If you’re new to Cookie Madness, here’s a cookie you might have missed: Hard Boiled Egg Cookies! I pulled it out of the archives today since Easter is afoot and chances are you have some hard boiled eggs lying around. Plus, is it me or are there more features than ever right now on how to boil a perfect hard boiled egg? I know it’s Easter, but this year just about every food magazine and web site seems determined to teach me how to make a perfect hard boiled egg (which is good because I always forget how many minutes to boil the egg and how many minutes to let it sit covered).
Anyhow, this cookie and its variations were developed a few years ago by me, Katrina and Rita after Rita mentioned that certain European style butter cookie dough was made with hard boiled eggs.
Recipe

Hard Boiled Egg Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cups plus 2 tablespoon 180 grams all purpose flour
- 4 ounces 114 grams cold unsalted butter – unsalted European style works well
- 1/2 .5 ml teaspoon salt
- 1/4 1 ml teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons 70 gram granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup 56 grams brown sugar
- 1 hard boiled egg shell removed
- 1/4 teaspoon 1 ml vanilla extract
- handful of chocolate chips
Instructions
- Combine flour and butter in food processor. Pulse until mixture is mealy and coarse. Add the salt and baking soda and pulse to mix. Add both sugars and hard boiled egg. Pulse again until mixture is mealy looking. Add in the vanilla and pulse until mixture just begins to come together.
- Dump mixture into a bowl, add chocolate chips and shape into two balls. You will see egg whites in dough – they’ll disappear as the cookies bake.
- Bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet at 350 degrees F. for 20 minutes or until cookies appear lightly browned around edges. Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to rack to finish cooling.
- Important: Let cool completely before serving. The texture gets better as the cookies cool. It’s even better if you cool the cookies, freeze them, then thaw them.
- Makes 4 big cookies
And here are some variations.
Amazing Hard Boiled Egg Oatmeal Cookies
4 oz flour (1 cup minus 2 tablespoons)
4 oz unsalted butter, cold, cut-up (European style preferably)
1/2 cup oats
1/2 scant teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons light brown sugar (dark probably okay)
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 hard boiled egg
Handful of raisins
Handful of walnuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Pulse flour and butter in food processor until mealy. Add the oats and pulse to mix. Add the salt, baking soda and cinnamon; pulse to mix. Add both sugars, honey, vanilla and egg and pulse until mealy. Dump into a bowl and add raisins and walnuts. Form into four large balls and bake at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes (or until set).
Remove from oven and let cool completely before serving.
Makes four giant oatmeal cookies
Amazing Double Chocolate Hard Boiled Egg Cookies
1 1/3 cup flour (6 oz)
¼ cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
4 oz unsalted butter,cold, cut up (I used European style butter)
½ scant teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup granulated sugar
2 packed tablespoons light brown sugar
1 of a hard boiled egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons regular sour cream
About 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips or chopped up chocolate
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In bowl of food processor, pulse flour, cocoa and butter until coarse and mealy. Add salt and baking soda and pulse again to mix. Add both sugars and egg and pulse until mealy, then add the vanilla and sour cream and pulse to mix. Dump into a bowl and stir or mash in the chocolate pieces.
Shape the dough into two big balls — it should stick together easily. The balls will look gross and have flecks of egg white and maybe yolk – don’t be alarmed. Bake on parchment lined insulated baking sheet for 20 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for about 5 minutes then transfer to a rack to cool completely. These cookies are best dealt with once completely cool.
Makes 4 large cookies
First, we came up with a chocolate chip. It was a big, soft, dense (not cakey) and perfect for wrapping individually as gifts.
The oatmeal was good too. Again, soft. These are the kinds of cookies that would make a great base for ice cream cookie sandwiches.
And finally, a chocolate.
Anna
This is a test
Anna
To get an accurate calorie count you can add up the calories in the ingredients and divide by 8.
Jaime Kiser
I remade your recipe for chocolate chip cookies to suit my allergies…now they’re whole wheat and soy/dairy free. They’re in the oven.. 8 smaller ones.
What’s the calorie count for your recipe?
Natasha
These cookies are awesome. Really rich and flavorful. We used crushed up leftover Easter candies (Cadbury robin eggs, M&M’s, little chunks of Easter bunnies) They would definitely be chocolate-ier if made with chips, but they were so pretty this way. Also, how cool is it to be able to eat the dough and not have to worry about raw egg. Love it.
Annette
Hey guys! Thanks for these recipes. Here is what is going on at my house with cookie recipes: brown the butter, toast the flour and now, hard boiled egg yolks! Man, have I created some cookie monsters! How about posting some of the East European sugar cookie recipes that have the hard boiled eggs in them? I would love to have some!
Kristina Vanni
Holy cow….this is so cool! Who knew? I think they are the perfect accompaniment to an egg salad sandwich!
Anna
Deb, thanks for trying the cookies and writing a review! I really appreciate it.
Deb
I gotta say I was skeptical about these – they sound down right weird. But, Anna has never led me astray and the reviews seemed to be supportive, so I gave it a go. I’m so glad I did. I made the chocolate-chocolate chip version and they are great! They’re really soft and chocolatey. My husband wandered into the kitchen as they were cooling and asked to try one, I said sure but there’s a secret ingredient. He tasted them said they were great, then I told him what it was. Then he was weirded out (he doesn’t like hard boiled eggs) but he ate two anyway. They’re that good 🙂
Anna
Courtney, thanks for testing the smaller version! Katrina tried it as well. She made smaller cookies and baked them at 500 for about 5 minutes.
Courtney
Okay, I baked up a batch of the chocolate chip recipe today and shaped the dough into eight balls. The cookies baked up great and looked similar to your picture–they were nice and sturdy, not flat at all. I think the size was still a generous sized cookie and that they tasted great! I also think these would be a good cookie to make and give as gifts because of the nice size and texture.
Anna
Courtney, I’m sorry the yield is so small. The recipe is so easy you could just make the dough over and over (you could probably double it, but I haven’t tried tripling it yet) and just make a bunch. I think making the cookies smaller would change the texture somewhat. Maybe you could make a test cookie and let us know?
Courtney
I just got some hard boiled eggs today so I want to try this recipe (finally)! My question–do you think I could make the cookies smaller for a greater yield or would that ruin the texture?
Courtney
I just got some hard boiled eggs today so I want to try this recipe (finally)! My question–do you think I could make the cookies smaller or would that ruin the texture?
Upstate NY Native
Found this on another site and tried it -it is perfect!!
Happy Easter all
Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs
* 1 tablespoon salt
* 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
* 6 cups water
* 8 eggs
1. Combine the salt, vinegar, and water in a large pot, and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the eggs one at a time, being careful not to crack them. Reduce the heat to a gentle boil, and cook for 14 minutes.
2. Once the eggs have cooked, remove them from the hot water, and place into a container of ice water or cold, running water. Cool completely, about 15 minutes. Store in the refrigerator up to 1 week.
Anna
Sue, I like the chocolate chip! I think Katrina likes the oatmeal best (and now I see the comment that confirms it).
Michelle, before Rita told me about it, I’d seen hard boiled egg used in the dough used for some Linzer tarts
Happy Easter Rita!
Katrina, thanks for the link.
Katrina
Oh and HI, Rita! Miss ya bloggin! 😉
Sue–you should try these! Any version is good, but I do like the oatmeal ones the best for some reason.
http://www.bakingandboys.com/2010/04/amazing-hard-boiled-egg-oatmeal-cookies.html
Katrina
Love, love, love these!!! As much of a chocolate gal I am, with this cookie, the oatmeal is my favorite and whenever I have a hard boiled egg or two I make them. (Can’t wait for next week to come–we don’t boil eggs until Saturday.)
Great post, Anna!
clumbsycookie
:))))))))))))))))))) Happy Easter Anna!
Michelle
Wow! I never would have thought you could use hard-boiled eggs in a cookie. The oatmeal ones sound delicious!
Sue
Which variation is your favorite? I like the looks of the double chocolate cookie best. I’m sorry to say I never got around to trying these.