oh so you can’t eat this everyday.  Our kids love to eat quiche.  In our house we call it “egg pie” because who doesn’t like to eat pie for breakfast?  After spending more than my fair share at Whole Foods buying prepared quiches, I started searching the web for recipes and came across this one.  The hash brown crust caught my attention!

I adjusted components and quantities of the recipe based on reviews.  Here is a link to Paula's original recipe.

Hash Brown Quiche

Ingredients

1. 4 cups shredded frozen hash browns, thawed and drained (I used Ore Ida hash browns and measured 4 cups when still frozen)
2. 4 T (1/2 stick) butter, melted
3. 4 large eggs, beaten
4. 1 C half-and-half (I decreased the half-and-half and substituted some of it with milk)
5. ¾ C diced cooked ham
6. 1 C shredded Cheddar (I used mild)
7. Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Thaw the hash browns.  Once thawed, dry them as much as you can between paper towels.  Place them in a 9 in pie pan and mix with the melted butter.  Spread evenly on the bottom and sides of the pie pan – this will form your crust.  Bake the hash browns until golden brown or starting to crisp.  It took me about 25-30 minutes for them to start browning.  The sides browned first; the middle takes longer.  To expedite the browning at the end, you can either turn up the oven to 500 or broil for a few minutes to achieve greater browned consistency.

While the crust is baking, mix ingredients 3-7 in a large bowl (you can adjust the ingredients to include things like green onions, mushrooms, spinach, etc.)  When the crust is done, pour the egg mixture into the pie pan and return to the oven. 

Lower the oven temperature to 350 and bake for about 30-35 minutes until the quiche is cooked through (check the middle – that was the last to settle for me).