These dinosaur eggs are a fun twist on hard boiled eggs that leaves your peeled eggs looking like dinosaur eggs! When my boys were little I was browsing recipes when my then 4 year old son walked into my office. He took one look at the computer screen and exclaimed, “Mom! Is that a dinosaur egg??!” What he had spied was actually a Chinese Tea Egg. When brined in a mix of tea, and spices the crackly designs look (to me) like something you’d see on a Halloween themed table, but I took a mental note to make these with fun colors when Easter came around and we could pretend they were Dinosaur eggs. My boys thought they were SO cool.
Ingredients Needed
- Hard boiled eggs
- Water
- Food coloring
How to Make Dinosaur Eggs
- This really couldn’t be easier! The first thing you need is a bunch of hard boiled eggs. After the eggs are cooked, cooled, and dry, gently tap them on the counter top. You want to create little cracks all over the egg. It’s okay if a few small pieces of shell fall off, but try to avoid breaking large chunks off. You should just have small tiny cracks all over. In fact after you make a few taps on the counter, you can even gently squeeze the egg in your hand to crack the shell.
- Use liquid food coloring to tint some water, and plop your eggs in. For some reason, my Ikea kids cups are always my egg-dying cups. We wanted a few different colors so we put a single egg in each cup. This part isn’t rocket science. No specific measurements, just, ya know…do it. I let my kids squeeze in the food coloring so I’m guessing there are about 847 drops in each cup. If you want to be exact.
- Let them sit in the fridge for several hours, or overnight. I’ve actually only let them sit overnight, so I can’t tell you how many hours will do it if you don’t leave them in all night. Somehow that makes it more fun too. My kids get all excited to wake up in the morning and crack their eggs open.
- Remove the eggs from the water, rinse them off (so you don’t color your hands, um, not that I’ve done that…) and gently remove the shells, revealing the dino designs inside!
Dinosaur Eggs
A fun twist on hard boiled eggs that leaves your peeled eggs looking like dinosaur eggs!
Ingredients
- hard boiled eggs
- food coloring
- water
Instructions
- Hard boil your eggs and allow to cool.
- When eggs are cool and dried, gently tap them on the counter top, enough to create cracks, but not enough to loose large chunks of egg shell. You can roll the egg on the counter or gently squeeze it in your hand to create more cracks.
- Fill cups with water and some food coloring-just eyeball it!
- Drop your eggs in the cups and store in the refrigerator overnight.
- The next day, rinse your eggs under cool water, peel, and reveal your dinosaur egg pattern!
Cost: $5
Did You Make This Recipe?Snap a picture, and hashtag it #ourbestbites. We love to see your creations on our Instagram @ourbestbites!
Questions & Reviews
Well, I guess I’m going to have to try these out…my 4 boys will LOVE dinosaur eggs!
I’ve done this with eggs before and put them in potato salad. I think pastel colors in potato salad are pretty, but my husband thinks they are gross. Oh, well, more for me 😉
These are awesome! And so simple! My kids will love them! I also want to try this:http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/04/01/easter-surprise-eggs-the-easy-version/
Wish I had known about these when my kids were small! What fun!!!
My son was excited to see these. He thinks they look like dragon skin. @Elaine-They do sometimes get cackle bands. Most often, the eggs push out smoothly, but sometimes my hens give me eggs with bands that allow you to see the uneven rate at which the egg was created.
My favorite Easter tradition is dying eggs with the girls. This bring back great memories.
-Gina-
so cute!
i wish i had great idea’s like that.
your website is my favorite one to look at.
I saw a great idea last year too. Use the cheap wisks from the dollar store. The cheaper kind allows you to move the metal strands of the wisk aside so you can put a hard boiled egg in. Use these to dip the eggs rather than spoons, etc. Makes much less mess and is a lot easier for my kids to color the eggs!
Those are so cool. What a fun idea. I also love the pic of the boys in their dino costumes. So cute!
What a fun idea!
And I can tell you about the white rings around your eggs. The equipment that the eggs roll on to get to the candling station and the carton will polish the surface of the shell just a little. Enough to keep the dye from sticking evenly on the egg.
I can’t wait to do this with the grandkids!! Thank you!!
I was interested to hear about the reason for the white bands on the blue egg. I decorate Ukrainian Easter eggs, and the person who taught me how to do it said she always called them cackle bands (“The hen pushes the egg out a little, then stops and cackles, then continues.”) I think your comment is true but hers made a fun mental picture.