Wow! And Welcome! And More Egg Pictures!

I took a look at my stats this morning, as I do every now and then, and OH MY!

I thought I needed more coffee or new glasses - where'd that really big number come from????? 

It was the eggs. 

Eggs like these.

 

And these.

   

And also these.

   

So I just wanted to give a HUGE welcome to all the new visitors to my site who have arrived from places like Ohdeedoh and Lifehacker and The Presurfer and anywhere else that featured or linked to my post about coloring Easter Eggs. 

WELCOME! 

I'm delighted to see that - for the most part - people have gotten just as much of a kick out of these eggs as my kids and I and the rest of my family have!

And since I can't, at the moment, get enough of them, I'll spend the rest of this post subjecting you (if you stick around) to more pictures.

I made a batch with my kids (as you probably figured out from the small hand in the picture above), and they had a great time cracking all the eggs and later peeling them to reveal the crackley colors.

 

One of the fun things is that the color on the outside of the egg isn't always the color you're going to see under the shell.

    

Surprise! 

I admit I've become a bit obsessed.

 

I spent a good chunk of Friday just taking pictures of eggs.

   

 

They just lend themselves to all sorts of fun picture ideas...

  

     

 

   

 

   

 

   

After all that (and of course, there were a lot more pictures that didn't make the cut), the eggs were rather the worse for wear.  I tossed them the next morning. 

And made a newer, smaller batch so I could test another way of coloring them.

This time around I hard boiled them as usual, cracked the shells as usual, BUT instead of putting the cracked eggs in mugs or bowls of hot colored water, I just dissolved the gel colors in cold water, put the eggs in the mugs of colored water, and put everything in the fridge. 

They stayed there overnight,

and the next morning,

when I peeled them,

they were just as nice as the other batches I'd made. 

  

And even better, they were totally safe to eat. 

I sliced each egg in half and popped the yolks into a bowl.  I placed the whites (or reds or greens, etc) cut side down on a piece of paper towel to dry off a bit while I mixed mayo, mustard, salt, and pepper with the yolks.  Then I filled a piping bag with the yolk mixture and piped it back into the whites. 

 

 

Ta-da!  Totally wild deviled eggs!  Next time around I'll cook a few extra eggs or use a couple less whites so there's a greater proportion of yolk mixture to white, and the filling will mound up more and look more inviting.  To me, anyway.  And maybe top them with some chopped chives for a bit more color and texture.  Or not.  There seems to be plenty of color!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[janice]

The eggs are just great. I like the development of the new technique. Attractive, colorful, and edible !!!! Thank-you.

[pinkstripes]

I said it in the previous post, those eggs are truly beautiful. I love them.

[Joey C.]

Amazing pics and what a unique and interesting idea. Thank you so much for publishing more pictures of the process. Please explain, if you can, about the mismatch between the color on the shell and the color on the eggs. What gives? One of your pics has a green interior and pink exterior, and one has a blue interior and a pink exterior. What is going on?

[Jules]

Those look like so much fun! Almost makes me wish I celebrated Easter. Do you think they'd be ok for a seder? ;-)

[Jan Scott]

I love these...what a great idea and those are some really fabulous photos.

[jomamma]

Get your hands on some free range eggs, the yolks will be so bright and they will really pop with your outside colors. I'm going to do some of these this weekend Hubby loves deviled eggs.

[Amanda]

WOW! I just read this post and then went to your original post from the first batch. I am so excited to try this out with my niece. She loves dying eggs for Easter, but this will be so different than our usual ritual. And I LOVE the deviled eggs. They are so pretty. Definitely something for my next party!

[doctorcop]

these look great- I'm going to try them with my daughter this weekend-

[Lynne]

So Eggciting! I shell have to make some.
Couldn't resist cracking a punny yolk though...

A thought for halloween - I think they look so much like spiders webs - especially the one held in Julia's hands. If you paint spiders webs on the cut surface of the eggs, and colour the yolks the same colours as the outsides would they be lurid enough for halloween do you think?

[mariah scarey]

Greetings from Australia. I just saw these eggs, went to the shops with a couple of minutes to spare before they shut, bought food colouring and a dozen eggs. The eggs are now on the boil. I'll be taking these in to work tomorrow if they turn out half as good as yours.

Thanks for a great and inspiring article. Prompted me to try it out immediately.

[Jayne]

HAHAHAHAHA! 

Oh what a great idea!  I'll have to give that a try.  I agree - they do look like spider webs.  I'll get to work on that now and report back with the results!

 

[Pagan Rach]

That's just cool!

[Courtney]

These were so cool! A friend of mine linked me the website and I ran out to the store at 9 pm to get more eggs and some gel dye!! I did all of the prep work last night and peeled them this morning. I found that the bigger the cracks, without actually removing the shell the better. It gives more color concentration. Perhaps if you hit them with a spoon it would cause that to happen. Just be gentle with the spoon :D. If you do them so that they have lots of little cracks the color will bleed too much. My orange one came out that way. I'm using them for deviled eggs tonight when family is over. Thank you so much for the wonderful idea! Keep up the good work!

[Courtney]

Hi Joey!
First off, dyes are made up of different colors, for instance blue and red make purple. When you go to dye something you have to take into account what your base color will be and the medium which you are using. So using eggs, for example, the shells are not very porous so ink will not get in to the egg itself, but it will dye the outer layer of the shell. When you crack the shells it lets the ink in to the egg which is semi-porous when boiled. The egg sucks up the base color of the ink first (so purple- red and blue- blue being the base) and when it becomes as saturated as it's going to be, it stops. It doesn't allow the color to develop fully. So you look at the purple eggs vs. the blue eggs and the purple looks like a deeper blue. It's got a lttle bit of red in it to make it a little darker, but it cannot develop into a full purple. I hope this makes sense to you. It's the same with any material you use, fabrics, wood, eggs etc.

[Jayne]

Thanks, Courtney!  You beat me to it!  :)

[Sarah L]

Love love love these!

[Jayne]

Sure, why not?  Might raise a few eyebrows...but the kids would love it!

[Ehrrin]

LOVE these! So brilliant and beautiful! I'm going to make these and impress the pants off my inlaws.

thank you!

[CalamityWren]

I am soooo excited by these! My husband found your page and called me over to check it out! We're making a test batch tonight because we're taking them as deviled eggs to the family Easter gathering. My daughter is making the deviled egg filling. She's nine and totally thrilled to make these wild eggs to entertain her multitude of cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents!

[Kiera]

I do have some gel dye in my cabinet so I'll likely end up using those, but I wonder if the staining would work as well with the prepackaged Easter egg dye kits that you can get from the store? Has anyone tried that?

[arkonitebabe]

My daughter and I are trying these eggs right now! The shells on ours won't look as pretty as yours mind as we have brown eggs here in the UK. Wonder how it would work on a duck egg which has a blue shell?? I've linked to your post from my blog and will post piccys of our attempts tomorrow when the eggs come out of the shells.

[Jayne]

I bet you're right - it would probably work just fine.

[Rebecca C]

The eggs are awesome, I came to this page Stumbling with Stumbleupon, unfortunately it is too late to do this this year, but I will definitely be doing this next year! Thanks for sharing!

[Ehrrin]

I made these yesterday, and just peeled them this morning. So gorgeous!!! Thanks so much for the idea and instructions. I'm in love with them!

And, your whole blog is fantastic. Love it!

[Lisa]

OMG I did this EXACT SAME THING! That's crazy!!! Great minds think alike!! :)

[A]

For the deviled eggs, actually most recipes I know add cream cheese to the yolks (plus the mustard, salt, pepper and whatever spice you want, like cayenne). The cream cheese will increase the volume and make it fluffy, so you can get the little mountains in the eggs. It does become a little bit lighter in color though.
The eggs are lovely by the way.

[trickyfish]

Hi, I was one of the many that found you through Lifehacker, and I have to say thank you for this. I had a good time making these, and an even better time seeing my 4 year old niece light up when I told her they were dinosaur eggs.

[Silani]

I tried these last year, but they didn't work for me. Must have been the dye. What kind did you use?

[Jayne]

Oh I'm so glad she liked them!  And what a great idea to tell her they're dinosaur eggs!  Thanks for commenting!

[Jayne]

Hi Silani,  I used gel food coloring, mine happened to be Wilton - http://search.wilton.com/?q=food+coloring.  I used a healthy amount - maybe a quarter teaspoon per mug of water. 

[lortis]

Fine bread crumbs also work to build volume in the yolks.

[Joe]

I remember learning about that in chemistry! We recently did a lab of paper chromatography which was basically the exact same idea.

[James]

If you want to add some color to the finished project, My mother always made deviled eggs and then after she was done and placed them in the tray she would sprinkle peprika on top of them. The red makes the yellow really pop out and they always tasted awesome.

[Zuki]

I've been looking for a creative way to present deviled eggs for my daughter's christmas party at school. These look great! I will be making some red and green ones for tonight's party, I'm sure the kids will love them... Thanks!

[cassie]

I love these eggs! I am going to Surprise my family with these for easter! Thanks a million!

[julie]

SO cool! I found these from the Amy Atlas site! Thanks for sharing!!!

[Four20moon]

Wowza! What a colorful & groovy treat.
For sure trying this for Easter :)

[Shelley]

These are so creative. I'm going to do this for my family for Easter. I'll leave a few for the grandchildren to peel and make the rest into deviled eggs. My Mom always put sweet pickle relish in with the mayo and mustard to add volume. She also put a dash of paprika on top to make it pretty. Thanks for the great idea and Happy Easter 2011 from NC.

[Chyres]

I'm going to use this recipe next year at Christmas!! Great idea. I always bring something different and special. This is sure to be a hit. Now, to only keep it secret for 8 more months.

[Chyres]

Mine are in the fridge now. Can't wait to see how they turn out. My boys hit the eggs with spoons because when they rolled them they pushed too hard and the eggs split too much. We'll see how it works. Happy holiday.

[Vedette]

Wow you guys have such of sense of creativity,passion,and more!!!
Those are the perfect eggs for Easter keep up the good work :)

[Leslie]

I was just wondering do u just have to use the gel or can u use the liquid kind of food colorin

[Jayne]

Hi Leslie, no, you can use the liquid too. I just happen to have the gels.

[mary]

This actually isn't a new technique.
People in Japan have been doing this for a while, but also flavoring their eggs by cracking the eggshells and letting them marinate in a mixture of soy sauce and mirin (also sake I believe)

[Jayne]

mary,

Yes, you are correct, except that theyre Chinese Tea Eggs. In fact, I mention that in this post: http://www.barefootkitchenwitch.com/the_barefoot_kitchen_witc/2009/04/coloring-eggs.html, and Ive also made and written about them (Cha Yip Dahn) in this post:http://www.barefootkitchenwitch.com/the_barefoot_kitchen_witc/2009/04/cha-yip-dahn-chinese-tea-eggs.html. Theyre very tasty! (The Chinese eggs. Mine just taste like eggs.)

[Melcarb68@hotmal.com]

Hi Jayne, love the eggs I'm going to try it tomorrow with my son. Just wondering what part of Rhode Island are you from? I'm in Johnston. ... Looking forward to reading more of your blogg. Also I'm going to try planting some potatoes too. I saw your story on how you did yours and I'm dying to try. When should I put them in the ground? Thanks Melissa

[Jayne]

Hi Melissa,

Welcome! Potatoes go in the ground early to mid-spring according to one of our seed catalogs. They can tolerate cold and the occasional frost. Well be putting ours in soon, so you could do the same. Just make sure the soil is nice and loose so the potatoes have plenty of room to form. Have fun!

[tami]

My son and I did these eggs and they are gorgeous! He was blown away at how they looked when we peeled them. He is 10.
Thanks for the great idea and it was so easy and different from coloring just the shells. I want to make more in different colors from the four colors we tried first.

[A Facebook User]

Thank you for this idea. I fell in love at first sight. I made 36 (72) deviled eggs colored this way. I was afraid people wouldn't eat them because they were so different than the norm. Boy was I wrong. I even left a half dozen just colored, peeled and whole and they ate those, too! Thanks for a new tradition!

From one kitchen witch to another,
Blessed Be.

Tasha

[Devin weiss]

Hey!!! I love these eggs and yours are the best I've seen!!! But I have a problem I made them but they were the worlds hardest eggs to peel!!!! And one I finally got them peeled,the cracks we REALLY light!!!!! PLEASE HELP!!!!!