Which came first.......Mini Eggs

In our case, the egg will come first.
Here is the mini tutorial on making mini eggs, for mini nests.
(nests to come soon.)
These are dough art eggs, (not play dough, but the baked kind). Recipe to follow:

I will give you the original recipe as i got it, with the cut down version. ( this make lots of eggs.)

1 c. salt (1/4 c. salt)
2 c. flour (1/2 c. flour)
1 c. water ( 1/4 c. water) (ad water slowly)

Mix this like pie dough, adding water a bit at a time till it sticks together.
Kneed 5 minutes or so (large quantities, 7-10 minutes)

bake at 325 for about 15 minutes
(regular size things need about 30 minutes.)
I checked my eggs every 10 minutes, and 15 or 20 was plenty.

I keep my bowl covered with a wet towel while i am working.,
and just take out about a teaspoon at time to work with.
It may tend to get crusty on top if you leave it uncovered for long period of time.

I also keep a towel over my lap, as little crumbs break off as you are working with it.

Taking the tiny bit of a pinch of dough (about the size you want your eggs, which in this case was about a 1/4". The eggs pretty much stay the same size when they bake.


Place dough in the palm of your hand and 'roll' it around in little circles with one or two fingers of your other hand,
till it forms a circle.
Then gently roll one end of it back and forth to form an egg shape.
This takes a little practice.
Pop it in the pan and it is ready to go in the oven.
When you put them in the pan try to have them not touching each other.
(it's nothing personal between the eggs, just that they will stick together if they get too close.)
The ones that stuck together in my first batch, i just broke apart with my fingers.
And don't throw them away, even the ones that don't look like eggs can be used.

I didn't use any spray coating or anything. They did stick a bit, but easy to get off with a metal spatula.
(You could try the spray if you want and let us know how it works.)
This amount of dough makes bunches of eggs!!!
I did them 3 nights in a row and still have not used quite all of it.
It has stayed good in the fridge for several days now, in a plastic bowl with a lid on it.

Some things i discovered:
Some eggs do not turn out 'egg' shaped after baking, even though they started out that shape to begin with. (who knows why).

When i took the first batch i did out of the oven, i squealed, and not with delight!
For some reason many of them had cracked! Leave it to my fella to come to the rescue:
He said, "Well, they have to come out of their shell sometime you know."
Is he quick, or what?! =0)
Now i love that they are cracked, as in the nest you can just imagine the ugly little critters poppin' out. (oh, did i say ugly? Shame on me!!!) They get cute real quick. =0)

So just goes to show you, even when you look like you are a cracked egg, you are just really coming out of your shell! =0)

For some reason, the second batch was brown, where as the others are all light egg colored.
Now, brown is OK if you are a chicken, but my little birdie eggs aren't supposed to be that way.
A little paint, or some speckles will fix that.
(don't use much water if you paint them as they may get doughy again.)
I also spray them with a sealer once they are in their little nest homes.

So, that is mini egg making in a nutshell (or should i say egg shell.)

Since i may have left something out, or you may have different questions or comments than i have covered, please let me know. We'll learn together on this one. After all, I hadn't made any eggs for 15 years! (I did tell you about our daughter going off to college didn't i? Maybe it was on my other blog).

After a pause for an important break, we will be back with mini nest pins, with mini birds, and of course, our mini eggs, and ideas on how to display them.

(Seriously, we are going to a marriage retreat this weekend, and i may not have time to post till after that.)

Praying God's blessings on all your little nests,

Barbara Jean