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Celebrate Paçzki Day: Polish Pastries Delight!

In summary, the Polish pastry, Paczki, is a popular food on Fat Tuesday. There are usually long lines to get them in Milwaukee, Detroit, Hamtramck, and Liberal, and they are usually filled with different flavors. Ponczki day is also Pancake Day in the UK.
The_Kitchen_Guy
Silver Member
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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.)
 
  • #10
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.
 
  • #12
I'm in Chicago. Nuff said.

They sell them at Jewel here. Probably not as authentic, but still good!
 
  • #13
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.
 
  • #15
It's Pancake Day here in the UK.
 
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  • #16
Pancakes <------> PaçzkiHmmmmmm...No contest.Hand me a paçzki, please.:D
 
  • #17
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.
 
  • #19
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. ;)
 
  • #21
Well--Have you ever been to Kansas?!? It's kinda flat too!
 
  • #22
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.
 
  • #24
Nebraska may not be flat, but it certainly looks that way. :)
 
  • #25
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!)

I know, but I'm way out in the burbs.
 
  • #26
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.
 
  • #27
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?
 
  • #29
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.
 
  • #31
Thanks KG I was wondering what Fat Tuesday was.

And here I've been eating non-stop since I got up this morning!
 
  • #32
deja vu.....still looks yummy, wish I had one of those!
 
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  • #33
"Deja vu" is Polish for after you've eaten one Paçzki, it was so good you decide to eat another one.
 
  • #34
Hubby came home for lunch w/ half a dozen of em...yum...
 
  • #35
Not here... never heard of them. I'm Pennsylvania Dutch so folks here do something different, though similar. LOL

If today's Fat Tuesday then it's Fastnacht day in these parts. Fastnachts are a pastry and most folks substitute just donuts but they are NOT just donuts. No holes, no fancy toppings or fillings just plain fried dough. On the internet it says we did this to use up sugar and butter before lent but my mom always said it was to use up the starter - then they'd start a fresh batch come Easter to start fresh and new.

These days it's all symbolic since no one cooks like they used to and they eat donuts... usually sugared or powdered and I cringe and shake my head saying "those aren't fastnachts"... *sigh*
 
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  • #36
Milwaukee had a huge German and Polish population in the last half of the 19th Century and first half of the 20th, pretty much divided by the Menomonee River valley. (Q: What's the longest bridge in the world? A: The 6th St. viaduct because it reaches all the way from Germany to Poland.") The rest of us all got the best that the chefs from both cultures, and the Italians in the 3rd ward, all had to offer. So we had both Fastnacht and Paçzki but Paçzki was not only more fun to say, they tasted better.
 
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  • #37
Since tomorrow is Paçzki Day, (pronounced Poonch-key) I figured this would be a good time to bump this thread.Happy Paçzki Day!
250px-Paczki.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/93/Ponczki.jpg/250px-Ponczki.jpg
 
  • #38
mmm... I had a cream cheese filled Paczki and a blueberry one last week. Yum!!
 
  • #39
Oh how I love these things. In my family, the only 'real' filling is prune. Plus, when you eat them you need to put as much sugar on them as possible. :)My family used to have huge house parties making these things. Unfortunately, that was a generation ago and I guess I haven't quite figured out how to make them. I tried twice this year and failed miserably both times. They take a lot of effort.So, here's my family recipe:1 cup Crisco
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups water boiled
add to Crisco and sugar. Bring to lukewarm.
2 small cakes of yeast
2 T sugar
1/2 cup of lukewarm water
combine in a large bowl and set aside
2 well beaten eggs
1 T salt
6 1/2 cups flourBeat all together and let raise until double. Take one tablespoon of dough and flatten it out in your hand. (It will be sticky so you'll need flour on your hands.) Place filling in center and pinch closed. Note: It's very important to pinch these closed. Let raise about 1/2 hour.Fry in 300 degree Crisco.Filling
Boil prunes until very soft. Remove pits. Grind. Add 1/2 cup brown sugar & 1/2 cup white sugar. Beat well.We would fill a container with powered sugar and a little bit of regular sugar. Put the Paczki in and shake, getting it coated with powered sugar. Yum.
 
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  • #40
The_Kitchen_Guy said:
Since tomorrow is Paçzki Day, (pronounced Poonch-key) I figured this would be a good time to bump this thread.

Happy Paçzki Day!

250px-Paczki.jpg


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/93/Ponczki.jpg/250px-Ponczki.jpg

Mmmm...that lemon one made my mouth WATER!
 
  • #41
I never did get my raspberry one. :( (and that was two years ago)

DH will be flipping pancakes tomorrow for Shrove Tuesday.
 
  • #42
BUMP for 2010!Diane V. was craving Paçzki today, so I thought I'd bump this thread up. Especially since tomorrow (02/16/2010) is Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras/Paçzki Day.There's a recipe in this post that I got from the radio a couple of years ago. It's a family recipe, supposedly. And I think I might make some today.
 
  • #43
Thanks, Ann. This craving isn't subsiding, and a couple of local FB friends gave me some names of places that have them. Can't wait.

And nope, not pregnant. Just hungry!
 
  • #44
So I have a couple questions...do they taste similar to a doughnut? And do they come with the defibrillation paddles or a heart stent? Egg yokes, crisco and deep fried...my heart just blew a clot!
 
  • #45
KG - National Bakery!! They still have a great calling for them as you know! And what??? No one likes the prune ones?
 
  • #46
baychef said:
So I have a couple questions...do they taste similar to a doughnut? And do they come with the defibrillation paddles or a heart stent? Egg yokes, crisco and deep fried...my heart just blew a clot!

They're essentially a really rich doughnut. Many grocery stores carry them at this time of year, in the bakery department.
 
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  • #47
pampered1224 said:
KG - National Bakery!! They still have a great calling for them as you know! And what??? No one likes the prune ones?

You bet! There will be a line around the block at National Bakery tomorrow morning, along with satellite trucks from the local television news departments.
 
  • #48
Well look for me! I am going to be out there early tomorrow a.m.! Hey, I have nothing better to do so why not. Plus, can you believe I have never had one! At least not a real one!
 
  • #49
I never heard of these until I lived in Detroit when I was 23 years old. Mostly, I saw prune filled ones at Meijer. That grossed me out, so I didn't really understand the pull. The lemon ones look very good, though. I might have to pick some up at Meijer tomorrow or DeBoer Bakkery has them, too. Funny that a Dutch bakery makes and sells them.
 
  • #50
JAE said:
I never heard of these until I lived in Detroit when I was 23 years old. Mostly, I saw prune filled ones at Meijer. That grossed me out, so I didn't really understand the pull. The lemon ones look very good, though. I might have to pick some up at Meijer tomorrow or DeBoer Bakkery has them, too. Funny that a Dutch bakery makes and sells them.

The ones at D&W are better. :chef:
 

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