Hard Boiled Eggs (In the Oven)

Name: Hard Boiled Eggs (In the Oven)
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: 12 eggs; ice water (for cooling)

📝 Modified: December 6, 2022 This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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Make the most perfect hard-boiled eggs in the oven with this super simple recipe. After trying this, you will never make hard-boiled eggs any other way!

(Last Updated On: December 6, 2022)

For years we have made hard-boiled eggs on the stove in a large pot of boiling water on high heat until the eggs start to boil. Then we turn the burner down to medium heat and let the eggs finish cooking for about 12 to 13 more minutes.

But, have you ever gone outside and forgotten the hard-boiled eggs were cooking on the stove? Then when you come back into the kitchen, you see that the eggs have exploded all over the kitchen floor and countertops because the pot ran out of water!

I have to confess that I have done this. And what a mess it was! Too many times all of us may have ruined the eggs with the boiling eggs on the stove technique. Maybe the eggs were cooked too long, or maybe not long enough! Or some of the eggs decided to crack while in the boiling water.

So, we thought we would try to bake hard-boiled eggs in a muffin pan, or muffin tin as some people call it. If you haven’t tried the muffin pan way of cooking hard-boiled eggs, you must! The eggs come out perfect every time! It is so hard to mess up this recipe!

🥚 Key Ingredients

12 large eggs

👩‍🍳 How to Make Hard Boiled Eggs in the Oven (Step-by-Step Instructions with Detailed Photos)

Step 1. Preheat the Oven

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 2. Fill the Muffin Pan with Eggs

Get yourself a 12-cup muffin pan and gently lay 1 egg in each cup. No greasing the pan, just lay the eggs in the muffin pan. Super easy! If you don’t have a 12-cup muffin pan, a 6-cup muffin pan will work just as well. And of course, you will only need 6 eggs then. If you don’t have a muffin pan you can use a casserole dish. You can also put two 6-cup muffin pans in the oven at the same time.

Note: There will be small brown spots on the bottom of each egg where it was laying in the muffin pan. Don’t worry, that is normal and there is nothing wrong with the egg – the egg is safe to eat. You can cut that little spot off of the egg if you prefer.

A twelve-cup muffin pan with one egg in each cup.

Step 3. Set the Oven Timer For Thirty Minutes

After the oven reaches 325 degrees Fahrenheit, place the muffin pan with the eggs in it in the oven, then set the oven timer for 30 minutes.

This is a guide to help you decide your preferred doneness (how soft or hard) on how long to bake your eggs in the oven. Keep in mind that not all ovens are the same. Some ovens may produce hotter heat than others or vice versa, so times may need to be adjusted.

18 to 22 minutes soft boiled
24 to 27 minutes medium boiled
28 to 30 minutes hard boiled

Set the oven to three hundred and twenty-five degrees Fahrenheit for thirty minutes.

Step 4. Make an Ice Water Bath

While the eggs are cooking in the oven, about 5 minutes before the timer goes off, fill a large bowl with ice cubes and water. If you are wondering why we are doing this, it is because the cold water from the ice cubes will finalize the cooking and cooling of the hard-boiled eggs.

Note: If you don’t have any ice, cold water from the tap will suffice. Fill the bowl with cold tap water. Then let the eggs sit in the cold water until you can hold one in your hand without it being too hot to handle. Add more cold water if needed.

Step 5. Put the Eggs in the Ice Water Bath

After the eggs are baked for 30 minutes, take the muffin pan with the eggs in it out of the oven. Then, turn off the oven and put the 12 eggs in the ice water bath.

Place the hard-boiled eggs in the bowl with the ice cubes and water.

Step 6. Leave the Eggs in the Ice Water Bath For 10 Minutes

Leaving the eggs in the ice water bath for 10 minutes not only stops the cooking process but also helps to make it easier to peel the eggshells off of the eggs.

Leave the eggs in the ice water for ten minutes.

Step 7. Remove the Eggs From the Ice Water Bath and Then Remove the Shells

After 10 minutes, remove the eggs from the ice water bath. Then, remove the shells from the eggs and serve with a pat of butter and a sprinkle of salt, pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper, or any of your favorite seasonings on top of the eggs. Or, store the eggs (with the shells on) in the refrigerator for up to 7 days, or about 3 days if the shells are removed.

Perfect hard-boiled eggs baked in the oven in a muffin pan.

🐔 Tips for Peeling Eggs

Peeling the shells off of hard-boiled eggs can be annoying sometimes, but it doesn’t mean that the eggs didn’t turn out right. I have baked eggs in the oven and boiled eggs on the stove many times. Sometimes I have had no issues with removing the shells, and at other times, I want to scream (but not that often).

First, get a crack started in the shell. To do that, slightly hit the egg on the countertop. Then, roll the egg with the palm of your hand on the countertop for just a bit.
After that, start peeling the egg at the (larger) rounder end of the egg. If you look at a drawing of the anatomy of an egg, it will show that this area (inside of the egg) is where the air cell is.
Once you get the outer membrane of the shell started in the air cell area, peeling is more tolerable. The outer membrane is the thin clear translucent membrane attached to the inside of the eggshell.
However, after I do all of the above, I find that running cold tap water over the egg while removing the shell helps a lot.

❓ FAQs

What are the Browns Spots on Eggs that are Baked in the Oven in a Muffin Pan?

The brown spots, or you may see them as orange or reddish-orange, are where the egg touched the hot tin while baking in the muffin pan in the oven. Nothing is wrong with the egg. It’s still good to eat. You can remove the brown spot if it bothers you.

We did a test to see which technique worked the best to eliminate the brown spots. On one side of the muffin pan, we put a single cupcake holder in one of the cups and 2 cupcake holders in another cup and laid an egg in each one. Then we put heavy-duty aluminum foil on the other side of the muffin pan and laid the eggs on the aluminum foil. We baked them for the same amount of temperature and time – 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes.

Test Results – both the single-layer cupcake holder and the double-layer cupcake holder produced a brown spot on each of the eggs. The aluminum foil did not produce a brown spot on the eggs, except a tiny spot on the outer membrane of one egg. We also tested this on a silicone muffin tray and there were no brown spots on the eggs.

So if the brown spots bother you, you can use aluminum foil or buy a silicone muffin tray. I have read that you can use a casserole dish, but I have not tried that yet. If you have, let me know how it worked out.

Why Didn’t My Hard-Boiled Eggs Baked in the Oven Turn Out?

🌟Altitude – One factor could be the altitude if you live above 3000 feet. If you live at a higher elevation, that can affect baking times and temperatures. Certain foods take longer to cook, for example, boiling eggs or baking eggs in the oven. I’ve read that you need to increase the temperature by about 15 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit and reduce the time by about 5 to 8 minutes or so, but I can’t test those times and temperatures because I live at 574 feet above sea level.

✨ Oven Difference – Another reason could be your oven may be a few degrees off, such as bakes hotter or not as hot as mine.

🌟 Don’t Use Fresh Eggs – I have read a few other hard-boiled egg recipes, and some say not to use fresh eggs, at least about 5 days old or more is better. Some say 1 to 2 weeks old. Some also say to let the eggs sit at room temperature for a few minutes, like 10 to 15 minutes. I didn’t obey these two rules when I baked hard boiled eggs today and they turned out just as I expected, perfect hard boiled eggs. Well, I guess maybe the eggs were at room temperature for however long it took me to get out of the Walmart and drive through the traffic to get home. It was about 15 minutes. Also, how old are eggs by the time we buy them in the store? Good question! But be aware of these two factors just in case.

Bottom Line: I have baked hard-boiled eggs many times, and they always turn out great. If you are having any issues with baking hard-boiled eggs in the oven, I would suggest putting 1 or 2 eggs in the oven as a test run. Then, after that, you can figure out what went wrong.

Hard-boiled eggs sliced in half sprinkled with salt and pepper.

📄 Final Thoughts

These baked-in-the-oven hard-boiled eggs look perfect, they are delicious, and they are healthy for you. There are so many ways to eat hard-boiled eggs. Eat a hard-boiled egg right out of the shell with a little bit of butter, salt, and pepper on it. Or you can chop up the eggs with a fork, add mayonnaise, salt, and pepper, and have an egg salad sandwich. You can also use hard-boiled eggs in Thanksgiving recipes such as Southern cornbread dressing, and Southern deviled eggs.

You can also toss some sliced-up hard-boiled eggs on top of a lettuce salad and add your favorite salad dressing. And don’t forget about using hard-boiled eggs in homemade potato salad, cobb salads, and egg avocado salad.

✨ More Egg Recipes You Will Love

Potato Salad with Eggs and Mustard – Old-fashioned flavor with only nine main ingredients. Potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, celery, onions, sweet relish, mayo, yellow mustard, salt, and pepper.
Olive Oil Scrambled Eggs (Without Milk) – These scrambled eggs are made without milk or butter, but with olive oil instead. This recipe takes just a few minutes to make and is so delicious.
Southern Deviled Eggs – This recipe for Southern deviled eggs has only seven simple ingredients in it. They are so easy to make and taste delicious!