It seems logical to hard-cook eggs in a pot of water — that’s how our moms, grandmas and their moms and grandmas have been doing it for centuries, right? While there’s something to be said for tradition, it may be time to bring your egg cooking into the 21 century by baking them in the oven.
Oven-baked boiled eggs take about the same amount of time as boiling them. The big advantage here isn’t enjoying your eggs earlier. As crazy as it sounds, baking them in the oven nearly guarantees perfectly cooked eggs every time. They’re tastier and fluffier and (bonus) easier to peel!
Oven-baked Boiled Eggs Recipe
What you’ll need:
- 1 (12-muffin) tin or 2 (6-muffin) tins (optional, but recommended).
- 1 dozen eggs.
- 12 cupcake liners (optional).
- 1 large bowl filled with ice water.
- Tongs or a kitchen towel.
Directions:
- Position the oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat it to 325 degrees F.
- Line the muffin tins with cupcake liners and place one egg in each liner.
- Bake the eggs for 30 minutes. Remove them from the oven immediately and (using tongs or a kitchen towel) transfer them to the ice water to cool.
- When they’re cool enough to handle, you can peel them or store them in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.
Take a look at: How to Fry a Turkey? A Southern Tradition
Differences in the Cooking Process
There are a couple of things you should be prepared for when you use this method. When you’re peeling these eggs, you’ll find that it’s a bit different. In a pot of boiling water, the tip of the egg usually rises a bit, so you usually find that the air pocket you need to really get a good peel that goes under that thin membrane under the shell is there. When you bake the eggs, that doesn’t happen, so your air pocket is usually at the bottom of the egg.
There may be small brown spots on the peeled eggs where the shell touched the pan. They don’t seem to affect the flavor, so there’s no need to discard that portion.
We also really recommend using the muffin tin and cupcake liners. You can bake the eggs directly on the rack, but if one bursts (which is possible) you’ll have a baked-on mess on your hands. The muffin tin makes it easier to get the eggs out in a timely manner, but you don’t want to ruin that, either, which is where the cupcake liners come in. If you choose to bake directly on your rack, put a piece of tin foil under the eggs just in case. You can also line the muffin tin with foil if you don’t have cupcake liners.
We recommend eating unpeeled baked eggs within seven days. This method may last longer, as the water in a boiling pot washes off a special coating that keeps the eggs fresher longer, but since that coating is clear, there’s no way to know if the heat of the oven breaks it down.