Hey! It’s Easter tomorrow! Which means I’m spending most of the day in the kitchen today, getting ready for our big family feast. I even skipped out on my run this morning, which no doubt will eat at me throughout the day, but I needed the time.

Also, the sleep.

So I meant to tell you this last week because, um, you probably could’ve used it, but here.

DON’T BOIL YOUR EGGS ANYMORE. BAKE THEM.

I know, that sounds odd. But here’s what I did. And this is not even something that I pioneered; it was brought to my attention by my husband’s hero, Alton Brown. See, little known fact about my husband: before he decided to major in Acting and Directing, he planned to be a chemist. I know; he’s incredibly complex. So while he’s not much for fancy cooking, he’s a HUGE fan of anything Alton Brown. (Also another reason: Alton Brown’s show was filmed in Atlanta, where my husband worked in technical theatre for years, so he sees something he knows on EVERY show.)

Alton Brown recommends BAKING your eggs to achieve hard-boiled-ed-ness. I’m sure he has some scientific reason for it, but mine boils down to (HAR HAR) the fact that I cannot keep my eyes on boiling stuff. Inevitably, I will become entrenched in some deep cleaning behind my washer or a really good episode of Real Houseives of Insert Locale Here and BLAM! I have eggs that are catching fire in my kitchen. Seriously. My life is hard.

So baking them was right up my alley. And it really was simple!

You can do this with as many or as few eggs as you like. I’ve done it twice now, both times with whatever batch of eggs I had in my fridge that were on the verge of my husband determining them “too old”, and it’s worked with four, six, or twelve. There’s no saying you couldn’t do several dozen at a time.

Quick and dirty:

• Preheat your oven to 325°.
• Once it’s heated, line your eggs directly on your oven racks.
• Let them bake for 25-30 minutes.
• Remove them (carefully! I used silicone-coated tongs) from the oven.
• Place them in an ice bath for 10 minutes.

DONE.

The questions I always get:

Directly on your oven racks? Yes. I know. I doubted at first that this would work. And if you’re OCD, like me, you can test out the size of your eggs before you preheat your oven. But of the many eggs I’ve baked, they have 100% fit perfectly in-between the “ribs” of your oven rack. See the picture for proof.

What about if they break? Look, anything could happen, so I’m not going to stand here and guarantee that nothing will. But I will say that of all the baking I’ve done, I’ve never had a single egg break or spill. However, see above OCD comment, and I almost always put a baking sheet in there on the rack below the eggs. JUST IN CASE. COMPLETELY PROVEN UNNECESSARY SO FAR.

What are these brown spots? I don’t know, but some eggs develop brown spots on the shells as they cook. Based on my scientific observations, they’re sometimes related to the spots where the shells come into direct contact with the tines. But it doesn’t effect the flavor or the eggs nor is it unsafe.

How well do they peel? So, that is the ONE downside I’ve found to this method. I’m not a person who’s ever had an issue peeling eggs, but these have proven kind of difficult. My hint: take them directly from the 10 minute ice bath and peel them under running, cool/cold water. The water gets into the shell and kind of loosens it up. But even with that hint, I was kind of bummed with how these were not easy-peel eggs.

So before you go trying to boil two dozen eggs for a PAAS vinegar bath, might want to give this method a try so that you have half an hour back in your day!