The French call them profiteroles.
They are light and airy mounds of choux pastry, typically filled with whipped cream or custard.
Sometimes they are topped with a drizzle of chocolate, but to do so is to me superfluous, if not even a bit crass, sort of like putting a big Yokohama spoiler on the back of a Ferrari.
Most times it’s best to leave perfection unsullied.
Profiteroles are one of the confectionary world’s greatest sweet contributions. However, whenever I eat them I can’t shake the idea that consuming too many bears the risk of turning myself into a human profiterole: soft, doughy, and bursting at the seams.
This is not an absurd, outside risk for me, I’m afraid, because I have a weakness for them. I could eat a dozen profiteroles, maybe 20, depending on size.
Irrespective of what they may be called in other parts of the world, the truth is, these are cream puffs we’re talking about here, by popular culture’s perspective perhaps the most indulgent foodstuff ever, the poster pastry for wanton excess and lack of restraint.
So be it; I still think they’re magical.
And on the 100-block of West 16th Street, quietly creating some of the very best cream puffs you’ll find anywhere, is Rex Bakery, a place I have grown to love in my own reluctant, “I’m really not a dessert guy, I prefer a cheese plate” kind of way.
Rex has been around for nearly three decades and is operated by the Ramzani family. I recently spoke to Ella Ramzani, who was holding down the fort on a busy weekday morning. She told me that alongside honey balls, Napoleons, rollet cakes (delicate cake rolled around a creamy whipped cream filling), and house-made saffron ice cream, cream puffs are the most popular items in the bakery.
I am glad to learn that my love for the latter is shared, though such knowledge did little to assuage the feeling of decadence that installed itself in me following my third cream puff at dinnertime with the family.
Yes, you read that right: dinnertime.
How does one thoroughly sample the fare of a bakery for an article like this?
One way, my chosen approach in this case, is to drop your kids’ jaws by announcing that cake and pastries are for dinner, followed by an optional savoury course, if required.
And so it was that my wife DJ and our three kids, The Boy, Blondie and Baby N opened two white boxed filled with Rex confections and made a meal of their contents.
The assortment of goods was diverse, from crumbly and light shortbread cookies with chewy currents to spiced baklava. We began our sampling with a vanilla rollet (or roulette, depending on the shop) and unanimously appreciated the supple cake and its airy, creamy whipped cream filling.
Persian baking is often characterized by luxurious ingredients that are greatly prized in the Iranian culinary tradition. One such ingredient is rosewater, which can be overwhelmingly potent if not doled out carefully.
Fortunately, for my taste, Rex handled the specialty ingredient deftly and the cream in the rollet was only faintly perfumed, permitting the delicate vanilla flavours and textures to shine through.
At just $14, the cake, which is long and cylindrical in shape and yielded at least 10 adequate portions, is a great value and something to keep in mind when you next need to contribute something to a dinner party.
In my experience, another signature ingredient in Persian baking is cardamom, put to use in Rex’s honey-soaked baklava. For those accustomed to the Greek version of this dessert, the pungent spice can be a sensory assault at first bite, but I find over time the flavour works very well and somehow tempers the often staggering sweetness of the dish.
A novelty that will appeal to those who prefer to sidestep gluten is nan-e nokhochi, a riff on shortbread cookies, made from chickpea flour. The flour yields an exceptionally lightweight pastry, crumbly and dainty, with an unusual but pleasant, subtle bitterness that pairs nicely with coffee or strong, sweetened tea.
Nuts and seeds feature heavily in many of Rex Bakery’s treats as well, as in the rectangular, two-bite shirini e zaban, flaky puff pastry fingers topped with toasted sesame. As a general comment, I’d suggest that much of the bakery’s fare is relatively reserved in sugar or, at the very least, is well balanced with spice and citrus notes, so as to avoid any cloying tendency.
Not prone to travelling well and therefore not part of our recent tasting of goodies, is Rex’s saffron-scented ice cream, made in-house like all the rest of their goods, and worth trying for its fragrant, earthy complexity. In addition to its retail operation, Rex offers custom baked goods including wedding and birthday cakes.
Our dessert-for-dinner sampling cost $26.
Rex Bakery is located at 141 West 16th St. in North Vancouver. rexbakery.wixsite.com/main, 604-973-0119.
Chris Dagenais served as a manager for several restaurants downtown and on the North Shore. He earned his sommelier diploma in 2001. He can be reached via email at [email protected]. North Shore News dining reviews are conducted anonymously and all meals are paid for by the newspaper.
