When and how to paint eggs for Easter and bake Easter cakes. How to dye Easter eggs with natural dyes

Colored eggs are an indispensable attribute of a bright Easter. This is the main holiday dish and a good Easter gift to a friend and relative. Every year, believers paint eggs before the holiday so that there is prosperity and joy in the house. But the great holiday falls at different times every year and have you ever wondered when it is allowed to paint eggs before Easter? Do this in the week leading up to Easter, and on what day - let's try to figure it out.

We paint eggs for Easter on Maundy Thursday and Saturday

Our ancestors began to prepare for the holiday from the Monday of Holy Week preceding the holiday. But if you paint eggs on Monday, what will happen to them until Sunday? Traditionally, two days are allocated for this festive preparation:

• Pure Thursday. Don't start painting eggshells early in the morning. First, put things in order in the house - do a general cleaning, wash windows, doors and floors, wash clothes. According to tradition, everyone bathes at home on this day. Then start baking Easter cakes and paint eggs.
• Great Saturday. If you spent the whole Thursday cleaning, and it didn’t come to coloring the eggs, don’t be discouraged. You can paint them and cook different festive dishes in the kitchen on Saturday morning. On Sunday, no one does it anymore.

Why can't you paint eggs for Easter on other days of Holy Week?

On the first three days of Holy Week - Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, it is forbidden to engage in household chores. Pray at home, go to church, observe the rules of fasting. In addition, it is too early to paint boiled eggs, they will deteriorate before Sunday.

The saddest day of the week before Easter is Good Friday. On this day our Lord was crucified. Give up all household chores, fast, pray, go to church. Priests recommend to refrain from any housework on this day. But if you have no other time, start painting eggshells after 15-00. This is the time of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on the cross. But it is unlikely that you will want to do homework on such a sad day.

When did the tradition of dyeing eggs for Easter begin?

This tradition, according to one version, came to us from the 10th century. This is stated in the writings dating back to the tenth century. A manuscript was found in the library of a Greek monastery and it says that after the Paschal service, the hegumen distributed colored eggs to the monks and said: “Christ is Risen!”

If you read the Bible, you know that the tradition of dyeing eggshells appeared even earlier - after the resurrection of the Lord. Mary Magdalena hurried after the miraculous resurrection of Jesus Christ to the Roman emperor Tiberius to tell the good news. She brought him an egg. But the ruler laughed and said that he would believe in the resurrection only if the eggshell changed color. And a miracle happened! The eggshell turned purple. This shade is not random. It is a symbol of the shed blood of Jesus Christ for all people.

Folk signs associated with colored eggs for Easter

In Rus', many signs are associated with Easter eggs:

• the first painted egg presented for Easter has unique properties. It never deteriorated, and it was placed next to the icons and kept until the next holiday. People believe that it protects the house from evil people and all evil spirits;
• do not throw away the shell of a colored egg. Bury it in the garden and get a good harvest;
• to preserve beauty and youth, young girls washed their faces with water, in which they had previously placed the shells of colored eggs.

Create an extravaganza of color for your Easter basket by painting eggs in bright and festive colors. Take it to the temple along with Easter cakes and dedicate it. Give this Easter gift to a friend or relative and share the joy of our Lord's resurrection.

This article is a little helper for beginners who first decided to try their hand at cooking Easter eggs. Although the process seems complicated and tricky, here you can find a lot of useful tips and answers to frequently asked questions that beginners visit. And most importantly, it should be remembered: everyone was once a beginner, and their success came with time.

How to boil eggs for Easter: basic knowledge

Cooking eggs for Easter is a very responsible process, since the success of the holiday depends entirely on them. Whether you treat loved ones or hide a failed dish - it all depends on the knowledge of theory and practice. Since it is unreasonable to start preparing the main element of Easter without realizing how much they are being prepared, you should still start with theory. Here is the most important information to help you prepare for Easter.

• check the quality of the product in advance: this can be easily done by dropping the egg into warm water. If fresh, suitable for food, remains lying at the bottom of a container of water, then unsuitable for consumption will float, remaining on the surface of the water;
• salt the water before cooking to avoid spreading the protein;
• choose the right dishes: it should not greatly exceed the number of eggs that you plan to cook;
• after you have cooked everything to the state you need, immediately cool it in cold water to avoid continuing the cooking process;
• the water in the cooking container should be 2-3 cm higher than the level;
• the quantity does not play an important role: you can cook both 20 and 5 pieces.

Soft-boiled Easter egg

Typically, eggs cooked this way have a hard, non-rubber white and a runny, rubbery yolk. It is unlikely that serving such an egg for Easter would be a good idea, since often children do not bring them home, eating them on the way. But you can safely please your loved ones with them by serving them on Easter morning. It can be a standalone product or a wonderful addition to a crispy slice of bread dipped in a viscous yolk. Now you will find out how long it takes to boil soft-boiled eggs for Easter.

Will need:

• salt;
• cool water;
• pot;
• eggs.

And the process itself does not require much effort:

1. Pour the eggs with cold water and lightly salt the water;
2. Put the container on a strong fire and bring to a boil;
3. Simmer for 5 minutes, reducing heat to medium;
4. After the time has elapsed, place the finished product in cold water.

- take note of this recipe. This unusual dish that came to us from the Mediterranean is definitely worth it to learn how to cook it.

Delicious chopped beef steak - interesting how to cook it in our article.

Turkey fillet in sour cream sauce, this is what will make the meat unusually tasty and juicy. Read the recipe.

Preparation for staining

Without a doubt, hard boiled eggs are the most popular option for Easter as they are the easiest to peel and eat without getting your hands and face dirty. In addition, they are most often dyed in various colors and shades.

To prepare for this staining process, you must first boil them soft-boiled. You need to prepare as many pieces of eggs as they are usually boiled for Easter in your family. And how many minutes to cook them hard-boiled for painting, you will learn further.

For this you need:

1. Put the eggs in the pan, observing all the indicated rules;
2. Fill with water and salt it;
3. Bring the liquid to a boil and cook for 10-15 minutes;
4. Cool immediately in cold water.

But best of all, if you decide to paint yourself, then choose a white shell. It is the white color that will evenly stain, acquiring a variety of shades.

Painting

Choosing a product for coloring always takes a lot of time. After all, it’s hard to decide: invest in food coloring and save time or use improvised means after spending hours in the kitchen. But statistics show that most Russians prefer natural remedies. Here's how to paint eggs for Easter with some of them:

1. Always put eggs in cold water;
2. Warm them up before the cooking process, after taking them out of the refrigerator for a couple of hours;
3. If the water has evaporated during the cooking process, then it should be added;
4. Cooking should always be done on a quiet or even slow fire, since the shell may be damaged during a violent boil;
5. Set a timer for the first time to make it easier for you to wait and not overcook the eggs;
6. Don't boil them too long, as the white becomes rubbery and the yolk becomes covered with a raw, unpleasant coating.

Now, with the arrival of Easter, you should not be afraid of failure in the preparation of a traditional attribute. We reviewed the entire theory and answered common questions that beginners have. Now you just have to constantly practice, improving your results over and over again. Good luck!

On what day eggs are painted for Easter, the exact date simply does not exist. There may be several options when eggs are dyed, and they all fit into the framework of Holy Week. We remind you that this is the name of the last week, six days before Easter. In principle, on every day of this week, except for Good Friday if possible, eggs can be dyed.

But in Rus', traditionally, they were in no hurry with the preparation of such important attributes of the festive table as dyed eggs and Easter cakes, as well as cottage cheese cakes. Because, colored eggs are eaten not only on the Sunday of Easter itself, but also during the entire festive week afterwards. This means that the eggs should be as fresh as possible (although they can be stored in the refrigerator boiled for several weeks).

It is best to start painting Easter eggs at. By tradition, this is done already in the evening, when the cleaning is completed, when the believer went to the church for the service, confessed and took communion. In some church calendars, you can find information that on Good Friday, in principle, you can also paint eggs and cook Easter cakes. But the folk tradition here is categorical and advises all the same on Good Friday - the day of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his martyrdom, to abandon household chores.

Then you can continue coloring the eggs, if it is still necessary from Maundy Thursday, you can at. It is important to get everything done in the first half of the day, because an important rite of this Saturday is to go to the temple with an Easter basket and consecrate the holiday products for the first non-fasting meal on the future Resurrection of Christ.

Why are eggs painted at Easter?

As practice shows, not all believers who strictly adhere to this beautiful Easter tradition know why eggs need to be painted. Well, not just to beat them? In fact, there are several different versions of the origin of this tradition, and the most common is associated with Mary Magdalene.

When Christ was Risen, Mary went to Caesar, the emperor of the Roman Empire, to tell this good news. According to the traditions of those years, it was impossible to go to a meeting with Caesar empty-handed, but what gift could the poor Mary Magdalene bring to the emperor? She took with her a basket of fresh chicken eggs. When Magdalene's turn came, she told Caesar that she herself was a witness of how Jesus Christ was resurrected.

Caesar laughed in her face and said that it is impossible for a person to resurrect after death, just as it is impossible for the eggs in her basket to change color. And then, in confirmation of the veracity of the words of Mary Magdalene, in front of Caesar and all those present, the eggs in the basket began to acquire a red tint. For this reason, many believe that Easter eggs should be exclusively red. But there are no strict prohibitions and recommendations in this regard - they should be festive and bright.

Natural dyes for eggs:

1. The palm here belongs to onion peel, many housewives begin to collect it a few months before Easter. Indeed, the more husks are added to the broth, the more saturated the color of the eggs will be in the end. In order to make drawings, you need to stick a leaf to the egg, wrap it with threads, lace, and then lower it to boil in onion broth.
2. A blue color can be obtained if a decoction of carrot seeds and dried blueberries is used to color eggs. Alternatively, you can take fresh red cabbage, chop finely and add water, vinegar. Put eggs in this solution, but at least five hours.
3. A strong seasoning such as turmeric will help achieve a yellow color. Eggs will need to be boiled in a decoction of turmeric with the addition of a small amount of vinegar.

Preparing for Easter, every housewife must paint eggs. Where did this tradition come from and why are eggs painted on Easter?

Legend has it that for the first time Mary Magdalene gave a painted egg to the emperor of Rome for Easter. But this egg was not simple, it was painted red, symbolizing the blood that Christ shed in the name of mankind. On the scarlet egg, only two symbols of H.V. were inscribed, which meant Christ is Risen! It was from that very egg that the custom of painting eggs for Easter began.

How to color eggs for Easter? Myths and reality.

The most common way to color eggs is with food coloring. Fast, convenient, but not always safe for health, especially if the dye is purchased from the hands. The safest method is dyeing eggs with natural dyes. There are many different methods described on the Internet, but not all of them are effective.

Below I will describe my experiments, how you can really color eggs and what methods are a waste of time.

How to dye eggs with onion skins

Even our grandmothers and great-grandmothers dyed eggs with onion peel, modern women also prefer this method.

Coloring eggs with onion skins:
- We collect onion peel in advance. The more onion skins we have, the better.
- Fill the husk with water and put on fire. Cook covered over low heat for at least half an hour. For color intensity, you can boil longer.
- Cool the broth, filter. You can prepare onion broth in advance.
- We take raw eggs, fill them with a decoction of onion peel so that they are completely covered with natural paint.
- Boil the eggs as usual for 7-10 minutes. Cooking longer is not advisable, because with prolonged heat treatment, eggs lose their beneficial nutritional properties.
- Boiled eggs of a beautiful orange color are laid out on a plate. When the eggs have cooled, rub them with vegetable oil to shine.

Benefits of dyeing eggs with onion skins: absolutely harmless to the body. In this way, eggs can be dyed from light yellow to intense red-brown. The saturation of the color depends on the concentration of the decoction. The decoction of onion peel itself is prepared very simply.

Flaws: not known.

Conclusion: The method works, it is cheap and reliable.

P.S. I like to experiment, to check everything on my own experience. So I decided to dye the eggs with blue onions, it is also called Crimean, it has a blue-violet husk. I expected the eggs to turn blue or purple, but as the experiment showed, the eggs turned brown with a slight purple tint. So, I think it’s better to paint eggs for Easter with an ordinary onion, although ... for a change, you can also use blue))))

How to dye eggs with coffee

To be honest, I doubted whether coffee eggs could be dyed. As it turned out, yes, you can, and it turns out very well. So, I'm telling you how to paint eggs in this way.

Coloring eggs with natural coffee:
- Pour natural ground coffee into a saucepan, fill with water. For a glass of water, I took 4 teaspoons of coffee with a slide. For a more intense color, you can take more.
- Bring the coffee to a boil, reduce the heat so that it does not boil away and cook for 10 minutes over low heat.
- Strain the coffee and let it cool down.
- Pour the cooled coffee over the eggs. The coffee should completely cover the eggs. We put on fire.
- Boil the eggs over low heat for 7-10 minutes.
- Carefully remove, put on a plate with a napkin. Thanks to the napkin, which quickly absorbs moisture, dark spots do not form on the bottom of the eggs.

Benefits of dyeing coffee eggs: natural, completely harmless dye. Eggs can be dyed from light coffee to dark coffee, depending on the saturation of the solution.

Flaws: much more expensive than onion skins.

Conclusion: the method works, the coffee extract lays down quite evenly. Experimented with instant coffee. It also works, but not such a beautiful and even color.

How to dye eggs with chokeberry juice

I read about the fact that Easter eggs can be painted with berry juice on the Internet, and I immediately wanted to check this method to see if it really works. And I started with chokeberry.

Coloring eggs with juice:
- We take out frozen chokeberry berries from the freezer. Defrost.
- Press the rowan with a fork to release the juice from the berries.
- Pour raw eggs with water, add crushed fruits of chokeberry. The liquid should completely cover the eggs.
- Hard boil eggs. At the same time, rowan berries color the water in a dark lilac color. Eggs take paint weakly.
- Put the boiled eggs on a plate. As you can see in the photo, the eggs are blue-lilac in color.

Advantages: natural way, completely harmless.

Flaws: weak and uneven coloration. If cracks appear during cooking, then the protein also turns blue, it turns out not very appetizing. It is better to prepare the most useful chokeberry tincture from berries.

Conclusion: You can dye eggs with chokeberry juice. True, blue-violet eggs with awesome streaks are more suitable for Halloweenthan Easter.

Despite the not very good result of painting eggs with chokeberry juice, I still did not lose heart and decided to experiment with blackberries. And, lo and behold, everything worked out!

Coloring eggs with blackberry juice:
- Since the summer we freeze blackberries. On the eve of Easter, we take out the blackberries from the freezer. Defrost.
- We press the blackberry with a fork, then fill it with water and cook for 15-20 minutes. For every 200 ml. water I took a hundred grams of blackberries.
- Strain the broth, cool.
- Degrease the eggs before painting. Boil eggs in blackberry juice.
- Carefully remove the cooked eggs. We make sure that there are no smudges on the eggs, because the blackberry juice continues to color the eggs even after cooking.
- To get the stripes on the egg, pour some juice into the egg holder, carefully place the egg itself and leave it for a few minutes. Then reduce the liquid level and repeat the operation again.

Advantages: a natural way of dyeing eggs, completely harmless.

Flaws: quite difficult to achieve a uniform coating.

Conclusion: blackberries perfectly paint eggs, allows you to create interesting effects.

How to dye eggs with beet juice

From personal experience, everyone knows that beetroot colors meat, potatoes, and eggs in borscht. Therefore, it is quite logical to assume that beetroot juice is suitable for painting eggs for Easter. Is it so? Judge for yourself.

Coloring eggs with beetroot juice:
- Take one large beetroot or several small ones. Choose dark roots.
- Peel off the skin. We cut into plates or straws.
- Cook the beets in a small amount of water to get a rich beet fat.
- We filter the broth, cool.
- Wash raw eggs thoroughly, you can use dish soap.
- Boil the eggs in beetroot broth for 10 minutes, then put the eggs on a plate.

Advantages: relatively cheap. You can dye eggs in borscht)))

Flaws: the eggs are pale.

Conclusion: the result does not live up to expectations.

Can you dye eggs with cherry juice?

I heard about this method of painting eggs for Easter for a long time, I wanted to try everything, but there was no fresh cherry. This year, I froze cherries on purpose to conduct an experiment.

Dyeing eggs with cherry juice:
- We get frozen cherries from the freezer. Defrost. I took 12 cherries for each egg.
- We crush the defrosted cherries with a fork, remove the seeds.
- We take raw eggs, fill them with water, add juice and cherry pulp. We make sure that the liquid level is above the level of the eggs.
- Hard boil eggs. Despite the bright color of the compote, the eggs are painted very weakly.
- We remove the finished eggs from hot water, cool.

Advantages: natural ingredients.

Flaws: Eggs are practically not painted.

Conclusion: the result is unstable, depending on the variety and ripeness of the cherries. It is better to cook cherry jam or delicious compote from cherries, and paint the eggs with onion peel.

According to church traditions, Easter eggs are painted only on Maundy Thursday, this is the last Thursday before the great holiday.

To prevent the eggs from bursting during cooking, you must do the following. Take the eggs out of the fridge for an hour or more to bring them to room temperature. Add one tablespoon of salt to the water. We put the eggs in water at room temperature, and then put on fire.

To make the paint on the eggs lie more evenly, before painting, degrease the surface of the eggs with vodka or wash the eggs with soapy water. To make the eggs shine and the colors more intense, rub the eggs with sunflower oil the next day after painting.

How to make a pattern on eggs

There is an opinion that if you wrap eggs with thick knitting threads, braid, or simply attach a flower or parsley leaf, then wrap the egg in cheesecloth and boil it in dye, you will get a beautiful painted egg.

Honestly, not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance. The paint quickly soaks the threads and fabric, coloring the egg. Leaves and flowers also depart, skipping paint. Perhaps the one hundred and twenty-fifth attempt will be successful, but usually there is no time for experiments before Easter. Therefore, to make a print on the egg, we use strong electrical tape that sticks well.

How to make a print:
- Degrease the surface of the eggs.
- To get a picture, we sculpt pieces of electrical tape on the egg. Carefully press the tape so that the edges stick properly.
- Boil eggs in dye. Onion skins or coffee give a good result.
- Remove hard-boiled eggs from hot water and place on a plate.
- When the eggs are cool, remove the stickers.

Meanings of symbols on Easter eggs

Pine symbolizes health
Oak leaf or oak tree symbolizes strength
Any berries symbolize fertility
Plum symbolizes love
Hop cones symbolize fertility
Flowers - a symbol of girlhood
The mesh on the Easter egg is a symbol of fate
Yellow mesh - a symbol of the sun
Dots - fertility. And the more points, the more fertility

When painting eggs, you can come up with your own drawings and patterns, and it is important to do this with joy and an open mind, because Easter eggs are not just a tradition, they are a symbol that conveys our emotions, energy and wishes.

Original Easter eggs

Eggs can be painted by hand. When my son was still small, we painted eggs with honey watercolors. Yes, with this method, the drawing does not last long and loses its shape when wet, but how much joy the child has)))
Also, for painting eggs, you can use school gouache, which has been tested for safety for children.

Eggs can not only be dyed, they can be wrapped in colored foil or appliquéd using plain colored paper. Colored confetti are great for this.

Greetings, dear friends! The calendar spring will come very soon, leaving behind frosts and noisy winter holidays, which means it's time to think about the most important Christian holiday - Easter. Today I bring to your attention a thematic master class on how to dye eggs with food coloring.

Of course, nothing is difficult, and most packages with food coloring for eggs have instructions, but still I would like to dwell on such points in more detail: how to properly dilute dry food coloring and whether it is possible to color eggs with cream dyes.

The whole process of painting eggs with food coloring is very popular with children, so even if you are not going to paint eggs for Easter, it is very difficult to refuse such an interesting and exciting activity for children. And in order not to stain the entire kitchen and all the dishes with food coloring, my master class "How to color eggs with food coloring" step by step with a photo is at your service!

We will need:

• Food coloring in different colors
• Half-liter jars (as many as dye colors)
• Warm water (250 ml. in one jar)
• Eggs (hard boiled)
• Thin gloves

How to dye eggs with food coloring:

So, to paint eggs for Easter (no matter how), we need the eggs themselves. For painting, I recommend using medium-sized white eggs marked "C1", one egg weighs about 50 grams. Wash the eggs thoroughly with a brush, and then boil them hard-boiled (8-10 minutes after boiling water). Next, the eggs need to be completely cooled.

Now let's prepare half-liter jars: each color will need a separate jar. Pour about 250 ml into each jar. warm water.

Next up is food coloring. You can use special food coloring for eggs, which is sold in stores before the holiday, or you can use professional food coloring for cake and pastry cream, as in my case.

Gel coloring is rightfully considered the most convenient food coloring: somehow you don’t need to dilute it especially, and the result is always excellent. But due to the relatively high cost, it is not advisable to use gel dye when painting eggs. Therefore, I paint eggs with powdered cake and cream dyes that I have available.

How to dilute dry food coloring:

All powder dyes have different color intensities, so we start with half a teaspoon per 250 ml. water. To color the eggs, we need to achieve a fairly intense color, so more dye may be needed.

Thoroughly mix the dyes with warm water, and leave for five minutes so that the dye dissolves properly. Don't forget to wear gloves before you start working with food coloring.

Then carefully, using a tablespoon, lower the eggs into a jar of diluted dye, and leave for 5 minutes. Two eggs are freely placed in one half-liter jar. Eggs must be completely covered with colored water.

After the specified time, we take out the eggs from the colored water with a tablespoon and put the colored eggs on separate plates.

Now you need to wait until the colored eggs are completely dry, and you can collect the Easter basket!

Now you know how to dye eggs with dyes from the store. I really hope that my master class will be useful to you in preparation for the Easter holiday. Or maybe you have your own interesting ideas on how to beautifully paint eggs for Easter with your own hands? Please write in the comments, or social networks. As always, I look forward to your feedback and comments.