Quickie Vibrant Easter Eggs

If what you want are quick colored eggs, in under 60 minutes, I can help with that. You can also do this with the kids, but what I have here is vibrant eggs of solid color, fast. You can adapt this to suit your family as you see fit. :D 

Put raw eggs into pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, start timer for 20 minutes. Boil the whole time.

While the eggs are boiling...

In a 1/2 gallon pitcher, combine 3/4 cup white vinegar and fill the pitcher to the 2 quart mark with luke warm water. 

Take large soup bowls or large glasses (nothing that will absorb the color!) and add a good toothpick full of Wilton Cake Decorating food color or about 1/3 to 1/2 bottle of food color liquid. I don't mean those little droppers bottles, I mean the 1 oz. bottles of food color. I used 5 colors, blue, red, yellow, green and violet. In each bowl, mix just enough of the vinegar water to make sure the food color is mixed in and not lumpy. Then pour enough water to make about one inch of liquid. 

When egg timer goes off after 20 minutes, remove each egg with a slotted spoon and carefully lower into food dye bowls. DO NOT dye broken eggs. After you have all the hot eggs into the food color bowls, add enough of the vinegar water to raise liquid level to about covering eggs, if you can. A little less is no big deal, just turn the eggs every couple of minutes. 

5 minutes, maybe ten and your eggs are done. With your slotted spoon, remove each egg and lay gently onto a folded paper towel, on a plate. Each color on a separate plate, while they are wet. The paper toweling will allow excess liquid to drain and since the eggs are still hot, they will dry in a minute or two.

Once they are dry, return to egg cartons and store in fridge. I did all of these in under one hour, including clean up. 

A quick trick with the kids is letting them draw designs with crayons on the eggs before dying. But they are hot eggs, so maybe an adult should hold the egg. 

This method can be used with cold, boiled eggs too. It's just not as quick.

P.S. Any residue color can be removed by a quick swish in bleachy water. Don't use plastic bowls, they'll not recover well from the vibrant dyes. 



Aren't they beautiful?



See the pitcher of water. It's 3/4 cup white vinegar and the rest warm water.



Stir them around a little, turning them over every minute or two. The longer they sit, the brighter they get.



Remove the dyed eggs to paper toweling to dry. Only takes a minute or two. Remember, they are hot yet.



Back into their carton. They are dry to the touch, no dye on my hands! Into the fridge they go! Who gets to hide the eggs? Peter Cottontail! :)