How to Hard Boil Eggs for Decorating

April 3, 2015

Dyeing eggs is an Easter tradition.  Whether you hide the colorful eggs in the backyard or use them to decorate the table, Easter would be remiss without them.  Knowing how to hard boil eggs perfectly is a necessarily skill, especially during this time of year.  There are a few tricks to having crack-free eggs and keeping those yolks bright yellow.

Tricks to Perfect Hard Boiling Eggs:

1. Usually it does not matter if the egg shell cracks during the cooking process, however; we want to avoid this when dyeing or decorating eggs.  The main reason eggs crack is because of a drastic temperature change.  The key is to make sure that the eggs are the same temperature as the water.  This can be accomplished in one of two ways.  You can either place the eggs straight from the fridge into cold water or use room temperature eggs in warm water.  The eggs will rise in temperature at roughly the same rate as the water.  

2. Boil the eggs for roughly ten minutes and then remove them from the burner and allow to sit in the hot water for an additional ten minutes.  This prevents the eggs from overcooking and the whites from becoming rubbery.

3. While you do not want to shock the eggs in the beginning of the cooking process, you do want to towards the end of it.  Drain the eggs and dunk them in a bowl of ice water or run them under cold water for a few minutes.  This step stops the cooking and keeps the yolk bright yellow.

Do you have any tips and tricks to hard boiling eggs? Please let us know in the comments section below.

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