How to freeze eggs

I survived my first week back at work part time!!  

Then I took a really long nap.  It was glorious.  Magical.  I should take this whole "sleep when the baby sleeps" advice people have been suggesting to me for years.

Since I work from a home office and my husband was able to adapt his schedule to be home in the morning to watch the kiddos, it was painless. Literally painless... work from home=no need to pump.  I hate pumping.  

Plus, I get baby snuggles when I step out of the office to top up my coffee.  

And who wouldn't want a quick snuggle from this little angel?

I just want to eat him.  That's normal, right?

Also this week, I bought a brand spanking new 11 cup Cuisinart food processor.  Do you know how fast you can shred a zucchini in one of those?  Really fast.

Successful first week back at work and a brand new appliance?  All in all, I would say this week has been a good one.  

Now that you know more about my week than you wanted to, I'll give you what you came for.  Onward to the farmy stuff...

My backyard flock is laying crazy amounts of eggs.  Around here, we eat eggs like it's our job.  

Afternoon snack? Hard boiled egg.  

Mid-morning snack? Scrambled eggs.  

Need lunch?  Egg salad or egg and onion sandwich.

Dinner? Quiche.  

Stressed out or just want to eat something? Soft boiled egg smushed with a bit of kerrygold butter.  

It's a good thing I LOVE eggs.  And yet we still have extras during this time of year.

I know full well the first cold snap of the year will hit and the egg count will drop.  (I'm well aware this could be avoided by lighting the ladies, but there is no power source out by our coop).

The good news is that there are a few ways to freeze eggs for later use.

Mixing eggs together with a pinch of salt and freezing them in 6 or 8 egg blocks (or 3 or 4 duck egg blocks) is a great way to just have what you need all set to pour over your quiche fillings during slow laying weeks. 

Baking often requires just one or two chicken eggs, so the "egg block" isn't really practical for that application.  This is where ice tray freezing is brilliant!  

16 egg cubes = 8 large chicken eggs

If you have a tray with big spaces, you can just crack a single egg into each compartment and you can freeze whole eggs with ease.    Just don't try to freeze whole eggs for more than 6 months. I've heard the yokes can get an odd texture, although I have never experienced that myself.

Our ice tray has smaller compartments.  A medium egg takes up 1 1/2 compartments.  It's super awkward.

Not very convenient to have a main cube and an egg white "chip," so beating the eggs first is a better option for us.

Once they are frozen, I pop them into a gallon size ziploc and label with the date.  For recipes calling for one large egg, 2 "egg cubes" can be used. 

If you don't have an ice tray, partially filled muffin tins will do just fine:

With our pekin duck eggs, we can use the ice tray to partition them like chicken eggs.  I like that because then it takes away the trouble of converting between duck/chicken egg quantities for baking.  Two "egg cubes" is 1 large egg for most recipes.

Why does Charlotte the duck lay so many eggs?

Duck eggs are a challenge for me to use up, because they are huge and I don't have many recipes that use them under my belt.  I am working on expanding my repertoire in that regard, so stay tuned and perhaps I will share.  

Alternatively, anybody want a few duck eggs?