When it comes to dyeing Easter eggs, we all know all about those store bought dyes. Harsh chemicals, strange smells, and even stranger colors. Also, Easter egg dye can be quite expensive, and in today’s economic climate, it certainly does not hurt to save money in any way and in any place possible. This includes seemingly small expenses like Easter egg dye. Besides, if you make your own Easter egg dye, then your kids can dye as many eggs as they want and you don’t have to worry about running out to the store to pick up some more Easter egg dye. By following these simple and easy steps, you can have fabulous Easter eggs is just a few minutes, all with ingredients that you can find in your own home. No trip to the store for beautifully dyed Easter eggs! All that Easter eggs need is a trip to the kitchen cupboard and a few minutes to boil the eggs on the stove.
How to make Easter eggs with homemade dye
Materials needed:
1. Eggs (the number of eggs is based entirely on your own desires)
2. A heavy pot
3. A stove
4. Water (both hot and cold)
5. Ice (or very cold water)
6. A large bowl that all the eggs can fit in
7. A number of small containers, such as small cups or old margarine or butter containers
8. White distilled vinegar
9. Food coloring
10. Either paper towels or paper plates, or the egg carton
11. Vegetable oil (totally optional)
First things first: perfectly hard-boiled Easter eggs
The very first thing that you need for beautiful Easter eggs is some beautifully hard-boiled eggs. Hard-boiling eggs is not difficult, it just takes about 15 minutes total. Here are the steps to perfectly hard-boiled Easter eggs that will be ready to dye in about 15 to 20 minutes (depending on how long it takes you to boil the water).
Do the eggs in several batches, or you should use several pots. It might be easier to do the eggs in several batches rather than trying to juggle a bunch of pots of boiling water and hot eggs all at the same time.
3. Now that you have the eggs in the pot, fill the pot with water so that the water is an inch over the eggs. It does not really matter if you do it with cold water or with hot water, since the water is not going to be all that hot anyway.
4. Next, put the pot on the stove and turn it up to high heat. Bring the water to a rapid boil.
5. Let the eggs boil for exactly 12 minutes.
6. While the eggs are boiling, prepare a bowl of ice water. This bowl needs to be large enough that you can fit all of the eggs in it, since you will be plunging them in the ice water to stop the cooking process.
6. When the 12 minutes are up, remove the eggs from the heat. Remove the eggs from the pot of boiling water (using a slotting spoon works very well in this circumstance so that you don’t burn yourself with the water) and plunge them into a waiting bowl of ice cold water. You need to stop the cooking process of the eggs immediately.
7. Now it’s time for the fun part: the dye! Put about a cup of water in each container. You will need one container for each color.
8. For about every cup of water, add approximately 1 teaspoon of white distilled vinegar. Stir.
9. Now, add the color. Add food coloring until you achieve the color you desire. A good rule of thumb is to add color two drops at a time so that you can see what kind of color you are getting.
10. Submerse the eggs in water to dye them. The longer you leave the eggs in the dye, the more intense the color will be.
11. Dry the eggs on a paper plate or on paper towels. Or you can put the eggs in an egg carton to dry them. Rubbing the eggs with vegetable oil after they are dry will give your Easter eggs a glossy finish.
