Paczki popping up at area bakeries in advance of Lent
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Paczki are plated and ready to be devoured ahead of Fat Tuesday March 1. The cream-filled dough is a Polish staple enjoyed most commonly before the Lenten season begins.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Sweet cream and real strawberries are stuffed between two airy, sugary halves of dough. The strawberry paczki are popular at Bethel Bakery.
courtesy of Darlene Pajak
Darlene Pajak has plenty of helping hands from friends and family while making paczki, a traditional Polish doughnut. Pajak makes batches of paczki annually before Lent. From left are Pajak’s friend, Chris Williams; Williams’ granddaughter, Abby Hoover; Pajak, and her granddaughter, Ania Vollstedt.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Among Bethel Bakery’s weekly paczki specialties is the s’more, topped with a square of Hershey’s chocolate. Paczki are a Polish tradition that have recently become a pop culture sensation.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Pat McLaughlin of Bethel Bakery in North Strabane Township boxes a variety of paczki, Polish doughnuts that are a popular sweet treat in advance of Lent.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Paczki, a Polish treat, has been around for centuries, but only recently made its way into the mainstream culinary world. Bethel Bakery in North Strabane offers a variety of paczki flavors ahead of the Lenten season, including raspberry, chocolate and Bavarian cream.
It’s hard to pronounce paczki. But it’s easy to eat them.
The decadent, deep-fried, filled doughnuts are a staple of Polish pre-Lenten celebrations, and Paczki Day – held in the United States on Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday – has become a tradition in Polish communities across the country.
You don’t have to wait for Fat Tuesday, which falls on March 1, to indulge, though. The pastries are now popping up at bakeries and grocery stores throughout the region.
Paczki have been around for centuries, a way for families to use up all the lard, sugar and fruit that they would be forbidden to eat during Lent.
But within the last few years, paczki have become a pop culture sensation.
Bethel Bakery in North Strabane Township offers paczki staples, including raspberry, strawberry, and Bavarian cream, along with a weekly specialty flavor – among them, maple bacon, s’mores, cookies and cream, and Irish cream.
“Paczki are extremely popular. People are always looking for them when they come into the store,” said Rachel Wanovich, marketing coordinator for Bethel Bakery. “When Doughnut Day comes around on June 3, we bring back paczki because everybody loves them.”
Giant Eagle stores sell them, and in Fayette County, Martin’s grocery stores plan to offer them closer to Lent.
A quick tutorial on pronunciation: paczki (pronounced POONCH-key) is plural. One doughnut is a paczek (POON-check).
Paczki dough is a little denser and sweeter than a traditional doughnut, and they’re typically filled with a fruit or cream filling.
For Darlene Pajak of Somerset Township, Washington County, making homemade paczki is a family tradition that started when her grandmother taught her to make them in the late 1980s.
Now, every Saturday before Ash Wednesday, members of Pajak’s family gather in her kitchen to churn out the delightful treat.
“I do it every year,” said Pajak, who described the time-consuming process that concludes with her grandchildren shaking the fried treat in paper bags filled with sugar, cinnamon sugar, and powdered sugar. “I’ll have friends and family ask me, ‘When is paczki day? When are you making them?'”
Prune-filled paczki happens to be Pajak’s favorite, but not everyone likes the filling, so she makes a variety, including apricot, blueberry, strawberry, and raspberry.
“They are the best when they are hot and fresh,” said Pajak, a member of Holy Trinity National Catholic Church in Washington.
Lenny Ruper, secretary of the Polish Club in Connellsville, grew up eating homemade paczki prepared by his mother, Valeria Pieczynski, whose family owned two popular Fayette County bakeries.
“There’s no way you can eat just one,” said Ruper. “I’m going to buy myself about six (on Fat Tuesday), have two right away.”
He said the Polish Club used to host a Paczki Dance, where everyone who attended got a paczek when they walked in the door.
“They’re nothing more than a jelly-filled doughnut, but they’re delicious. Everybody loves them,” said Ruper.