Growing up in a Greek home, it was not uncommon for us to set a whole day aside during Easter week to color eggs and bake the traditional braided Greek bread called tsoureki (pronounced tsu-re-ki). The beautifully bright colored eggs that adorn this delicious bread are first boiled, then colored and then baked into the tender braided dough. The coloring we always used at home is available in a multitude of different colors and can be purchased in local international grocery stores.
The use of these artificial dyes always bothered me… even as a kid…because after the eggs were colored they were baked into the bread and almost always, the dye came off and would color parts of the bread itself. I don’t know about you, but with all of the FDA warnings regarding food coloring, I’m always looking for ways to keep this artificial stuff out of the food products that I consume.
Several months ago I was doing some research online for sweet rolls and breads, and came across a few great sites that offered some very unique ways of coloring eggs. This site in particular, offered some more natural alternatives to coloring eggs with the use of beet juice, red cabbage and turmeric…but I also found a few others that suggested the use of blueberry juice. Granted, the shades you achieve with a natural food coloring are not as deep as their more conventional counterparts, but I actually find the pastel colors more appealing.
These days many of us have all made adjustments in our daily habits to incorporate more natural, healthy standards in how we source our food and how it is prepared. Since being green is so trés chic, the process of using natural food coloring really piqued my interest.
The one alternative that caught my eye in particular, and produced the most interesting result was the process that uses onion skins to create a more mottled, marbled look.
During my research, I visited several Serbian and Croatian sites that mentioned a centuries old tradition that had effectively utilized this process to color eggs throughout history, but I had never heard of it before and I was sure that many of my readers had not either.
So, I decided that this was definitely going to be something I wanted to try…
The soaked onion skins are wrapped around the egg and then the egg is placed in a fabric sleeve and then boiled. Some other design ideas incorporate the use of small delicate flowers or delicate leaves of ferns that are placed on the surface of the egg, then wrapped in the onion skins and then boiled. The flower and fern designs get transferred onto the egg and provide a more dainty, hand painted appearance.
I would not use these in the baked bread, because the onion skins do impart an oniony flavor, but the other natural alternatives listed above would work just fine.
Try this when you want to surprise your friends and family with a more unique centerpiece. After the eggs are shined up with a little oil, they look just like marble.
Onion Skin Dyed Eggs
White eggs
Onion skins
Cheese cloth or small pieces of fabric
White vinegar
Twist ties
Decide on how many eggs you would like to color and then begin saving the peels of the onions a few weeks before you plan to do the coloring. Take a pot that will fit comfortably all of the eggs that you choose to color, and fill it half way with cold water. Add a little white vinegar, which helps to set the color. Begin by soaking the onion leaves in water and also the cheesecloth or thin fabric scraps which you are planning to use.
Squeeze out all of the water from the cheesecloth and lay it flat on your surface. Begin covering the surface of the egg with the wet onion skins. Make sure the egg is completely covered all around. Lay the egg into the center of the fabric and fold the fabric upwards.
Using a twist tie secure the top. Place this in the pot with the cold water and vinegar. Repeat until you have finished all of your eggs in the same manner.
Boil your eggs for 20 minutes to ensure that they have hardened, then remove from heat and rinse under cold water.
Unwrap your eggs and check out your very unique designs. Pat each egg dry with a paper towel and set aside. Put a few drops of vegetable oil on another paper towel and shine each egg, wiping off any excess. Place in a beautiful dish and just sit back and wait for the compliments.
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