Easter eggs 101 - how to boil, decorate and make deviled eggs out of them: Table Talk

Grant Butler | By Grant Butler |
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on April 17, 2014 at 10:45 AM, updated April 19, 2014 at 6:52 PM

Easter is this weekend, and for many families, decorating eggs and staging a fun Easter egg hunt is a fun part of the observance of the Resurrection.

You can find simple and elaborate egg decorating kits at grocery stores and food specialty shops, but you can you can plug into your DIY creativity and create your own unique eggs.

First, though, you need perfect hard-boiled eggs. All you need are some older eggs, which are easier to peel, a pan and some water. Just follow these four easy steps:

  1. In a large stockpot or other good-sized pan, arrange the eggs in a single layer, then cover with about an inch of room temperature water.
  2. Turn your burner on high, and bring the water to a boil, letting the eggs boil for just 1 minute.
  3. Turn off the stove and let the eggs sit in the hot water for 12 minutes. That gives the eggs time for the yolks to set without overcooking them (which is what causes that unpleasant green ring that hardboiled eggs sometimes get).
  4. Use a slotted spoon to remove the eggs, then immediately plunge them into a bowl of ice water. Allow them to sit in the ice bath for an hour, replenishing ice as necessary. Then refrigerate in their original carton until ready to use.

From there, it's time to decorate. And there are lots of fun ideas on the web.

Our Homes & Gardens columnists The Pecks show how to make your own dyes using botanical things like beets, cabbage and coffee. Then they show how to decorate them

Williams-Sonoma shows some tricks for making really elaborate Easter eggs.

And Girl Versus Dough shows how to make crackled Easter eggs, which result in some of the prettiest hard-boiled eggs ever when the eggs are peeled.

Once your eggs are dyed, return them to the original carton and return to the refrigerator until ready to display or hide. Incredible Egg advises that hard-boiled eggs should not be out of refrigeration longer than two hours, so if you're doing an Easter egg hunt, don't hide eggs until just before, and return eggs to the refrigerator as soon as possible, discarding any that have been out of refrigeration for more than two hours.

Those eggs now can be transformed into deviled eggs. Here are three great recipes:

-- Grant Butler