Marbled Eggs

Marbled Hard Boiled Eggs 

Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays with great memories of my grandparents setting up (surprisingly difficult) easter egg hunts and having tasty dinners all together. Plus, there was always the added bonus of getting to wear a special hat to church for mass. This year, however, I'm on my own in London and not really celebrating in the more traditional ways. Therefore, I wanted to find a way to take some of the traditions and use them more appropriately for the situation. I settled on dyeing eggs since it was always one of my favorite activities and I haven't actually been able to enjoy it for a couple of years now. However, I can't really set up an easter egg hunt for myself (cheating!) so I found this technique online for marbling hard boiled eggs.

Ingredients

Cracked Eggs

Eggs in their food colorings

Essentially, you're dyeing the eggs as usual but cracking them before hand so the dye gets into the shell and colors the white of the hard boiled egg inside. I was really pleased with the results and with the fact that this technique only requires eggs, food coloring, vinegar and plastic bags... all things I usually have on hand. If you're looking for something fun or a little different for a party, these would also make really cute deviled eggs - something I'm considering for an upcoming wine and cheese party since my recipe for deviled eggs includes cheddar... I'll have a separate post on the recipes I use for that event (I like to serve some cheese or wine based food options alongside so that no one leaves hungry!). In this post, I'm also including my recipe for egg salad as an example of how you could also use these eggs to brighten up your lunches.

Dyed eggs 

Marbled eggs fresh from their shells

Blue

Green

Marbled Eggs Method

You will need: 

Hard boiled Eggs
Liquid Food Coloring
White Vinegar
Water
Paper towels
Kitchen gloves (optional)

After hard boiling the eggs, rinse under cool water until they have cooled enough to handle or leave to cool completely if you aren't in a hurry. When cool, tap on a hard surface to crack the egg all over it's shell. I was a little overzealous with my cracking for one of my eggs and as a result I had a colored egg and not a marbled one. The fewer the cracks, the more the marbled effect will show but that's entirely up to you. When ready, place the eggs in plastic bags designated by color (I only had three eggs so I used three different colors and three bags but you could probably add several eggs to each bag). Pour the food coloring in a few drops at a time until you feel the egg is well covered. I was very generous with my pours and the eggs turned out great although it seemed a bit wasteful. Twist the bag so that the food coloring won't slide out as you turn the eggs and make sure they're well coated in color. Leave the bags to sit for 30 minutes. When ready, remove the egg from the bag and give it a quick rinse with white vinegar to set the color. Next, rinse with water to remove the excess food coloring and place onto paper towels to dry. When ready, remove the outer shells and reveal the marbling! I wore kitchen gloves for this because there will be food coloring in the cracks of the shell etc and it can dye your fingers some interesting colors but that's entirely optional. Enjoy!

Ready to grate the egg

Grated Marbled Egg 

Finished egg salad! 

Egg Salad Recipe

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: N/A

Serves: 1

Ingredients: 

1 hard boiled egg, grated
1/2 stalk of celery, finely chopped
1 tbsp red onion, finely chopped
20g mature cheddar, grated
1 tbsp sweet pickle relish
2-3 tbsp mayonnaise or miracle whip (I use a mix of both)
Crackers or 2 slices of bread

Method: 

Using a cheese grater, grate the egg and cheese and add to your mixing bowl. Next add the celery, red onion and pickle relish, followed by the mayonnaise or miracle whip. Mix thoroughly and enjoy with crackers or make into a tasty sandwich.