These Christmas cream puffs are filled with a pine and orange-infused pastry cream, making them an easy, impressive holiday and winter dessert.
One of the things I like best about the holidays is the smell of a fresh Christmas tree in the house. Since I'm usually thinking about food, that eventually led to a reasonable-sounding question: can you eat a Christmas tree?
In short, yes - some of them. Pine, fir, and spruce needles are edible and have a fresh, citrusy aroma when used carefully.
For these cream puffs, I steep a small amount of pine needles in warm milk along with orange zest, then strain it all out before making the pastry cream. The result is subtle and fragrant, not strong and woodsy, and it certainly doesn't taste artificial or like a candle.
The cream puffs themselves are classic: light, crisp shells made from choux pastry and filled with a smooth, infused custard. They're easier than they look, make a great holiday dessert, and they'll most definitely give you something to talk about when you bring them to a family get-together.
But there are a few things you should know before you start chopping up and eating your tree. Please read through the ingredient notes below.
😍 Why You'll Love These cream puffs
- They're unique. Pine and orange are not a common pairing, yet they make a wonderful holiday and winter flavor that everyone will want to know more about.
- They're impressive. Cream puffs are more impressive than cookies (in case you're looking to show off a bit). But they're not as tricky to make as they may seem.
- They capture the flavor of the season. While I try to achieve that in all my recipes, I think this one does it exceptionally well. Evergreen and citrus are true winter flavors.
If you're looking for more unique flavored desserts and drinks, you'll want to check out my recipes for Lemon Rosemary Olive Oil Cake, Chamomile Cookies, Pomegranate Rosemary Cocktail, Spiced Red Wine Cupcakes, and Blueberry Lavender Lemonade.
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🍊 Ingredients
Here's everything you need to make these holiday cream puffs.
Key Ingredients
- Pine branches: Use only untreated pine, spruce, or fir branches from a tree you know hasn't been sprayed. Avoid trees from big-box stores or any branches treated with pesticides or flame retardants. If you purchase your Christmas tree from a local tree farm, which is always the best option for freshness and quality anyway, you can ask whether they spray their trees. Branches from a tree in your yard or one foraged in the woods are good options. You only need a few small pieces, anyway. For more information on using confers in cooking, check out "How to Eat a Pine Tree" over at Practical Self Reliance.
- Oranges: Either 1 large or 2-3 small oranges are needed to zest and flavor the pastry cream. If you can use organic, that's the best option, as we're using the fruit skin. The orange flesh is not needed, so save it for a snack.
- Flour: All-purpose flour is fine here-no need for a special pastry flour. I have not tested this recipe with gluten-free options.
- Eggs: Whole eggs are in the choux pastry, while egg yolks are used in the pastry cream. For the pastry dough, make sure the whole eggs are at room temperature. You can leave them on the counter for about 30 minutes.
- Butter: I almost always use unsalted local Cabot butter. I like to control the salt myself.
- Milk: For the pastry cream, I use whole milk. The extra fat offers the best flavor and texture, in my opinion. However, you can also use a lower-fat milk or a milk alternative.
- Cornstarch: Used to thicken the pastry cream into a pudding-like texture.
Check out the recipe card below for the complete list of ingredients and quantities.
🌿 Substitutions & Variations
- Cream puff tower: For a show-stopping cream puff presentation that would impress even Prue and Paul, stack the filled puffs into a tower and drizzle with caramel to keep it all in place. This is known as a croquembouche. I made this once, and it was a lot of fun, but a bit of a project. Learn more about making croquembouche.
- Without pine: If you don't have access to fresh pine or spruce, that's ok. A good alternative is rosemary. You'll still get a similar earthy flavor. Use 2-3 fresh rosemary sprigs.
- Vanilla pastry cream: You can never go wrong with vanilla. Instead of pine needles, use one vanilla bean, halved and slit open to release the seeds.
🔪 Instructions
- Step 1: Heat the milk with the pine needles and orange zest for about 5 minutes. Stir often. Then turn off the heat and let it infuse for at least 1 hour.
- Step 2: Melt the butter with the sugar, water, and salt in a saucepan over low heat. Then stir in the flour until combined.
- Step 3: Add one egg at a time, stirring vigorously until fully incorporated. Continue adding eggs, mixing each one in before adding the next.
- Step 4: Stir well to form a cohesive dough. It should be smooth and glossy.
- Step 5: Transfer the dough to a pastry bag fitted with a wide tip. (I used one with pointy edges, hence the star shape of my puffs.) Or use a large storage bag witht he corner cut off.
- Step 6: Pipe the choux pastry into one-inch rounds on a baking sheet.
- Step 7: Use a wet finger to smooth out the top of each piece of dough. This helps to get a smooth top during baking and prevents burning.
- Step 8: Bake at 400°F for 25 minutes, or until completely golden brown. Let cool.
- Step 9: Strain the infused milk, return it to the pan over low heat, and whisk in the sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Add the egg yolks and butter. Continue cooking over medium-low heat until thickened like pudding, about 5 or so minutes. Let cool.
- Step 10: Either slice the cream puffs in half, as shown, or make a small hole in the bottom for filling with a piping bag. Spoon or pipe the filling into the cream puffs. Dust with powdered sugar and serve.
✨ Top Tips
- When making the puffs, vigorously stir the eggs one at a time into the dough. Adding more than one egg will cause the choux pastry dough to cool too quickly and the butter will separate out of them. (Speaking from experience.)
- Instead of piping the filling into the cream puff shells, you can simply slice them in half and spoon the filling in. It's an easier approach that tastes and looks just as good.
- The longer you let the pine needles infuse the milk, the stronger flavor you will have. Aim for at least an hour, but if you can leave it for a few hours or even overnight, that will be even better.
- If you're prepping your cream puffs ahead of time, you can recrisp the shells before filling by putting them in a 300-degree F oven for 10-15 minutes.
🍳 Equipment
Pastry bag and piping tip: Help to pipe the pastry dough onto the baking sheet neatly, then pipe the filling onto the cream puff. Not entirely essential, however! A spoon and a careful hand can do the job, or you can improvise a pastry bag by cutting the corner off a heavy-duty plastic bag.
🫙 Storage
Fridge: These cream puffs are best served the day you fill them. Store leftover cream puffs in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.
Freezer: Freeze filled cream puffs on a baking sheet in a single layer. Once frozen, transfer to a zip-top storage bag and store for up to three months. Defrost in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.
Make ahead: This is the best option. Prepare the cream puff shells and the filling separately up to two days in advance, then fill them the day you plan to serve.
🙋🏻♂️ FAQ
They won't. The pine flavor is lighter than you'd expect and is balanced by the orange zest. The flavor is closer to rosemary and not a Christmas candle.
You can prepare the filling and the cream puff shells up to two days in advance, but it is best to fill them on the day you plan to serve them. Otherwise, the puffs will go soft and a little mushy on you rather than the preferred light and crisp texture of a good cream puff.
Yes, pine and several other evergreen types of trees, such as spruce, are edible and are used for making a variety of edible goods from syrups to teas. However, it's important to identify and confirm variety before using it and to use tree branches that have not been sprayed with chemicals.
In this recipe, I've found that the pine adds a light, woody note that has a hint of citrus. It is not a deep, overwhelming flavor you may expect.
☕ Pairing
Any of these recipes would go great with these holiday cream puffs:
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📖 Recipe
Christmas Cream Puffs
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: about 32 cream puffs 1x
Description
These Christmas cream puffs are filled with a pine and orange-infused pastry cream, making them an easy, impressive holiday and winter dessert.
Ingredients
For the pine and orange pastry cream
- 2 cups whole milk
- 3 eight-inch pieces of pine, spruce, or fir branch
- zest of one orange
- ¾ cup of sugar
- ¼ cup of corn starch
- ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon butter
For the cream puffs
- 1 stick of butter (or four ounces)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup of water
- 1 cup flour
- 4 eggs, room temperature
- confectioner's sugar, for serving
Instructions
Infuse the milk
- In a medium saucepan, gently heat the milk over medium-low until just barely simmering. Stir often as it heats.
- Cut your pine, spruce, or fir branch into a few small pieces and add them to the milk along with the orange zest. Let gently simmer for 5 minutes, stirring often to prevent milk from boiling. Remove from the heat and let cool for the flavors to steep. Ideally, you want to give it at least an hour, but even better if you can do this a day ahead and steep overnight in the fridge.
Make the choux dough
- In a medium or large saucepan, heat the butter, sugar, salt, and water over medium heat. Stir to combine, bringing the mixture to a gentle boil.
- Turn the heat to low and stir in the flour. Keep stirring until the dough has formed and pulls together into a ball.
- Remove from heat and let cool for a couple of minutes. Add the eggs to the pan one at a time, stirring each until fully incorporated. It's essential to add the eggs one at a time; otherwise, the dough will cool too quickly, and the butter will separate. You'll need to use a little effort to combine each egg, and you'll get a bit of an arm workout in the process. You may also accomplish this by transferring the dough to a stand mixer and using the dough hook.
- The dough will look broken or separated after each egg addition, but this is when you need to keep stirring, and it will come back together. When all of the eggs are added, you should have a solid, glossy-looking dough. See the process photo above for reference.
Pipe and bake the puffs
- Preheat the oven to 400°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Transfer the dough to either a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip or a gallon storage bag with a corner cut off. Another option is to use a small cookie/ice cream scoop.
- Pipe one-inch rounds of dough onto the sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Press down any pointy tips with a wet finger so they don't burn.
- Bake at 400°F for 20-25 minutes, or until golden on top and bottom. Remove from the oven and let cool.
Make the pastry cream
- In a saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, and salt, then strain in the infused milk to remove the pine branches. Whisk well to combine.
- Add the egg yolks and butter. Heat over medium-low, whisking often, until the mixture thickens to a pudding-like consistency. Transfer to the fridge to cool to room temperature.
Fill the cream puffs and serve
- When the puffs and cream are cool, it's time to fill.
- Use a small knife to make a hole in the bottom of each puff, then spoon or pipe in the pastry cream. You can also slice each puff in half and spoon some cream on top. After filling, dust with powdered sugar and serve fresh.
Notes
This is an instance where you definitely want to read the recipe carefully before you begin. Some steps, like infusing the pastry cream, take a little time, but it's also a good time to make the choux pastry while you wait.
When making the puffs, vigorously stir the eggs one at a time into the dough. Adding more than one egg will cause the choux pastry dough to cool too quickly and the butter will separate out of them. (Speaking from experience.)
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Holidays
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: French
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Z says
Sorry if I'm being dense, but are you putting chunks of the branch in, with the wood? Or just the needles?
Steve says
Hi Z,
I put pieces of the branches right in to steep. But you could also strip the needles off and do it that way, too. I think it's just personal preference.