Boiling eggs is the essential first step in many Easter egg-decorating tutorials. You'll need a saucepan, water, and eggs to boil eggs. Place the eggs in the saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a rolling boil over medium heat, and then remove the saucepan from the stove.
Just dye them raw
The fact is, raw eggs take dye just as well as hard-boiled eggs do. So now I skip the cooking-and-cooling prep work and dip raw eggs into the dye bath instead. The raw eggs come out with the same beautiful colors but none of the unsightly cracks that are often a byproduct of boiling the eggs.
How Long Should Eggs Be Cooled Before Coloring Them? You should let your eggs sit for 15 minutes before you do anything after hard boiling. This allows the yolk and white to fully set.
If you're not going to color eggs right away, it's important to keep them cold to avoid the growth of salmonella or other foodborne pathogens. “Refrigerate hard-cooked eggs before dyeing them and keep them refrigerated when you are not using them.
Is it better to dye eggs hot or cold? Before dunking them in the dye, your eggs should be cold (or at least room temperature). However, you'll be dipping the cold egg into hot water. This recipe calls for boiling water to make the dye, which will create the best results.
Let your eggs come to room temperature before dying! I like to cook mine and then let them cool so I can dye the same day. Avoid refrigerating them before you dye them.
A boiling start for 30 seconds to a very gentle simmer for 13 minutes, then an ice bath at the end makes perfect, easy-to-peel hard-boiled eggs.
3 Mix 1/2 cup boiling water, 1 teaspoon vinegar and 10 to 20 drops food color in a cup to achieve desired colors. Repeat for each color. Dip hard-cooked eggs in dye for about 5 minutes.
Slowly bring water to a boil over medium heat; when the water has reached a boil, cover and remove from heat. Let sit 12 minutes. Transfer eggs to a colander; place under cool running water to stop the cooking. Eggs can be peeled and served immediately.
Vinegar is acidic and contains around 3% acetic acid. When you add vinegar to water, it creates ideal conditions for food coloring to dye the egg. Since eggs are made out of calcium carbonate, this calcium in the shell reacts with the acid in the vinegar to make carbon dioxide.
Be sure gel food coloring is completely dissolved. Using the back of a spoon, carefully tap eggs all over so the shells are cracked. Dip up to 4 eggs in each container. Dye at least 30 minutes but preferably overnight, sealed in the refrigerator.
But if you're hunting for hard-boiled eggs that have been dyed instead of plastic eggs full of the best Easter candies, one question has surely crossed your mind: Can you eat dyed eggs after the hunt is done? The short answer is yes, you can eat hard-boiled eggs that have been dyed.
You must refrigerate them before and after boiling since eggs are perishable. This step is essential if you're boiling two or more batches of eggs—one for dyeing and one for deviling, the former for decorating and the latter for eating.
Mix one teaspoon of vinegar and 20 drops of food coloring (use more to intensify color) in one cup of hot water in a heatproof bowl, cup, or jar deep enough to let you submerge an egg completely. To create different tints, vary the dipping time. Use tongs to make handling the eggs easy.
Soak your hard boiled eggs in vinegar for 5-10 minutes. The vinegar is essential in helping the colors adhere to the shell. You can skip this step but your colors will be more muted. Dry your eggs and set aside.
If You Don't Have Vinegar: Use lemon juice in place of the vinegar, or just leave the vinegar out. Eggs dyed without vinegar will turn out pastel-colored. You need a mild acid, like vinegar or lemon juice to achieve really vibrant colors.
You can make a brighter egg dye solution by dissolving the egg dye tablets into distilled white vinegar instead. Pour one cup of vinegar into a container with one egg dye tablet. Stir the solution with a spoon to dissolve the tablet completely before use.
Here's her hack for how to peel hard-boiled eggs in large batches: Put five thoroughly cooled hard-boiled eggs into a small plastic container with some cold water, top with the lid and then gently rock and shake until the shells break and fall away. You'll almost always end up with perfectly peeled eggs.
Cover and bring the water to a boil; turn off the heat. Let the eggs stand covered in the hot water for 15 minutes for large eggs, 12 minutes for medium, and 18 minutes for extra large. Immediately run cold water over the eggs; when they are cool, drain and refrigerate.
Apparently super fresh eggs are difficult to peel because the pH of the white is more acidic which causes it to adhere to the shell membrane more tightly. Two solutions here – use older eggs or add a little bicarb soda to the cooking water to increase the pH.
Paint and store: Once you've finished dyeing each egg, put them right back in the refrigerator so the eggs stay cool. A few at a time: If you're dyeing lots of eggs, work on smaller batches of 4-5 or so at a time, then get them right back into the refrigerator.
Hard-boiled eggs work fine for Easter egg dyeing, but blowing an egg out of the shell allows you to reuse your decor.
Add white vinegar to your hot water. This will allow your color to bind (stick) to the egg. Most food dyes are acid dyes and only work in acid conditions. The vinegar creates a chemical reaction with the calcium of the egg shell and helps the color absorb better, resulting in a darker, brighter, more intense color.
Make sure eggs are refrigerated within two hours after cooking, and don't leave refrigerated cooked eggs out at room temperature for more than two hours.