Creampuffs at the La Casita

Creampuff at La Casita

           Creampuffs are considered to be one of the most famous desserts in the world.  This dessert goes as far back as the mid-16^th century France.  It has been a staple dessert in almost every party, soiree and court functions ever since.  Originally called “profiterole”, this dessert is one of the most versatile desserts in the world as it can host a variety of flavours and fillings such as butter cream, custard, or chocolate put between choux shells made from flour, butter, water, and egg.  Creampuffs are sweet, brown pastries that can be pleasing to the eye but unsatisfactory to an inexperienced palate.

            A chef once said that pastries and desserts are your very own Davids because for one to successfully create a dessert, one must have three qualities: Patience, devotion and creativity.  The same applies in the creation of creampuffs as it begins with a baked puffed shell of pate choux made from boiled mixture of butter and water with flour until it has the consistency of a dough.  Eggs are then slowly added to the mixture until thick and baked for a quarter of an hour before splitting them in half and filling them with the filling of your choice.

            I was in the La Casita canteen at the Andrew Building when I decided to buy a creampuff.  It first caught my attention since my blockmates were buying them, so i bought one as well since for me it really is appetizing though I don’t usually eat sweet things for breakfast.  I paid 23 pesos for this sweet-smelling brown pastry and took it to the classroom.  My blockmates were waxing poetic about this creampuff: that it is so delicious and it’s one of their favourites and that i made the right choice.  It was the first time I’ll eat a creampuff so I was hoping that it would taste good and will be worth what I paid for.

            My creampuff is actually the size of a pingpong ball and it looks like cinnamon bread with maple syrup on top.  It actually smells like mamon or ensaymada.  I think it’s due to the egg and butter in the crust.  When I bit into it, I tasted a bit of vanilla essence, egg and butter. I also tasted the custard cream filling which is a bit like leche flan but is not as sweet.  The crust was actually tasteless if it weren’t for the maple syrup.  It’s also really, really dry and coarse that I could feel at the back of my throat when I swallowed it, this made me think of drinking a tall glass of water.  The maple syrup, because of its stickiness, didn’t help because it just made me thirstier.

            The dessert could have been better in my opinion if it has a larger amount of butter and eggs.  It could also not be overcooked because it’s really hard to bite into a crust that is almost as hard as a rock.  I also think the there should have been more maple syrup to complement the tasteless crust.  The filling could have been better if it wasn’t custard because I’m not actually fond of brazo de mercedes (custard cake).  I also think that it shouldn’t have been refrigerated because nothing beats a freshly-baked pastry.

            I was disappointed with the creampuff since it didn’t live up to my expectations.  I really like eating but I’m not partial to sweet things so my opinion might have been a little off-track but that is my opinion and I’ll stick to it.  I may not have liked the creampuff the La Casita but that doesn’t change the fact that the creampuff would always be famous because of its uniqueness.