Celebrate Paçzki Day: Polish Pastries Delight!

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Discussion Overview

The thread centers around the celebration of Paçzki Day, with participants sharing their experiences and thoughts about this Polish pastry. Various locations and traditions associated with Paçzki Day are mentioned, alongside personal anecdotes and cravings for the pastries.

Discussion Character

  • Anecdotal
  • Opinion-based
  • Exploratory

Main Points Raised

  • One participant shares that Paçzki Day is a significant event in Milwaukee, noting long lines at local bakeries.
  • Another participant describes the popularity of Paçzki in Detroit, highlighting the rich history and various fillings available.
  • Several users express their cravings for Paçzki, with one mentioning a desire for a raspberry-filled one.
  • One participant, identifying as a consultant, mentions that Paçzki are also popular in a Dutch community, indicating a broader appreciation for the pastry.
  • Another participant notes the cultural significance of Paçzki as a way to use up rich ingredients before Lent.
  • Some participants discuss the connection between Paçzki Day and other celebrations like Pancake Day, with playful comparisons made between the two.
  • One participant shares a recipe for Paçzki, providing a detailed account of the preparation process.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Views differ regarding the popularity and significance of Paçzki Day in various locations, with no clear consensus on which area has the best or most authentic pastries.

Contextual Notes

Participants come from various regions, including Chicago, Detroit, and Kansas, sharing local traditions and experiences related to Paçzki Day and its cultural background.

Who May Find This Useful

Readers interested in culinary traditions, particularly those related to Polish culture, may find the shared experiences and discussions about Paçzki Day engaging.

The_Kitchen_Guy
The_Kitchen_Guy
Silver Member
Messages
12,389
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/93/Ponczki.jpg/250px-Ponczki.jpgThe delightful Polish pastry! It's Paçzki Day!(Pronounced Poonch-key.)(ETA: This is from TWO THOUSAND SEVEN, folks, so enjoy the thread but remember that this year's discussion starts towards the end! :))
 
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Looks Yummy! Wish I had one right now!
 
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  • #3
On Fat Tuesday, there's usually a line around the block at the last real Polish bakery in Milwaukee.
 
Here in Detroit, they're HUGE!! Hamtramck, a suburb, is VERY Polish (although it's gradually changing demographically to other Eastern Europeans, Eurasians, and Middle-Easterners). There are always lines on Paczki day, and all 3 of the local news crews have reporters there.

For those who don't know, Paczki are a holdover from the days when Catholics couldn't eat anything good during Lent: butter, eggs, jelly, sugar, etc. Paczki were a way to use them up so they wouldn't go to waste. They're REALLY rich doughnut-like pastries, but HUGE! and filled with yummy things. Prune filling is traditional, but most bakeries make them with raspberry, strawberry, custard, apple, chocolate, etc. They have a million calories each. :)
 
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  • #5
So, they Lent themselves to overindulgence?
 
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One of those would really hit the spot about now :)
 
FAT Tuesday is appropriately named!

Love the new picture, KG.
 
And Happy Mardi Gras too! That is one of the things I miss about LA...good king cake!
 
My 2 yr old and I are getting ready to go run errands, and stand in line for a Paczki! My DH said that they were having them at work today too.....for a Dutch community, Paczkis' are very popular around here! (There is actually a large Polish community in GR too.)
 
I want a raspberry one!!! My husband called this morning and said that one of his coworkers brought a box in to work. . .all raspberry. He told me if there were any left when he came home he'd try to sneak one out for me. :0

Big Polish community in the South Bend area (I'm 5 minutes from the Indiana stateline) so it's a big deal here too!
 
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  • #11
I was just talking with my boss about your neighborhood. I've got a big project coming up in the South Bend / New Buffalo / Benton Harbor area.
 
I'm in Chicago. Nuff said.

They sell them at Jewel here. Probably not as authentic, but still good!
 
Here in Kansas it's Pancake Day! In Liberal they have a pancake race and compete against the city of Olney England which also has a race!
 
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  • #14
There must be at least 50 authentic Polish bakeries in Chicago! You've got one of the largest Polish communities outside of Warsaw. (and NOT Warsaw, Indiana, smartas ses!)http://www.dinkels.com/site/template/assets/home_template_dinkels_457/images/logo.gifOr there's always Pasieka Bakery: Located in the Polish neighborhood of Jackowo, Pasieka peddles about 200 paczki daily, says manager Mary Bobek, but that number explodes to 20,000 on Fat Thursday. (3056 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago; 773-278-5190) I love that it's on Milwaukee Avenue since Milwaukee also has a traditional Polish heritage.
 
It's Pancake Day here in the UK.
 
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  • #16
Pancakes <------> PaçzkiHmmmmmm...No contest.Hand me a paçzki, please.:D
 
I would agree!!!! Can you Fed Ex me one?
 
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  • #18
Pancake Day sounds kinda flat.I think it's a lotta crepe, actually.
 
Groan!

I woud think you'd come up with a batter one that that, KG! Or are you just trying to syrup the pot?




(OK, those were bad, too. I admit it.)
 
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  • #20
I would think that you would have groan accustomed to me at this point. Your's were good enough for me to realize you're the griddle my dreams.People groan at puns because they're jealous they didn't think of them first. ;)
 
Well--Have you ever been to Kansas?!? It's kinda flat too!
 
OMG! It is! I HATE driving through Kansas on my way to visit my sister.

Not that there aren't some fabulous Cheffers who live there. But when you're excited to get to your destination, it is a little boring.

A lot of Nebraska is that way, too.

(I did a lot of traveling around the Great Plains in college. I was on the Forensics team and we had about a tournament a month to which we traveled, mostly in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Nebraska.)
 
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  • #23
It's far more intesting to drive east <--> west in Nebraska than it is to drive north <--> south through Illinois.From the time you leave Council Bluffs, IA (986 ft about sea level) you're pulling grade all the way to Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, right on the state line and 5,040 feet elevation. In the 460 miles it takes to cross Nebraska from Bluffs to Bluffs, you're climbing at a rate of about 8-1/2 feet per mile. That's a significant grade and hardly flat.
 
Nebraska may not be flat, but it certainly looks that way. :)
 
The_Kitchen_Guy said:
There must be at least 50 authentic Polish bakeries in Chicago! You've got one of the largest Polish communities outside of Warsaw. (and NOT Warsaw, Indiana, smartas ses!)
Click to expand...

I know, but I'm way out in the burbs.
 
Here's a fun thing!

There's a radio station in Detroit that has a noon program called the Mid-Day Entree. They play a piece of classical music, and share a recipe that is somehow related (nationality of the composer, conductor or orchestra; nickname of the piece, etc.). Guess what today's recipe was?

Here it is for you to enjoy.

The Midday Entrée
Paczki Day, February 20, 2007​
The Music:
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 21, by Frederic Chopin
Alexis Weissenberg, piano; Paris Conservatory Orchestra, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, cond. [ EMI 69036 ]
The Recipe: Paczki
12 egg yolks
1 teaspoon salt
2 packages active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1/3 cup room temperature butter
1/2 cup sugar
4 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup rum or brandy
1 cup scalded whipping cream
1 1/2 cups preserves or cooked prunes or apples or canned poppy seed filling
Peanut oil for deep frying (vegetable oil will work—Busia Koltuniak used lard.)

Beat egg yolks with the salt in the small bowl of an electric mixer at high speed until the mixture is thick and piles softly, about 7 minutes. Soften yeast in warm water. Cream butter, add sugar to it gradually, beating until fluffy. Slowly beat in the softened yeast.

Stir one fourth of the flour into the yeast mix. Add rum/brandy and half of the cream.

Beat in another fourth of the flour. Stir in remaining cream. Beat in half of the remaining flour and then the egg yolk mixture. Beat for 2 minutes.

Gradually beat in the remaining flour until the dough blisters. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

Set in a warm place to rise. When it has doubled in bulk, punch it down. (No, this is not why some call these “punchkees.” The correct pronunciation is “PONECH kee” anyway. CF)

Cover and let rise again until doubled. Punch it down again.

Roll dough on a floured surface to about 3/4 inch thickness. Cut out 3 inch rounds using a cookie cutter or glass. Put 1 tablespoon of filling in the center of half the circles. Brush the edges with water. Top with the remaining rounds. Seal the edges very well. Cover the paczki on a floured surface. Let rise about 20 minutes.

Deep fry in the hot fat until they are golden brown on both sides. Sprinkle with powdered sugar or drizzle with honey.

Smacznego, and thanks for listening!

===
You can see what else they've been sharing by going to www.wrcj909fm.org, and clicking on the recipe box.
 
K.G. keep me posted as to when you'll be in SW Michigan/NE Indiana.

It's pancake day here too, sort of. Today is Shrove Tuesday. Here's something I found online:

The day before the beginning of Lent is known as Shrove Tuesday. To shrive someone, in old-fashioned English, is to hear his acknowledgement of his sins, to assure him of God's forgiveness, and to give him appropriate spiritual advice.

Shrove Tuesday is also called Fat Tuesday (in French, Mardi=Tuesday; gras=fat, as in "pate de foie gras", which is liver paste and very fatty), because on that day a thrifty housewife uses up the fats that she has kept around (the can of bacon drippings, or whatever) for cooking, but that she will not be using during Lent. Since pancakes are a standard way of using up fat, the day is also called Pancake Tuesday. In England, and perhaps elsewhere, the day is celebrated with pancake races. The contestants run a course while holding a griddle and flipping a pancake. Points are awarded for time, for number and height of flips, and number of times the pancake turns over. There are of course penalties for dropping the pancake.
 
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  • #28
Yikes! I almost forgot about this!

This deserves a bump, doncha think?
 
mmm....I was good and didn't have one today. Too many calories.
 
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  • #30
I didn't have one because I can't spell it.
 
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