Image by Rebekka D from Pixabay Eggs look magnificent in many different colors. So, why not give them that special glow this holiday? Follow these steps and tips for how to dye Easter eggs easy enough for the whole family.
Dying Traditional Easter Eggs Image by Couleur from Pixabay
WHAT YOU NEED
12 brown and white hard-boiled EGGS, in shell
Pot
1 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
Food coloring, various pastel colors
Small bowls/plastic containers
Wire egg dipper
Spoon
DIRECTIONS BOIL 1 cup of water in a pot over the stove. POUR water into a small bowl with 1 teaspoon of distilled white vinegar and about 20 drops of food coloring of your choice. STIR with a spoon until ingredients are blended DIP a hard-boiled egg in dye with a wire egg dipper and let egg SOAK for about 5 minutes, depending on desired color. LIFT egg out of dye and PLACE on paper towel to drain excess dye. TRANSFER to an upright position to finish drying. REPEAT steps 1 through 5 until all eggs are dyed in various colors. Let eggs dry.
Easter Egg Colors Cantaloupe: 24 yellow 2 red Dusty Rose: 14 red 6 blue Fuchsia: 18 red 2 blue Grape: 17 blue 3 red Jade: 17 green 3 blue Jungle Green: 14 green 6 yellow Lime: 24 yellow 4 green Maize: 24 yellow 1 red Mint Green: 14 green 6 yellow Orange Sunset: 17 yellow 3 red Plum: 10 red 4 blue Pretty Purple: 15 blue 5 red Raspberry: 14 red 6 blue Teal: 15 green 5 blue Watermelon: 25 red 2 blue Want To Naturally Dye Your Easter Eggs? Image by silviarita from Pixabay
Use ingredients in your kitchen to decorate your eggs — like turmeric for a golden yellow or beets for a dark pink!
Natural Dyes Orange: carrots, gold lichen, onion skins Brown: dandelion roots, oak bark, walnut hulls, tea, coffee, acorns Pink: berries, cherries, red and pink roses, avocado skins and seeds (really!) Blue: indigo, red cabbage, elderberries, red mulberries, blueberries, purple grapes, dogwood bark Red-brown: pomegranates, beets, bamboo, hibiscus (reddish color flowers), blood-root Grey-black: Blackberries, walnut hulls, iris root Red-purple: red sumac berries, basil leaves, day-lilies, pokeweed berries, huckleberries Green: artichokes, sorrel roots, spinach, peppermint leaves, snapdragons, lilacs, grass, nettles, plantain, peach leaves Yellow: bay leaves, marigolds, sunflower petals, St John’s Wort, dandelion flowers, paprika, turmeric, celery leaves, lilac twigs, Queen Anne’s Lace roots, mahonia roots, barberry roots, yellow-root roots, yellow dock roots
DIRECTIONS To make naturally dyed eggs, TOSS your choice of a handful – or two or three – of one of the ingredients listed into a saucepan. Use your own judgment about quantity. This is an art – not a science! ADD about a cup of water for each handful of your chosen ingredient, so the water comes at least an inch above your dye materials. BRING mixture to boiling, reduce the heat and SIMMER from 15 minutes up to an hour, until the color is the shade you want. Keep in mind that the eggs will dye a lighter shade. REMOVE the pan from the heat. Through cheesecloth or a fine sieve, STRAIN the dye mixture into a small bowl that’s deep enough to completely cover the eggs you want to dye. ADD 2 to 3 teaspoons of white vinegar for each cup of dye liquid. With a spoon or wire egg holder, LOWER the eggs into the hot liquid. Let the eggs stand until they reach the desired color. For emptied eggshells, stir or rotate for even coloring. With a slotted spoon or wire egg holder, REMOVE the eggs to a rack or drainer. Allow the eggs to dry thoroughly. Refrigerate hard-boiled eggs that you intend to eat within two hours, and always follow tips for egg safety. Naturally dyed eggs require longer soak time in the dye solution for the color to take hold (overnight will give the best, most saturated color). How To Decorate Easter Eggs With Whipped Cream
Decorate your eggs with something delicious to make them extra special!
WHAT YOU NEED
12 hard-boiled EGGS, in shell
Food coloring
Vinegar
1 large carton of whipped cream, such as Cool Whip™
Drying rack
DIRECTIONS Soak hard-boiled eggs in white vinegar for 10 minutes before whipped cream dying to help intensify the color on the eggs. Wipe the shells dry with paper towels before rolling in the tinted whipped cream. EMPTY container of whipped cream onto a baking pan, or use a muffin pan to keep the colors separate. DROP food coloring onto the whipped cream. SWIRL the color to create a tie-dye effect. DIP eggs into marbled food coloring and whipped cream mixture. PLACE eggs on drying rack and let dry for 20-60 minutes.
If you plan to eat your decorated eggs, make sure to use only food-safe decorating materials. For more on Easter & Egg Safety. How To Decorate Glow-In-The-Dark Easter Eggs
For a nighttime Easter egg hunt, decorate neon eggs that glow under a black-light. The more you dip the eggs in neon dye, the more out-of-this-world the eggs will be!
WHAT YOU NEED
12 hard-boiled EGGS, in shell
Small bowls, one for each color
Neon paint, various colors
Warm water
White vinegar
Paper plate, for drying
Black-light
DIRECTIONS SQUIRT some neon paint into each bowl — one bowl for each color. POUR the same amount of very warm water into each bowl and STIR until the paint is dissolved. POUR ¼ cup of white vinegar into each bowl and MIX well with a spoon. DIP one egg in each bowl of paint and SPOON the neon dye all over the egg. TURN the egg several times until it’s fully coated with dye. For darker color, let egg sit in dye for a few minutes. This will make beautifully glowing single-colored eggs when you turn the black-light on. For more psychedelic looking eggs, WAIT a few minutes for the eggs to dry, then DIP each egg in a different color. TRANSFER each egg from bowl to bowl — letting the egg dry briefly in between each dip — until you achieve the desired effect. You can’t overdo it! TRANSFER eggs to a paper plate or empty egg carton for drying. LET eggs dry for 10 minutes. SHINE the black-light over the eggs and ILLUMINATE all the funky neon effects you’ve created. REPEAT steps 2 through 5 for each shade of paint and watch your eggs glow.
NOTE: Both brown and white eggs work for neon glow-in-the-dark eggs, but brown eggs will produce earthier-looking colors. If you plan to eat your decorated eggs, make sure to use only food-safe decorating materials. For more on Easter & Egg Safety. Easter Egg Safety Tips
More than 1,500 people became ill and some 500 million eggs had to be recalled during that outbreak, but every year there are reports of illness caused by eggs, particularly from raw or lightly cooked eggs in dishes such as custards, puddings, hollandaise sauce or Caesar salad dressing.
Easter eggs, because they’re more often thoroughly cooked, aren’t quite as risky. But Salmonella can be found on both the outside and inside of eggs, so it’s important to guard against cross contamination before they’re cooked — washing hands and all food contact surfaces that come in contact with raw eggs — and also to store cooked and uncooked eggs properly.
Here, as a reminder, are a dozen commonsense tips about Easter eggs:
1. Choose the freshest eggs possible and open the carton before you buy to make sure the shells are intact.
2. Eggs should be refrigerated at 40°F or colder.
3. Wash your hands thoroughly, and make sure children wash their hands, before and after handling uncooked shell eggs.
4. If you plan to hollow out eggshells by using your mouth to blow out the raw egg through holes in the shell, first wash the egg in hot water and rinse it in a solution of 1 teaspoon chlorine bleach per half cup of water. Or use pasteurized shell eggs.
5. Hard cook eggs instead of boiling them — the gentle cooking will help avoid green rings around the yolk (not unsafe but unappetizing) and will also help prevent cracking. This method is recommended by the American Egg Board for cooking eggs to be dyed: Place eggs in single layer in saucepan. Add enough tap water to come at least 1 inch above them. Add a tablespoon of vinegar for better dye coverage after cooking. Cover pan and quickly bring just to boiling. Turn off heat. If necessary, remove pan from burner to prevent further boiling. Let eggs stand, covered, in the hot water for 15 minutes for large eggs, about 12 minutes for medium and 18 for extra-large. Immediately run cold water over eggs or place them in ice water until completely cooled. Do not keep eggs warm or at room temperature (between 40° and 140°F) for more than 2 hours. Store in refrigerator until it’s time to dye the eggs.
6. Use only food-grade dyes and food-safe decorating materials. Dye the eggs in water warmer than the eggs so they don’t absorb the dye water.
7. Wash your hands between all the steps of cooking, cooling, dyeing and decorating.
8. Once the cooked eggs are decorated, return them to the refrigerator within two hours. They can be stored up to a week inside the refrigerator, not in the door.
9. If you’re going to use dyed, cooked eggs as decorations in braided breads, serve the baked goods within 2 hours after baking or refrigerate and eat within 3 to 4 days.
10. Consider using one set of eggs for decorating and eating, and another set for decorating and hunting. Or to be extra safe, use plastic eggs for your Easter egg hunt instead of real ones.
11. If you’re going to hide real eggs outside, be sensible — don’t hide them where they can come in contact with animals, birds or lawn chemicals. Do not hide eggs with cracked shells, because bacteria could contaminate the inside. The total time for hiding and hunting eggs should not exceed 2 hours.
12. Eat properly refrigerated, hard-cooked eggs within 7 days.
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