Easter egg Dye, Boiling, Coloring and Recipes to Eat the Eggs

Before the Easter egg dye, you must know how to boil eggs. The following directions will give you hard boiled eggs that are easy to peel.

BOILING EGGS: Have eggs at room temperature. Bring a large kettle of water to boiling. Carefully put the eggs in the water with a large spoon. Reduce heat to medium and simmer eggs for 15 minutes. Set pan in sink and carefully dump out hot water but not the eggs. Immediately dump lots of ice over the eggs to cool them quickly. This process will make the eggs easy to peel.

Coloring Easter eggs is a tradition in many countries; some dating back to ancient times. An egg dye recipe can be as simple as dying with natural ingredients like fruits and vegetables to elaborately hand painted eggs. These techniques vary from country to country and even within the country; none are more beautiful than the Ukrainian Easter eggs.

Throughout my life I have always bought the easy commercially made premixed Easter egg dye recipe; usually liquid form made to add to water. Very quick and easy; just dip hard boiled eggs. For many years I had a favorite brand which left every egg different. The color was shiny and oily. You could put different colors in the same water. The eggs turned out beautiful and it was so easy; then they quit making this brand. I was so disappointed. I always served these colored eggs to my kids with French toast on Easter breakfast.

Now many of us are trying to keep chemicals out of our home and especially out of our foods. This applies to our Easter egg dye recipe; this also means using natural dyes like fruits and vegetables. Bright colors are hard to come up with but with effort you can color some very pretty pastel colored eggs. The longer the egg remains in the dye mixture the darker it will be.

Boil white eggs before you make Easter egg dye recipe; the white eggs always colors best. While still warm you can make designs on the eggs with crayons if you like. Where the wax from the crayons is applied no color will adhere from the dye. For a more smooth and uniform solid color on the eggs, strain the dye mixture with cheesecloth.

A basic recipe to make natural egg coloring is:

• 3 to 4 Tablespoons of spice or 3 to 4 cups of vegetables


• 1 to 2 Tablespoons white vinegar to make the dyes stick to the eggs


• 2 Cups water

Boil ingredients in water to reach desired colors. Let cool before adding eggs into the dye so as not to further cook the eggs.

• FOR YELLOW EGGS: Yellow turmeric, Yellow-brown onionskins, Chamomile tea


• FOR PINK EGGS: Cranberry juice or smashed cranberries, Red beets, Rose hip, Red zinger tea, Smashed raspberries


• FOR BLUE EGGS: Crushed blueberries


• FOR PURPLE OR LAVENDER EGGS: Shredded red cabbage, Grape juice


• FOR BROWN EGGS: Coffee grounds, Black tea


• FOR GREEN EGGS: Spinach, kale or other greens

Use your imagination and experiment with other ingredients to come up with more colors. Mix your colors to make more colors.

When I get started coloring Easter eggs, trying one Easter egg dye recipe after the other, I end up coloring more eggs than I thought I would. This leaves me with quite of lot of boiled eggs to use up. This is a great time to try out some of those recipes using hard boiled eggs like some of the Kentucky Derby recipes.

To many people, especially residents in the area, the Kentucky Derby is the most exciting sports event in the whole year. This Bluegrass Region of Kentucky has always been known for its lush fields and the capability of producing superior racehorses. The Kentucky Derby is one of the oldest thoroughbred horse races. It is celebrated for a couple of weeks each spring and this includes many great Kentucky Derby recipes specifically created for this occasion. Many of the locals have picked up on these recipes and use them all year long. The following recipe is one that is frequently used for Easter Sunday breakfast in the Kentucky bluegrass area.

KENTUCKY DERBY EGGS

• 6 Hard boiled eggs
• ¾ Cup minced country ham
• 2 to 3 Tablespoons heavy cream
• Salt/pepper to taste
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 2 Tablespoons flour
• 1 ½ Cups scalded milk
• 1 ½ Cups heavy scalded cream
• 6 Large sliced mushrooms
• ¼ Cup butter
• ¼ Cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• ½ Teaspoon paprika

Preheat oven to 450F degrees.

Cut eggs in half lengthwise.

Mix yolks with ham, 2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream, salt and pepper.

Scoop mixture back in egg whites and place in buttered casserole baking dish.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in saucepan over medium heat and stir in flour until smooth.

Stir in scaled milk and scalded cream stirring until smooth.

Season with salt and pepper and simmer 10 minutes; remove from heat.

Sauté mushrooms in ¼ cup melted butter; add to creamed mixture and blend.

Pour creamed mixture over eggs; top with Parmesan cheese and bake 8 to 10 minutes until golden.

BOILED EGG RECIPE

If you get carried away as I do using Easter egg dye recipes and end up with too many boiled eggs, try this French boiled egg recipe.

OEUFS SOUBISE

• 2 Spanish onions, cut in half then sliced thickly
• 3 Tablespoons butter
• 3 Tablespoons flour
• 2 Cups chicken stock
• ½ Cup light cream
• ½ Cup grated Gruyere cheese
• Salt/ pepper
• ¼ Teaspoon nutmeg
• 6 Hard boiled eggs

Sauté onions in melted butter until softened not brown; add flour and stir to blend.

Heat chicken stock and cream in saucepan; stir mixture into pan with onions and simmer 15 minutes.

Add cheese, salt, pepper and nutmeg, stir until cheese is blended.

Heat broiler.

Cut boiled eggs in quarters and stir gently into sauce; reheat over low.

Pour mixture into buttered shallow flameproof dish or pan; brown surface under boiler.

More Great Easter Recipes

Go to Painless Cooking Home Page from Easter Egg Dye