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Aren’t these naturally colored eggs brilliantly gorgeous?
I remember how exciting it was to draw on hard-boiled eggs with a crayon, drop them into a mug full of colored water, and pull them out ten minutes later to find my artwork intact and the egg bright with color.
I think all the food coloring gave my mom’s nerves a run for their money. She always had us change into old clothes and layered our kitchen counter tops with newspaper. I can’t blame her.
Years and years later (I won’t admit to how long…) we don’t look at food color the same way. When I was a kid, there wasn’t any talk about Red Food Dye #40 and links to behavioral problems. Nor was there talk of artificial food dye being harmful to our health.
Thankfully there is a solution!
Today there are healthier options for coloring food. There is a trend toward using natural ingredients to create color. I did it with my Green Eggs & Ham.
And, today you can find quality natural food coloring.
I used the Rainbow Pack from Nature’s Flavours. It comes in 5 colors – red, yellow, orange, green, and blue. The ingredients are all natural and the color is more concentrated than the other natural food dyes I’ve tried.
Nature’s Flavours is sponsoring a giveaway for SS&GF readers until 3/26/13. Check it out here.
And, they’ve put together a video to show you how they color eggs. I love the speckles eggs!
I’ve shared my method, which is slightly different than the one used by Nature’s Flavours. The results are bright either way. And, it feels so good knowing that the eggs are colored with natural dye.
Are you coloring eggs this year? Have you tried to go the natural route? What was the result?
A simple way to color eggs with natural food coloring.
Ingredients
- water
- distilled white vinegar
- natural food coloring (I used Nature's Flavours)
- hard boiled eggs, as many as desired
Instructions
- Combine 1/2 - 3/4 cup water with one tablespoon vinegar for each color you'd like to dye the eggs. I used one- and two-cup glass measuring cups. I needed more water for the larger measuring cups.
- Add as many drops of food coloring as needed to create the color desired.
- Gently drop one hard boiled egg at at time into the colored water.
- Allow to sit for 10 minutes or until eggs reach the desired color intensity.
- Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to dry.
- Store in the refrigerator.
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lisa
posted on March 21, 2013 at 3:00 pm
I don’t know if this is the same when using food colorings, but when I died eggs last year using foods/spices (purple cabbage, tumeric, etc.) I learned an important tip: if you are using “farm fresh” eggs (not from the grocery store) that are unwashed, you need to make sure you scrub them before using them, otherwise the natural “bloom” on the shell of the egg will repel the color! My eggs looked cute for a little while and then all the color started to bleed off.
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Amy Reply:
March 25th, 2013 at 1:04 pm
@lisa, My eggs didn’t have that problem; but mine were organic from the store. Thanks for the great tip!
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Defne
posted on March 26, 2013 at 3:55 am
Hi!
I did always afraid to color more than one egg at one time, as I really do not know how long can a boiled egg be stored in the refrigerator. as you try, yo may know the answer!
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Amy Reply:
March 26th, 2013 at 8:55 pm
@Defne, I think hard boiled eggs last about a week in the refrigerator. I’ve never eaten the eggs we dye, though, because they sit out for so long.
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