Monday, April 21, 2014

Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs

To get in the environmentally Easter spirit, I decided to help my little sister dye her Easter eggs with natural dyes found in our kitchen. I tried all of the following but you can pick and choose based on what color of eggs you want: coffee, tea, red onion, red cabbage, turmeric, yellow onion, blueberry juice, a mixture of blueberry and cranberry juice, chili powder, and cayenne pepper. All of the recipes are super simple, and the colors all got more vibrant the longer they were left in their mixture. I left them in for 9 hours total, but would check them every 2 hours to watch their progress. Remember that you shouldn't consume eggs if they've been sitting out for over an hour!
Coffee: Soak a hard-boiled egg in a mixture of 1 cup strongly brewed coffee and 1/8 cup vinegar at room temperature. The coffee stain produced a lightly tanned egg with dark brown speckles.
Tea: Soak a hard-boiled egg in a mixture of 1 cup of steaming water with 3 tea bags and 1/8 cup vinegar. It starts as a light brown color and the longer you let it sit, the darker brown it becomes.
Red Onion: Soak a hard-boiled egg in a mixture of 1 cup water and 1/8 cup white vinegar and a dry peel from a red onion. Before the egg had dried, it looked to be a murky brown color, but as it dried it turned to a deep red with brown specks.
Turmeric: Soak a hard-boiled egg in a mixture of 2 cups water, 3 tablespoons turmeric, and 1/8 cup vinegar. Even after 2 hours of soaking, I could tell this was going to one of my favorites because it created a beautiful pastel yellow.
Yellow Onion: Soak a hard-boiled egg in a mixture of 1 cup water and 1/8 cup vinegar and a dry peel from a yellow onion. After about 3 hours the egg will be a deep yellow, and the longer it sits in the mixture, the darker it will become. After 9 hours, it is a burnt orange.
Blueberries: Mash 1/2 cup of blueberries and add 2 Tablespoons vinegar. This takes the least amount of time because you simply have to roll the hard-boiled egg in the mixture and let it dry, a process of 2 minutes. It's also what I found to be the prettiest egg, giving a blue-purple swirled egg.
Cayenne Pepper: Soak a hard-boiled egg in a mixture of 2 cups warm water, 3 tablespoons cayenne pepper, and 3 tablespoons cayenne pepper. Be sure to dissolve all of the cayenne pepper, or it will leave brown flecks on the orange egg.
I've also found recipes for dying eggs with red cabbage (which surprisingly gives you a light blue dye), blueberry and cranberry juice (which is a deep purple), and chili powder (which is similar to the cayenne pepper). The link to those recipes can be found here.

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