Hard Cooked Eggs in the Oven – Not All They’re Cracked Up to Be

I’ve seen a lot of info lately on making hard cooked eggs in the oven.  I wondered if this technique could be even better than the easy, fool proof technique we’re currently using and that I claim makes perfect easy to peel hard cooked eggs?

I just had to try it.  Maybe it’s as awesome as bacon in the oven.

Here’s the technique I followed:

• Place eggs in muffin tin.
• Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C).
• Place eggs on middle rack for 30 minutes.
• Remove eggs and immediately immerse in ice water for 10 minutes.
• Gently crack all areas of the egg and begin peeling at the air bubble.

After reading a few other articles on the topic, I decided to limit my experiment to 4 eggs – 2 in a mini-muffin tray and 2 in a large muffin tray.

Here are my results.

Of the two eggs in the mini-muffin tin, one was cracked and the other exploded – luckily it was a relatively contained explosion.

The two eggs in the large muffin tin just had brown spots on them.

I quickly immersed them in ice cold water, where most of the brown spots disappeared.

Once out of the water, the only spots remaining were those where the eggs came into contact with the muffin tin.

Peeling the oven baked eggs was as easy as eggs cooked on the stove.  I’m sure it’s the ice bath.

Here’s a final look at my four three eggs (my daughter ate one for lunch!). Notice the brown spots on the egg whites wherever the egg came into contact with the muffin tin.  The egg Melanie ate had them as well, but even though she asked what they were, they didn’t deter her from enjoying the egg.  The egg yolks and the texture of the egg white turned out fine.

Given my results, I would not recommend making hard cooked eggs in the oven.  It takes longer, there’s a chance of egg explosions and those little brown spots aren’t very appealing.  And really, making hard cooked eggs on the stove is not that difficult.

What do you think?  Will you try this method?

Getty Stewart is an engaging speaker and writer providing tasty recipes, time-saving tips, and helpful kitchen ideas to make home cooking easy and enjoyable. She is a Professional Home Economist, author of Manitoba’s best-selling Prairie Fruit Cookbook, Founder of Fruit Share, mom and veggie gardener.