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Springtime Eggs: Hard-Boiled and Beyond

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Springtime Eggs: Hard-Boiled and Beyond

Spring is the season of the egg. The time of year when eggs become essential elements of Passover Seder Plates and the favored booty of the Easter bunny. So it’s no surprise area grocery stores such as Schnucks and Shop and Save are stocking up, preparing for the seasonal egg run.

Hard-cooked/boiled eggs can be tricky but the American Egg Board has a simple recipe for the perfect hard-cooked egg. Just place eggs (free from cracks) in a single layer of a saucepan. Add enough water to cover the eggs by one inch. Heat over a high heat to a boil, then remove from the burner immediately, cover and let stand for 15 minutes (18 minutes for extra large eggs). Drain and cool by placing then under running cold water or in a bowl of ice water. When eggs have cooled refrigerate until ready to use.

Recently, making hard-cooked eggs in an oven has gotten a lot of attention, thanks to a recent Alton Brown segment. However, baked in-shell eggs aren’t anything new. Cooks have been baking eggs in their shells buried in hot ashes of a hearth for a millennium.

Today all you need is an oven set at 325 degrees. To make oven baked hard-cooked place clean crack-free eggs on the oven rack and bake for 30 minutes. As a precaution place a baking sheet under the eggs in case of breakage. Place the baked eggs in ice water and peel as soon as they’re cool enough to handle.

To perfectly peel a hard-cooked egg, gently tap egg on countertop until shell is finely crackled all over. Start peeling at large end, holding egg under cold running water to help ease the shell off.  Hard-cooked eggs are easiest to peel right after cooling.

Fresh eggs are also the star of the spring brunches, often appearing in stratas, frittatas, omelets and bread puddings.  At this year’s Pillsbury Bake-off eggs played a vital role in the Breakfast and Brunch category, which included 24 recipes of the total 100 that competed for the million-dollar prize.  Among the Bake-off brunch favorites best utilizing fresh eggs were the Breakfast Crostatas, Smoky Onion Custard tarts and White Chocolate and Apple Cinnamon Roll Bread Pudding. 

If you plan to take advantage of seasonal egg sales remember to refrigerate eggs. According the Egg Safety Center, shell eggs can safely be stored refrigerated for up to four to five weeks beyond the carton displayed Julian date – the date the eggs were packed. Choose eggs that are clean and free of cracks and are not out of date. Look for the USDA grade shield or mark since graded eggs must meet standards for quality and size.

See Related Article: Easter Egg Recipes To Feature on Your Brunch Table

Cheese & eggs with Bill & Sheila


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The Good Eggs: Recipes For the Holiday Brunch

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The Good Eggs: Recipes For the Holiday Brunch

Now is the best time to stock up on fresh shell eggs. Beyond making colored hard-boiled eggs to decorate your spring table, give one of one the following egg-enriched recipes a try.

All three were finalists at the 45th Annual Pillsbury Bake-off. We also would like to add to our recipe box any fabulous egg recipes that you may have to share.

Breakfast Crostatas

  • 1 can Pillsbury refrigerated crusty French bread
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons fried basil leaves
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves, crushed
  • 1 1/2 cup diced ham or Canadian bacon
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded Gouda or Cheddar cheese
  • 4 eggs
  • Dash of salt and black pepper

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cookie sheet with no-stick cooking spray. Carefully unroll dough onto cookie sheet; cut in half lengthwise ad crosswise to from 4 squares. Sprinkle dough squares with basil and rosemary. Top dough squares evenly with ham and cheese. Make a small well in center of ham and cheese on each square. 

To form crostatas, fold edges of dough up 1-inch over filling, making pleats and pressing dough firmly. Carefully crack open each egg and drop into well on each crostatas. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake 20 – 25 minutes or until egg whites and yolks are firm. Makes 4 servings.

See Related Article: Springtime Eggs: Hard-Boiled and Beyond

Smoky Onion-Custard Tarts

  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 /2 cups coarsely chopped sweet onions
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 3 ounces (1/3 less fat) cream cheese, softened
  • 2/3 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan
  • 1 can Pillsbury Place ‘n Bake refrigerated crescent rounds
  • 4 teaspoons dried chopped chives

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spray bottoms of 8 regular-size muffin cups with no-stick cooking spray. In a skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Cook and stir onions in butter 5-6 minutes or until softened. In a medium-sized bowl, beat eggs, liquid smoke and nutmeg with a mixer. Beat in cream cheese and sour cream until smooth. Add onions and Parmesan. Remove crescent dough from can; separate into 8 rounds on a floured surface. Using a rolling pin, roll each round to a 4 1/2-inch diameter. Press into muffin cup. Spoon about 1/3 cup mixture into each cup; sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon chives.

Bakes 25-30 minutes or until center is set and edges are golden brown. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Run knife around edge of each muffin cup to loosen tart; remove from pan. Serve warm. Makes 8 servings.

White Chocolate and Apple Cinnamon Roll Bread Pudding

  • 1 can Pillsbury refrigerated cinnamon rolls with icing
  • 1 bag (12-ounces) Hershey’s premier white baking chips
  • 3 cups half and half or heavy whipping cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Garnish:

  • 1/2 cup sweetened whipped cream
  • 8 cinnamon sticks
  • 8 fresh mint springs

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spray 8 (10-ounce) ramekins or custard cups with no-stick cooking spray and dust with flour. Place each roll, cinnamon topping up into a ramekin. Reserve icing. Place ramekins in a large baking pan with sides. Bake 11-15 minutes or until golden brown. 

Reserve 1/3 cup white chips for topping. To make custard, in a 1-quart saucepan combine remaining baking chips, half and half, vanilla and salt. Cook over a medium heat, stirring frequently, or until mixture is smooth; then remove from heat and cool 5 minutes. Beat eggs into custard. Pour approximately 1/2 cup of custard mixture over baked roll. Let stand 10 minutes. Evenly top ramekins with remaining custard. Bake for 10 minutes more or until eggs are set.

Meanwhile, in medium bowl, stir together reserved icing, diced apple, ground cinnamon, pecans and reserved white chips. Spoon about 1 1/4 cup of apple mixture over each roll. Bake an additional 18 minutes or until apples are tender.  Remove form oven.


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Eggs - Understanding Carton Dates

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Eggs – Understanding Carton Dates

If you’re confused about the dates you see on egg cartons, it’s not surprising. Food product dating is hard to understand. One of the more puzzling facts is that none of the dates on food packages — not even “use by” dates — are an indication of food safety. Instead, package dates refer to product quality.

An “expiration” or “sell by” date on some egg cartons helps to ensure that the eggs are fresh by informing the grocery store not to sell the eggs after the marked date. These dates are also intended to encourage you to use the eggs when they’re still at their highest quality. An expiration date on the carton is not required but, if one is used, it can be no more than 30 days after the eggs were packed. Since the packer or retailer may choose a date under 30 days, your local retailer can give you more complete information about how many days a “sell by” or “expiration date” allows after packing.

Some cartons show a Julian date on the short side of the carton. The Julian date is the day the eggs were packed — starting with 001 as Jan 1 and ending with 365 for December 31. For example, eggs packed on June 15 would be marked 166. Some other egg packers print an open “use by” date — July 15, for example — right on the eggshell itself. If properly refrigerated, shell eggs will keep with insignificant quality loss for at least four to five weeks after the Julian or pack date. If there is no Julian or pack date, using your eggs within three weeks of purchase will allow for the possibility that your eggs may have been temporarily warehoused by the retailer before you bought them.

Why isn’t safety a factor in these dates? Food safety depends on many things, including how you handle and store eggs and other foods. Both quality and safety changes can happen before or after the date on a package. For example, if you put a fully-cooked deli ham and a carton of eggs in the trunk of your car on a hot day and then run several errands before you refrigerate the ham and eggs at home, you’ve both reduced the ham’s and eggs’ shelf-life and increased your risk of food-borne illness — no matter what the package dates say.

Even when eggs are refrigerated, time causes a quality difference, too, especially in appearance. As eggs age, the whites thin and the yolks flatten. This means that the eggs will spread more in a pan if you fry them and there will be more “angel wings” of white in the water if you poach them. Because the yolk membranes also weaken with age, the yolks may break whether you want them to or not.

For recipes where shape isn’t important, particularly when whites and yolks are beaten together, you can still use the eggs. The weakening of the yolk membrane, however, makes it easier for bacteria — if they’re present — to reach the nutritious yolk. So, to prevent the possibility of foodborne illness, it’s best to use older eggs in fully cooked items, such as quiches, stratas and baked goods.

When correctly handled, eggs have a fairly long shelf-life compared to other perishable foods. For both quality and safety, simply keep eggs refrigerated and cook them properly.

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Eggs: An Excellent Source Of Omega-3 Oils For Better Health

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Eggs: An Excellent Source Of Omega-3 Oils For Better Health

Eggs have many health benefits, among them being the fact they can be an excellent source of omega-3 oils that can promote better health in those that take it as a supplement. Hens fed on flax seeds are particularly high in omega-3 fatty acids, although eggs have many health benefits other than omega-3.

Most of the health benefits of Omega fatty acids are well known, although many more are being continually discovered as scientists research the uses to which the substances can be put in our bodies. Omega-3 fatty acids have long carbon chains that are polyunsaturated, i.e. contain multiple double bonds in the hydrocarbon chain. As opposed to saturated fatty acids with no double bonds. They are important components of our neurological systems and help to build up cell membranes, but are probably best known for their effect in protecting us from cardiovascular diseases. Omega-3 fatty acids can help us to maintain a healthy heart, and so enable us to live longer.

The current western diet has been changing to reduce cholesterol intake and improve our lifestyle. However, this has not all been well advised, and the resultant diet is rich in vegetable oils as opposite to animal fats, the relative levels of omega fatty acids having changed in favour of omega-6 fatty acids. These omega-6 fats are not as healthy for us as omega-3, and can lead to a thrombogenic state that more easily leads to cardiovascular diseases and blood clots. Rather than a normal omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of around 2:1, this ‘improved’ diet has increased it to anything up to 50:1.

The American Heart Association has been advocating a diet richer in omega-3 fatty acids since 1996, yet while research continues to favour omega-3, the increase in consumption of vegetable oils has continued to increase, and with it a reduction in the overall health of a nation.

Omega-3 enriched eggs have been introduced as one means of redressing the balance. Hens fed on flax seeds lay eggs with a much higher proportion of omega-3 fatty acids than normal: up to and over 150mg per egg. Such eggs also have reduced cholesterol – over 15% less, and also are higher in vitamin E, a strong antioxidant, by up to 300%.

Two of the components of omega-3 oils, linoleic acid and linolenic acid, are what are known as ‘essential’ fatty acids. The term means that they cannot be manufactured in your body, so must essentially be introduced through your diet. When the human body developed to what it is now, the consumption of fish and other oils rich in omega-3 fatty acids was a significant part of our diets, and allowed our bodies to develop the biochemistry and metabolism that it uses today.

If we now upset that biochemistry by cutting our intake of unsaturated fatty acids, our metabolism will suffer and our general health decline. This is one reason why humans should interfere with their natural eating habits as little as possible, or if we do so excessively we should use supplements to replace what we are excluding from diets that have been natural to us for countless millennia. It is dangerous now for the human race to suddenly switch to a significantly different diet without suitable supplementation, because we do not know the long terms effects of doing so.

One way to maintain a steady intake of the fatty acids our metabolism needs in order to ensure our survival is to eat eggs, and especially omega-3 enriched eggs. Of course, eggs have a lot more beneficial health effects than just omega-3. Take choline for example. This is a trimethylated compound that is important in the metabolism of fats. It is the newest official B vitamin, and is an essential component of cell membranes. It is particularly important for the maintenance of the health of your brain, and preventing many brain disorders.

It is also important in methylation, an important biochemical process, and also in the biochemical synthesis of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. This substance is used to pass messages between nerve cells and from nerve cells to muscles, and a deficiency can cause many health problems, including heart disease and diseases of the vascular system. Methylation is a very important biochemical reaction, being used particularly in messages between body cells and is used to switch genes on and off.

Up to 90% of Americans are deficient in choline, and subject to many diseases because of it. Symptoms include insomnia, fatigue, excess fat concentrations in the blood and problems with your nerves and muscular control. It can cause liver problems and heart problems, and cause a number of brain disorders.

Choline is available in the diet from lecithin and egg yolks, and also soya beans, flax seeds, peanuts and potatoes. The typical American diet is not conducive to an adequate choline intake, and increased egg consumption can help to redress this. This is particularly true of eggs from hens fed with flax seeds, or linseed, from which the triple benefits of choline, omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin E are obtained. Just two eggs will provide you with almost 50% of your daily requirement of choline.

Some are wary about the cholesterol content of eggs, but studies have indicated that it not so much the amount of dietary cholesterol that is eaten, but saturated fats that cause the excess deposition of cholesterol in the arteries. Cholesterol is an essential part of human biochemistry, and without any we could not survive. In fact, studies have shown that eating two eggs daily can improve your cholesterol levels

Eggs are also rich in lutein, and contain more than vegetables such as spinach. Lutein is an important carotenoid that is believed to prevent age related macular degeneration, which can lead to blindness, and also prevents the development of cataracts. Eggs also appear to have anti-clotting properties on the blood, and so help to reduce the thrombogenesis of omega-6 fatty acids.

Without a doubt, eating eggs is very good for your health, and especially so if they are rich is omega-3 fatty acids. They contain a wide variety of nutrients and truly are a complete food packaged by nature. Some may prefer to stay away from eggs and miss the omega-3 benefits so there is an alternative for diets that exclude eggs. Omega-3 is available in a supplement form that one can take on a daily basis to reap the benefits omega-3 presents.