Super Fancy Deviled Eggs

When I was about 12 I stumbled upon a way to make your deviled eggs more fancy when you eat them.  It had always bothered me that I worked so hard to make such pretty Easter eggs, and the only one who got to see my hard work was my mom as she peeled them to make deviled eggs.  One time I accidentally dropped the hard boiled egg on the counter, but dyed it anyways, and I was amazed at what happened; the egg itself got colored (not just the shell).  I've been doing it intentionally ever since, and have come up with a few different techniques to make some cool looking eggs.

Supplies (for the coloring part)
1 container per color (like a coffee cup)
1/2 cup warm or hot water per coffee cup
1 Tablespoon vinegar per cup
hard boiled eggs
Food coloring - NOTE: be careful what colors you choose, too much yellow or light green and the eggs just look sickly
Paper towels (I used the leftover bits from making the baby wipes from my very first post)
Newspaper to cover your counter (not shown, but would have been a good idea)

Put 1/2 cup of warm or hot water in your coffee cup and add your food coloring (I did 3 drops red and 2 drops blue for a purple color)

Drop your egg on the counter or mush it between your fingers to get a lot of cracks in it, the more the better.  You need to crack it fairly hard so that the membrane under the shell gets cracked too, the membrane just under the shell is not water permeable, so the dye will not go through anyplace where the membrane is still intact.

Gently place your egg into the dye and let it sit there as long as you like.  The longer you let it sit, the more vibrant your color will be and the farther into the egg white it will go (when i was a kid I forgot one once for half an hour in the dye and the color was a good half inch into the white part)


Carefully pull your egg out and towel off any extra liquid.  Let it dry and then peel it.

OK, so I should have left it in longer so that it showed up better on camera (the egg was only in for about 2 minutes), but if you look closely you can see a light purple crackle pattern (its very pretty in person, it just didn't photograph very well)

You can also peel the egg entirely before you dye it, this allows for more vibrant effects.

Top center egg - Place egg in dye bath in lighter color (light purple as prepared above), add one drop of the darker color directly on top of the egg while it's in the cup, let it sit for a minute or two

Bottom right egg -  4 minutes in the light purple dye prepared above

Bottom left - Crackle egg from first part.

If you get distracted during dying and wind up with some egg dye on your counter, pour some rubbing alcohol onto it (a pretty good amount) and let it sit for a couple of minutes.  Wipe it up with some paper towels and its gone :-)

To make your now FABULOUSLY gorgeous eggs into deviled eggs you need:

Mayo or miracle whip

Mustard (I mix horseradish mustard and yellow mustard, but you can use what you like)

Paprika

your eggs

a serving plate

a bowl

a fork 

a knife

a Ziploc bag (sandwich size if you're just doing a few eggs, if you're doing a dozen or more you'll probably need a quart or a gallon bag.  A pastry piping bag would also work)

Cut your eggs in half and put the yolks into your bowl

Add a forkful or two of mayo and a half a hot dog's amount of mustard (I don't measure, its all about texture and taste, so just kind of eyeball it)

Mash it all up and stir it together.  Make sure to taste it to see if its a consistency and flavor that you like, adjust as needed.  Scoop all the filling into your Ziploc and snip the tip off of one corner.

Put the bag into the egg cavity and gently squeeze to fill the egg.  Have fun with it, make some swirly, some big ol' blobs, some with dots, etc.

Sprinkle the tops with paprika and TA DA!  Beautiful, one of a kind deviled eggs that make a wonderful addition to any springtime feast.

Oh, and if you're wondering what to do with those leftover deviled eggs after your feast is over,  throw them all into a reusable container (like a glad box or Tupperware) and chop them up and you get some festive egg salad!