Alaska from Scratch April 6, 2012 posted by alaskafromscratch

Kitchen Tip: Baked Hard-Cooked Eggs

Making some hard-cooked eggs this Easter weekend for coloring, egg hunts, or deviled eggs? Here’s a handy step by step on how to bake hard-cooked eggs in the oven. The results? Simpler, easier-to-peel (hooray! this is my least favorite part!) and softer texture (the whites aren’t rubbery). You can make as many dozen at a time as you have muffin pans. Amazing.

Preheat oven to 325. Place a dozen eggs into a standard 12-count muffin pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes.

Place cooked eggs into a cold water bath. The eggshells may have some brown spots on them after baking, but these will wash off easily in the water.

Let those babies take a nice cold bath until cooled through. Now they’re ready for coloring or peeling.

Crack and peel your pretty eggs. Look, no gouges or shell marks from peeling. Just easy, perfect little eggs. You may find some small brown spots on the whites from baking.

There you have it. Lovely little hard-cooked eggs. No grey rings around the yolk from over-cooking, either. They’re ready for your favorite deviled egg or egg salad recipe! Like the fun texture on the egg? Use a serrated knife when slicing.

Happy Easter!

Kitchen Tip: Baked Hard-Cooked Eggs

Yield: 12 hard-cooked eggs

Kitchen Tip: Baked Hard Cooked Eggs

Inspired by Alton Brown

Ingredients

1 dozen eggs
1 12-count standard muffin pan

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325. Place 1 dozen eggs in muffin pan. Bake 25-30 minutes (mine took 25, this will depend on your oven). Place eggs in a cold water bath until cool. Peel.

Notes

Some brown spots may appear on shells and whites from baking. The shells will wash off easily in the water bath. Any brown spots on the whites will remain.

I peeled my egg (pictured) straight from the water bath. Peeling results may vary after coloring or refrigeration.

*The fresher the eggs are the more difficult they are to peel no matter what cooking method you use. If your eggs are quite fresh, I recommend hard boiling them in water with 1/2t of baking soda for easier peeling.

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51 comments

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mary

I recommend leaving the eggs that you want to cook on the counter for about a day or two. This ages the eggs and they are easier to peel regardless of your cooking method.

jkontaxis

not sure what i did wrong..... baked my not super fresh eggs, in a mini muffin pan, at 325 for 30 minutes, did the ice bath, and they werent all the way done and half of the whites came off..... 3 dozen eggs.... sadness

alaskafromscratch moderator

Oh dear, that is sadness! :( so sorry to hear that. I'm beginning to wonder if the type of oven might make a difference (for example, conventional vs. convection or gas vs. electric). All the best.

Susie Cruisie

@alaskafromscratch I have a combination oven and it definitely makes a difference if you use the convection setting instead of bake. Convection circulates the hot air and makes the outside cook faster. Great for making things extra crisp and cooking faster, but for baked goods, covered casseroles, etc, it will not work. The slower bake cycle allows the heat to reach the inside of the food, where convection would cook the outside long before the center was done. Roast veggies will be browned but rock hard, cakes will be golden on top and liquid in the middle, casseroles with a cover/foil will barely get hot inside, and eggs would indeed fail to cook--the shells could be burned brown and the eggs would still not get cooked all the way through.

ArtistDNA

WHATEVER YOU DO, DONT EVEN TRY THIS!!! I almost ruined Easter by cooking them this way! Easier to take the shells off my ---- I had to throw out a dozen eggs and start over by boiling because the shells WOULD NOT come off!! So disappointed!

barbradonachy

We live on a sailboat in the summer and are always looking for ways to reduce water usage. We'll try this method out this summer! Thanks for the post.

Greetings from north of the Arctic Circle.

grannykat

Can this be down in high altitudes?

kat2166

Thanks so much for this tip. I cooked the fresh eggs from my chickens (for deviled eggs) and a store bought dozen (white, for coloring) with your method. The eggs came out great! I cooked them at 325 for 25 minutes. This was the easiest time I've ever had peeling my fresh-from-the-chicken eggs. I may never boil an egg again!

Thanks again,

Kat

alaskafromscratch moderator

@kat2166 Awesome! Thank you so much for letting us know, especially about your results with the fresh eggs! :) Happy Easter!

TeresaLinzmeier

I still had some crack is this normal? This just seemed so easy though. Love it!

Thank you

alaskafromscratch moderator

@TeresaLinzmeier Hi Teresa! So pleased that you tried this and liked it! :) As for cracking, I have found that if there is already an existing weakness in the shell of the egg that it will crack during cooking, whether it's boiled the traditional way or baked in the oven. I've had it happen a couple of times, so I'd say it's pretty normal. Hope this helps! I'm about to bake a batch today myself! :)

Friendlybbw

We tried this using silicone cupcake/muffin pans and were not successful. Only 30 out of 48 eggs were usable.

Sometime in the future I will try a dozen in metal pans.

Susan Simpson

Will this work using the silicone cupcake pans?

alaskafromscratch moderator

@Susan Simpson I've honestly never tried that. If you give it a whirl, let me know how it turns out for you! :)

Michal

@alaskafromscratch @Susan Simpson I used a silicone mini-muffin pan and it worked great!!

JulieKemper

wow! Where has THIS method been? I tried it and I'm going to use it from now on!! GREAT!

alaskafromscratch moderator

@JulieKemper I'm so happy that you tried this and were so pleased with the results! :) Thanks for letting me know.

JoanAltshelerSerratelli

Great! I'm going to this method tonoght.

Gon4mars

I followed the directions to a T and two of my eggs exploded!! I was super scared taking them out, what did I do wrong?

alaskafromscratch moderator

@Gon4mars I'm sure you didn't do anything wrong! I've never had this happen (just made a batch last week). It's hard to say what went wrong... could be the eggs or possibly the oven (does it ever run hot perhaps?). Sorry it didn't work out well for you. How did the rest of the eggs in the batch fair?

Gon4mars

@alaskafromscratch The rest were ok, with brown burnish spots where they touched the cupcake pan. I'm thinking my oven runs hot, will try 20-25 min instead of 30. Thanks!

nikkidt

Can you do this with only 4 or 5 eggs?

alaskafromscratch moderator

@nikkidt Yes, you can! :)

Butch Monkman

They say a old egg after boiling , will peel easier than a fresh egg. Maybe during the holiday, set eggs aside for two or three weeks in the refrigerator.

Calypso98

I just tried this today - was a little concerned because all I had was organic, brown eggs, but they came out perfect! First time ever I've been able to make good hard-boiled eggs. Thanks for posting!

Tedi

Came across this on Pinterest and I am curious - do the eggs have to be room temperature? I know putting cold eggs into hot water causes cracking. Great idea! I can't wait to try it out

Alaska from Scratch

Hi Tedi! Thank you for your question. I have taken the eggs directly from the refrigerator to the pan and into the oven without any trouble with cracking. Hope this helps!

Skeeter

Worked great for peeling :) Just have to figure out how to not getting the burnt spots / lil yellowish. Not a big deal if making egg salad. Love the way they get a little flat on the bottom ( going to make those cute little chick deviled eggs ) Will never boil again !!

Skeeter

I wonder if I make them in cupcake paper .. also I used brown cagefree. Going to try a white egg, thinking the yellow comes from the brown eggs maybe. Not sure but I am willing to experiment to get perfection. Will let you know if I figure it out :)

Alaska from Scratch

I think cupcake papers are a great idea to try! Be sure and let me know how it turns out for you. Thank you for your comments and feedback. :)

Pearl2006

I had some eggs that were getting ready to expire so I am trying this method right now. I have an infant so its hard to cook and watch the boiling eggs etc, this way i can throw them in the oven and put my timer on. *** HINT *** on how to tell if an egg is done- for those who have issues seeing if they are done or not. Take the egg and try to spin it on the counter top, if it spins nicely its done! If it wobbles its not done yet. Give it a try before you even put your eggs in the oven, spin it, it will not spin!

probablytabitha

Thanks for the tip! I am trying this out with some eggs that were on the brink of expiration (well, according to Pinterest they're good if they don't float in water when raw, and one of them floated while the rest touch the bottom just barely). I was wondering how I could tell when they're done in the oven, since I'm only cooking 7 of them and I was worried about going the full 25-30 minutes.

Update: They're cooling off in water now. One of them floated to the top after baking them...what does that mean?

Terra Baltosiewich

I found you on Pinterest, and love love this idea!!!! What a great idea. I will be doing this for sure this weekend:-) Take care, Terra

mnmom

I was excited to try this because I hate peeling eggs. Unfortunately it wasn't any different than boiling them for us. :( We baked 3 dozen and are about 1/2 way through peeling them. The whites are coming off with the shells. We followed the directions exactly so I'm not sure what went wrong. We are using brown, organic eggs.

Alaska from Scratch

Thank you for your feedback. I'm sorry to hear that you're having the same trouble peeling the eggs! I have heard that the fresher the eggs the more difficult they are to peel in general, but I've never tried this theory to see if it's true for this recipe. I'm wondering if that might be the case for your organic brown eggs (I love brown eggs!).

BobbiePaytonPitman

There is absolutely no difference in taste between brown eggs and white eggs! It is the breed of CHICKEN who determines the color of the egg. A free-range farmer can own both white layers and brown layers. Brown egg layers typically eat more food(it's just the breed), therefore, the eggs can cost more to the consumer. The difference in taste is the "flavoring" of the free-range eaters: weeds and bugs. I, personally, prefer the mild(some say bland) taste of the grain-fed chicken. We had chickens, but their job was 'bug control," and they did it well!

Bunny Lee Ryan

I have 5 hens and have always avoided boiling the eggs for hard boiled; just too hard to peel because of the freshness of the eggs. Store eggs are an average of 45 days old. Tried your method of baking and was very happy. I did get some yellowing on the white, wondered if it was because of the coated pan I baked them in but it's not a big problem. Now we will be able to cook our eggs in any fashion. Thanks so much!

Alaska from Scratch

Thank you very much for your input about the fresh eggs! Really appreciate your feedback. :)

Shirl

I will try this. And if it works I will use my cupcake trick: Rather than a muffin tin, use canning lids on a cookie sheet. You can lots more in a batch.

The Fruitbat

Tried the baking of the egg the other day when they where cooled I peeled off the shell and the white of the eggs where yellowish any ideas why????? It is the easy ways to make 9 dozen DEVILED Eggs please let me know if anyone else has had these issues thanks

Alaska from Scratch

Hi Fruitbat, Thank you for your comment. I just got a similar comment from PizzaQueen31 today on the same issue, but before today had not had anyone report this. I'm beginning to wonder if the type of pan makes a difference? I'm going to make a batch tomorrow to go camping and I will experiment with some different things and see if any of mine turn yellow. Thanks!

PizzaQueen31

After the eggs cooled I peel of the shell the whites of the eggs where not white they where yellowish any one else with this issue or any ideas why Please let me know thanks

Alaska from Scratch

Hi PizzaQueen31, Thank you for your comment. I've never had this happen and you are the first person to report this issue. I am very interested to find out why this happened as well. I hope we can get to the bottom of it.

Alaska from Scratch

I'm going to make a batch tomorrow and experiment with a few things and see if I can't figure this out. :)

Kristin

I got it to work perfectly. I have a standard oven. I had it at 360 degrees for 31 minutes. You would never know it was baked versus boiled except for the little brown speckles when you can cut out. Thanks for this!!!

danakx

We bake eggs in our solar oven, and they also turn out amazingly easy to peel. The greatest difficulty is knowing when to take them out, as our oven temperatures are not consistent. At 250 it seems to take about two hours; at 300, about an hour. I wish there was a way to *know* for sure.

Csruiz84

I tried this tonight and it worked great. Only had 1 egg that did not peel nice out of 18. I will use this method from now on!!! THANKS!!!

Denaliam

I tried this today just because I wanted to bake up a batch of hard "baked" eggs for salad for the week ahead (maybe even today!) I was really intrigued by the easy peel part because I buy brown organic eggs in the 18 pack because they taste better than the white ones (just our opinion here folks) BUT they were always a pain in the patootie to peel and I think I lost a lot of the whites down the drain... SO today I tried this (even though my MIL thought I was a little kooky for baking them) and I must say it really worked and I was done peeling them in a fraction of the time it used to take me when I stove-top boiled them. I don't mind the lil brown spots and we agree that they taste just as good if not better, so thank you soo much for this great idea! I enjoy learning new things and I appreciate you sharing! God Bless! Happy Resurrection Day!

Kjo

I tried this today, my first batch came out kind of gooey, so I am thinking my oven is slow and just need to bake them a little bit longer next time....

Alaska from Scratch

Thanks for trying this and thank you for the feedback. I have updated the recipe slightly to indicate times will vary according to your oven. :)