Tuesday 12 May 2015

How to use bento egg moulds

I talked about how I've been upping the interest for Ellie's food previously. The bento shapes and moulds have been a bit of a hit actually! I've been getting a fair few questions about it, so I thought I should write up a how-to for using the bento egg moulds.
They're cute little things, and if it means that Ellie will eat more during this picky eating phase, I'm all for it. They are quite time consuming, so I wouldn't do them every day, but they're quite fun and a bit of a hit if I take them to a picnic or party.

These are the egg moulds I have (the pink and orange ones) - they're a clamshell type, with a closing fastener. There are other sorts, but they should have the clamshell and the fastener so that you get the proper shape and function when you're using them. I picked mine up from eBay.

Materials

  • Small saucepan
  • Eggs
  • Spoon
  • Bowl of cold water
  • Egg moulds

Egg size and type

Make sure you choose the right sized eggs upfront. I find that large, or extra large work best. You may need to experiment a bit to find which ones fit best. 
I like to use eggs which are a little bit older as well, as I've found that fresh eggs are harder to peel and don't come off with a nice smooth exterior. About a week or so is ideal, and if you're buying from a supermarket, that's probably what you'll get anyway.

Boiling and preparing the eggs

Boil the eggs by putting them in cold water and bringing it slowly to the boil. Once the water is boiling, remove the pan from the heat, put on the lid and leave them to sit for about 9 minutes.
Note, that you want to make sure that they egg yolk ends up in the middle of the egg instead of on one side. For that reason, you need to roll the eggs around while the water is on the way to boiling. I use a spoon and just move the eggs around, rotating them as I stir.

After the eggs are ready, I use my stirring spoon to transfer them to a bowl of cold water, reserving the saucepan water. Then to peel them nicely, crack the shell and peel carefully.

Note, that egg moulds require you to have a hot egg, which is more pliable than a cold one but I'm pretty slow at peeling and I don't have teflon hands, so I need to let them cool down a little for handling. To get around this, I transfer my peeled eggs back into the pan of hot water I used to boil them in before using the moulds. Thrifty huh!

Using the egg moulds


You'll need a bowl of cold water. I just refresh the water in bowl that I used when peeling the eggs as it usually has warmed up by then. Open a mould and dunk it in the water to help make sure your egg doesn't stick.
  
Put in your hot egg. The egg mould shape will let you know how to place the egg - for example, the bunny is thinner toward the ears, so put the egg in with the wider end down.
Close the mould firmly. Don't be shy or start to worry if some of the egg white squishes out at the sides or bottom. Close the fastener until it clicks. Put the whole mould back into your bowl of cold water and let it sit there for at least 10 minutes. At this stage, you can put them in the fridge and leave overnight if you want to.
That's it! When you're ready, just crack open your moulds.

I knew the bunny was going to be a bit messy when I closed it off. It's not too bad - definitely fixable. I just use a sharp knife to cut off all the messy bits.
The bear also came out pretty well, but you can see that I broke a little of the white when peeling so he has a little pock on his face, and the egg was slightly too small for the mould so the ears didn't form as they should. Still perfectly serviceable though.

The end result!

Do you like to eat cute things? How do you make food appealing for the small people or picky eaters in your life?

4 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks Kat! They're definitely got the toddler eating more :)

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  2. I've never put much thought into how these egg moulds work and it sounds simple but a little fiddly at the same time. I can see that they would be an enormous help with fussy children though!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's definitely a little fiddly, but they seem to help at the moment... until the novelty wears off at least!

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