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I have a thing for deviled egg trays—they’re kind of like functional sculptures—and I’m always looking for an excuse to use mine. So when I was taking a sneak peek at Colu Henry’s new cookbook, Colu Cooks: Easy Fancy Food, it was love at first recipe. I rarely get hooked on any book so early, but the Soft-Boiled Eggs With Pickled Chiles called to me. I’d already been scheming ways to deconstruct the classic deviled egg, and Henry’s simple preparation is honestly better than anything I could have dreamed up on my own.
That said, I have one problem with this recipe. Well, not so much the recipe, but the photo. It’s gorgeous, but the eggs are styled on a flat ceramic platter. For a cookbook, that’s fine—the same way it’s fine for models to wear puffer jackets with bikini bottoms on the runway. Both look cool in the right context, but neither actually work in the real world. If you tried to carry that fancy, flat platter from the kitchen counter to the dining room table, those amazing soft-boiled eggs would roll right off, leaving a colorful, jammy mess on the floor.
A deviled egg tray is a much more practical solution because the whole purpose of the egg-shaped indentations is to prevent eggs from falling over and losing all their delicious, preferably pickled, toppings. Deviled egg trays can be pretty too. Mine is a vintage piece—milk glass with gold trim—but I also really love the look of modern ceramic egg servers.
Not into deviled eggs? Well, deviled egg trays aren’t just for deviled (or soft-boiled) eggs. The little oval depressions are perfect for holding any small, roundish finger foods that could benefit from some stability or separation on the platter. I’ve used mine for stuffed dates, stuffed mushrooms, and meatballs. You can also use these practical platters for serving gougères, profiteroles or cream puffs, tartlets, escargots, and even mini cheese balls. When considering what to serve on a deviled egg tray, the culinary world is your oyster—another thing you can and absolutely should present on an attractive deviled egg tray!