Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Why I STOPPED Boiling Eggs

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Boiled Eggs. They have so many, many uses! And we have been eating a LOT of them in the last month or so, since we started GAPS. They are a super easy and nourishing breakfast for my crew, especially if I make them the night before. My kids love deviled eggs. They're great as egg salad, and when we're not eating GAPS I like to put them in potato salad, macaroni salad and more.
My success with boiled eggs, however, has been inconsistent at best.  I don't know if anyone else has this problem or not but if I follow the typical "bring to a boil, turn off heat, cover and let sit for 10 minutes" The yolks typically turn out an unappetizing greenish color on the outside. If I take them off the heat and cover for 10 minutes the whites are usually less firm and I'm picky about how things feel in my mouth. If it's slimy at all -- BLEH! Not happening! Sometimes they're hard to peel, sometimes it's easy, but more often than not lately they've been really hard to peel. For our road trip last week, I put 5 dozen eggs in a stock pot, covered with water and boiled. I do not, I repeat N.O.T. recommend doing that! what a pain. None were easy to peel. and the ones at the top we really soft, while the bottom were fairly firm. BLEH.
So then we stay at a Holiday Inn Express and their hard-boiled eggs are perfect. And obviously easy to peel. How do they do that??? Well, I finally concluded that they use an egg boiler. I'm pretty sure I've seen those before. But they're probably not cheap. And do I really want another appliance cluttering up my countertop? I don't think so! So what's a girl to do?
I think I finally found the answer.
Last the other day I stumbled upon it on pinterest. Don't boil your eggs; BAKE them!
So I tried it out. Two days in a row and it's a-mazing.
Here's how you do it: Place eggs directly on rack in center of oven. Like so:


Turn the oven on 350 and set your timer for 30 minutes .Have a pair of tongs and a bowl of cold water waiting.
Take them immediately from the oven and drop them in the bowl of cold water.
When they're cool enough to handle you can peel them.
Can I just tell you  they slide right out of the shell! and the yolks are a beautiful yellow color! and the Whites are so nice and firm! The perfect boiled egg! With no boiling involved
You can make as many as your oven will hold! It's fantastic :D This is definitely the method I will be using for coloring Easter Eggs this week!
As info, some of the eggs do get brown spots on the shell, which I can only assume is liquid from the eggs coming through the shell, but I tested and if you dry them with a (paper) towel as you take them out of the water it comes right off. If any sticks you can use a Scotch Brite Green pad to buff any residual spots off and they will be beautiful for Easter coloring.

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