GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Tuesday, Feb. 16 marks Fat Tuesday and several bakeries all over West Michigan have worked around the clock to stock up on a very beloved traditional pastry.
The paczki is a Polish pastry enjoyed on Fat Tuesday. They are made up of fried dough filled with fruit or custard filling and are a special kind of indulgence ahead of the Lenten season.
Here's 6 things to know about paczki:
- Paczki is actually plural and pronounced POONCH-key. The singular is Paczek and pronounced POON-check.
- They are NOT jelly doughnuts. The yeasty dough used to make these contains more eggs, therefore the flavor is richer.
- The name paczki translates to “little package” but they are not typically little. Paczki are normally bigger and plumper than normal fruit of crème-filled doughnuts.
- Traditional paczki are prune-filled, but you can get them in raspberry, custard, lemon, apple, blueberry and all sorts of other flavors these days.
- Grain alcohol is used in the dough before cooking to prevent the absorption of oil so the pastry is not greasy.
- On the outside paczki can be plain, dusted with powdered sugar or covered with an icing or glaze.
You're probably wondering, why do we celebrate Fat Tuesday with paczki?
Lent is the tradition period of fasting ahead of Easter. and traditionally Catholics would use up fats and sweets in their cupboards. Now, the day before Ash Wednesday has morphed into a somewhat of a last-minute calorie binge. Since the Middle Ages, paczki have been recorded as a traditional food item around this time of year in Europe.
This year, Lent begins on Wednesday, Feb. 17 and ends on Saturday, April 3 -- the day before Easter Sunday.
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