Deviled Egg Christmas Trees
Tall deviled eggs piled so high with a green egg yolk filling to make them look like Christmas Trees! Deviled eggs are one of the best foods of all time, and a holiday staple. I thought, they already taste like the holidays, what if they looked like the holidays too! I used spinach in the filling to get that perfect Christmas tree green on these. My secret weapon though, a pinch of dehydrated mashed potato flakes! The flakes gave the filing enough body to stand up tall like a tree!
The inspiration for this recipe
I was making some guacamole deviled eggs a while back and I overfilled one of them as a joke. Looking back at the photo the other day, I noticed that it kind of reminded me of a christmas tree! I did some searching and saw a bunch of great attempts at making deviled eggs look like christmas trees, like these cuties, but none really fit the way I wanted to do it, so I set out to try it myself!
Cutting the eggs
Typically when making deviled eggs I cut the egg the traditional long way. For these I wanted the egg to look like a planter for the christmas tree so I thought it would be better to cut them the short way. I had seen this method at a restaurant before, but never tried it myself
The old way would be to cut it along the red line, instead I did it on the green line. This ended up being easy enough, the main challenge is figuring out where the yolk is and making sure to cut it close to where the yolk center is. I got it right most of the time, but even when I missed it was OK. Plus I did a few extra eggs just in case, and so that the filling would have plenty of yolk
I read later that you can lay the eggs on their sides overnight in the fridge and the yolk will center itself better.
Cut a little off the bottom too, being careful not to puncture the egg cavity. A perfect base the the tree to stand in!
Make the green egg yolk filling
I cooked spinach with some butter and garlic to make the green filling. Avocado is good and somewhat common in deviled eggs but I was worried it wouldn’t be vibrant green enough. The spinach gave this a perfect shade of green. I also added some potato flakes to keep this mixture thick enough to stand up tall like a tree. The rest is pretty typical deviled egg stuff. If you have never used potato flakes, this is what I am talking about. I use them all the time!
Trim the deviled egg Christmas tree
I was really working my arts and craft muscles to their extent here with the pepper stars. These were the first two attempts, but I got better as I went along. Also, no matter how small you think you need to make them, it’s probably not small enough!
Creating the deviled egg Christmas trees
Place the egg whites on the serving dish, then pipe on that green filling to create the trees! Add on some fresno pepper ornaments, then the star topper!
Oh Christmas Tree!
Let it snow!
Finally, let the parmesan cheese snow down on the trees! I like to do this after the guests arrive so you have a nice flourish as you serve the food! It’s like your own personal deviled egg christmas tree snow globe! I used a microplane to let the parmesan snow down because I thought it would give the snow a tinsel look, perfect for a Christmas tree. If you wanted to use a more fluffy round grated parm that would be great too.
A perfect holiday app!
Twists on deviled egg Christmas trees
Can you use avocado? Yes. Avocado will work but it won’t be as vibrant. You also might need a little more potato flakes to make sure the filling is sturdy enough.
Can you use food coloring? Yes. If you want a more traditional deviled egg flavor, food coloring will work fine. You may need to add more potato flakes and mayo to give you enough filling to pile these trees nice and high. Personally I love how the spinach tasted in the final product, and when I can make something colorful with fresh ingredients, I prefer to do it that way.
Can you use frozen spinach? Yes. Thaw the spinach in kitchen towels to remove as much moisture as possible. Squeeze it to strain more moisture. Use a packed half cup of the spinach in the recipe. Still use the butter, and I would cut down the garlic to 1 clove because cooking the garlic with the fresh spinach takes some of the aggressive edge off of the garlic flavor.
Love deviled eggs? Check out my carbonara deviled eggs, street corn deviled eggs, big mac deviled eggs, or these steak and roasted red pepper deviled eggs.
Deviled Egg Christmas Trees
Equipment
Ingredients
- 7 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 cloves garlic sliced thin
- 5 oz baby spinach
- 1/3 cup mayo
- 1 tablespoon mustard
- 1/2 lemon (juice)
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon hot sauce
- 2 tablespoons dehydrated potato flakes
- 1 red fresno chili pepper minced
- 1 yellow bell pepper cut into small stars
- parmesan cheese
Instructions
Cook the eggs
- Bring water to a boil and add the eggs. Cook them at a hard boil for 9 and a half minutes. While they cook, fill up a bowl with ice and water. Scoop the eggs out of the boiling water and add them to the ice bath to cool.
- Peel the eggs and rinse them. Slice them in half the short way so that each half is round, opposite of the traditional deviled egg style. Try to cut it so you are cutting the yolk in half. It can be hard to judge where the yolk is but it is ok if you don't slice it exactly in half. Refer to photos above for help.
- Put the yolks in a bowl and set aside in the fridge until ready to use. Cut the bottom tips off the eggs so they can stand up straight, being careful not to cut too much or you will pierce the cavity. There are a few extra egg whites just in case. Set the whites aside in the fridge until ready to use.
Cook the spinach
- You can start this step as the eggs are cooking or cooling.
- Add the butter to a frying pan over medium heat. Add the garlic as the butter starts melting. Stir in the spinach and cook about 5 minutes until the spinach is wilted and moisture is evaporated from the pan. Remove from heat and allow to cool fully before using
Blend the filling
- In a blender add the spinach mixture, egg yolks, mayo, mustard, lemon juice, paprika, hot sauce, and potato flakes. Blend until smooth. Put the filling into the fridge to cool fully.
- Stir the mixture and if it doesn't seem thick enough to stand tall on it's own, add a little more potato flakes and stir to combine.
- Transfer to a piping bag with a star tip.
Finish the eggs
- Place the egg whites on a platter. This recipe makes 14 egg whites just in case you mess a few up. The filling is intended to only fill 10 – 12.
- Pipe the filling into the egg whites, bobbing the piping tip up and down slightly to form the tree shape and gradient. Go as tall as you feel confident being able to.
- Use two toothpicks to add 5 or 6 pieces of diced red pepper to each tree as decoration. Top with the star of yellow pepper
- Finally, make it "snow" parmesan cheese by grating it with a microplane grater right over the deviled egg trees. Serve
Recette en français svp
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These are so adorable! Absolutely love the creativity! I can’t wait to try them! Merry Christmas!
A couple things would have helped:
-showing which tip was used to pipe the filling into the egg white ‘shells’. I had to switch twice; my tips were not ‘disconnecting’ at the top of the trees.
– a video of the piping process. Despite my mix being pretty stiff, the end result looked a bit more like decorated cactus then Christmas trees.
-an alternative to the stars- that was way too exacting. I ended up using the tiny pieces of raspberries. I found that my red peppers were less red and more orange that I realized so didn’t provide the contrast I wanted.
-filling was disappointing, didn’t stand out in taste as is my norm.
-presented in a pot luck (where you can’t talk to everyone as they are presented) they were actually not all taken; I think some people thought the green color was from food coloring. An ingredients sign might have made a difference.
Has anyone been successful at making these
Yes, I just made this for Christmas Eve and folks LOVED them. 1) super cute and 2) everyone loves a deviled egg. 2 cheap, one-time, orders that helped… I picked up a cheap piping set so I wouldn’t gunk up the wife’s baking gear. In hindsight, this was not necessary and cleanup was super easy.
I also picked up a 3-pack of mini star punches on amazon. This kit meant for detailed fondant work was under $10, allowed me to make perfect yellow pepper starts, and it took all of 3 minutes to make 1 trays worth. Worth every penny and will use again next year.
As for those asking about the piping: I made a traditional filling with relish and whatnot, and just added green food coloring. By the time I was done, the filling was great, but a little on the thin side. I put it outside (out of fridge space) and it firmed up perfectly in 20 minutes.
The first one I made looked like a green poop emoji. My wife laughed and showed me how to properly use the star piping bit. Its a series of up and down movements in a vertical movement. As you slowly move up, push out the mix and it plumes out. Just adjust how much you push each time and let it quickly form a perfect tree shape.
For those that asked about the top/pointed tip… just BEFORE you get to where you think the top is, stop on that plume and pull the star straight up (maybe twist it as you go) and it will stretch the final dab into a perfect point every time.
These things were so pretty, people talked about how cool they were and no one wanted to ruin the plate. Once someone finally took one, the entire plate disappeared in about 3 minutes. Luckily, I skipped the shelling process by grabbing a few boxes of the Costco hard-boiled eggs. Skipped a TON of time on the prep and allowed me to have lots of extra filling on hand to make the tall trees. with all the prepped leftovers on standby, I made 2 more plates in minutes.
Those deviled christmas tree eggs look awesome. Too late to try it for this holiday but definitely will make them next year.
Can’t wait for Xmas next year or visitors this year before NYE. Thank you fabulous exciting recipie
Did them for Christmas and it was a little interesting but a big hit. It was my first with a piping tip/bag too! I didn’t have all the ingredients (ie hot sauce) since where I was taking these eggs to wouldn’t like the hot spice element. I want to try them again. We did them via cutting the egg long way not short way. I wonder if that influenced the filling in some way? I also noticed that the star was top heavy (probably cut it too big) so towards the end I thought of tooth picks which worked out. We used spinach leaves, the garlic was not used and the recipe was doubled. The comment from JIMC had excellent points. Overall, I’m planning on repeating this next Christmas and following the recipe a little closer! Big A+ though!
Presentation is everything, and these are a cute idea. I use Dijon/Chinese mustard & the hottest Horseradish (Beaver) I can find. Plus, I always warn people ahead of time these will clear your sinus’s.
Thanks for the hot tip, Christine. I was just mentioning trying to locate hotter than average horseradish and I hadn’t thought of wasabi. Excellent ideas!
Question – for the filling, can I pre make them the night before? Will it stay good?
Yes, it will be fine to hold overnight! That is how I prefer to make ahead – prep everything and then fill and decorate them day of
I know the potato flakes are for stiffness, but do they change the taste of the filling? What about the texture besides being stiffer? I’d love to make these!
In my opinion they do not change the flavor, other than slightly muting some of the taste, but I adjusted the salt and acidity in the recipe to make sure it was balanced in the end. As for texture, i don’t think it changes things drastically other than like you said, just being thicker/stiffer
These were cute, but a labor of love. I made as directed until I couldn’t get the green from the spinach to change the color of the yolks. I finally used gel color and they looked great. The specks of spinach actually made them look like real trees. The star at the top was a no go. So I just cut diamonds w the pepper and the point looked fine.
All in all, a cute idea. But took much longer than I expected.
These were fun to make and worked well! I did add one extra tablespoon of potato flakes to ensure the filling would really hold the height! Wish I could share a pic.
Wish I could have added a pictures. Mine were absolutely delicious. I made 24.(I didn’t do stars but used a round icing tip to cut out ornaments from red and yellow bell pepper. )
I sautéed the garlic and added a little bit more.
Also for flavor and deeper color I added fresh basil, a lot. Color was great. I am known for my Deviled eggs ( I know sad legacy), and people said there were the best I have ever made.
I used food processor with the potato flakes, really helped firmness and did t detract from flavor at all.
I dyed pine nuts red for ornaments too, but I was too pressed for time
Love these twists! I do love basil in deviled eggs.