As you know from my previous post it has been a very busy, but a very lovely Easter for us and I have cooked and baked some really lovely things over the last four days, I just had to get some of the recipes onto the blog as soon as I could, so that I had them ready for next year, which of course had to include this one for pastel devilled eggs.

Now this one isn’t one I would bother with often, but just thought they looked so pretty and added a lovely colour to the table, plus they tasted lovely.

Buon appetito

6 large egg(s)
ΒΌ cup(s) mayonnaise
1 tablespoon(s) balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon(s) english mustard powder
salt (to taste)
pepper
paprika
chives

food colouring, I used the gel colouring
1 cup cold water
1 teaspoon of white vinegar for each colour you are using

Put the eggs in a single layer of a pot and cover with cold water to an inch over the eggs. Bring to rolling boil, turn down to a low simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Turn off heat and drain, cool by changing with cold water several times if your in a hurry. Once cool to touch, de-shell the eggs. If it seems like you are having a difficult time, your eggs probably have thick membranes. try to get a hold of that and tear from there. We found that older eggs peeled easier & cleaner than fresh ones.

Slice in half lengthwise with a non-serrated knife (so you don’t get the marks) starting from the rounder end and go toward the tip. Pop out the yolks into a medium bowl and put aside.

Take the whites and if you are trying to do the pastel eggs shown in the picture you don’t want to leave them in the dye for very long. Because the egg is very porous, they will take the dye very quickly!

Get enough glasses for the number of colours you want to use. Fill the glasses 2/3 of the way full with cold water.

Add a few drops of desired food colouring along with 1 teaspoon of white vinegar to each glass.

Place the egg whites in the glasses and allow to sit in the food colouring until desired colour is reached.

Remove whites from dye and drain on a plate lined with a couple of paper towels or on a wire rack.

Add most of the mayonnaise, all the vinegar and mustard to the bowl of egg yolks. Use a handheld mixer to combine well, then taste. Add more vinegar and the salt if required. If the mixture is too thick, add a little more mayonnaise. Then I push the mixture through a sieve or small-holed colander to get out any remaining yolk-lumps.

You can just spoon the yolk mixture into your pastel eggs at this point, or for a nicer finish put the filling into a pastry bag fitted with a big star tip. Then pipe into the centre of the pastel eggs so they rise well above the flats of the eggs.

These can be made up to a day in advance. If you make ahead, wait to add the garnish until you serve, because the paprika will sort of melt out and look unattractive.

We made ours the day before and piped them on the day so that we could get rid of the smell of the eggs before everyone came !