Pączki Day (Detroit Style) aka Fat Tuesday

Posted on February 28, 2017 by Stella

It’s Pączki Day, and in Detroit that means you should be sure to wear your stretchy pants or, as my old friend Denise used to say, your expando clothes!

Pączki, or Polish doughnuts, are eaten on Fat Thursday in Poland and Fat Tuesday in the United States. It’s the last splurge before Lent begins.

packzi-run

When I was still working, my employer provided huge boxes of them with every available filling next to the coffee machines in various areas of the building.  My personal favorites are custard-filled and lemon-filled, but they are all delicious (and fattening.) Yum!

Depending on the size and filling, each pączki will be from 400 – 700 calories. Since they are deep fried, they aren’t low-fat either, up to 20 grams per serving.

According to Wikipedia:

Pączki are made from especially rich dough containing eggs, fats, sugar, yeast and sometimes milk. They feature a variety of fruit and creme fillings and can be glazed, or covered with granulated or powdered sugar. Powidl (stewed plum jam) and wild rose hip jam are traditional fillings, but many others are used as well, including strawberry, Bavarian cream, blueberry, custard, raspberry, and apple.

The traditional reason for making pączki was to use up all the lard, sugar, eggs and fruit in the house, because their consumption was forbidden by Christian fasting practices during the season of Lent.

paczki3In North America, particularly the large Polish communities of Chicago, Detroit, and other large cities across the Midwest and Northeast, Pączki Day is celebrated annually by immigrants and locals alike. With its sizable Polish population, Chicago celebrates the festival on both Fat Thursday and Fat Tuesday; pączki are also often eaten on Casimir Pulaski Day. In Buffalo, Toledo, Cleveland, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, South Bend, and Windsor, Pączki Day is celebrated on Fat Tuesday.

The Pączki Day celebrations in some areas are even larger than many celebrations for St. Patrick’s Day. In Hamtramck, Michigan, an enclave of Detroit, there is an annual Pączki Day (Shrove Tuesday) Parade, which has gained a devoted following. Throughout the Metro Detroit area, it is so widespread that many bakeries attract lines of customers for pączki on Pączki Day.

According to today’s Detroit Free Press:

Staying true to form, the lines for pączki began growing Monday outside of New Palace Bakery and New Martha Washington Bakery in Hamtramck, according to Joan Bittner, owner of the Polish Art Center, also in Hamtramck.

Sandy Bakic, the daughter of Petar Petrovich who owns the New Martha, said there was a steady stream of customers picking up pączki throughout the day. Today will undoubtedly be more intense, as the pastries are made for more than 12 hours straight.

At Bozek’s Markets, bakers expect to sell more than 32,000 pączki, according to owner Michal Bozek. “They’ve been making them day and night. We make them from scratch using two different kinds of flour from a family recipe,” he said.

By the way, the name pączki translates to “little packages.”  “Pączki” is pronounced POONCH-key and is plural; one pastry is a pączek (POON-check).

paczki2Ironically, I have no pączki in my home today, so I will simply draw on my memories!

Whatever we indulge in today to celebrate the last hurrah before Ash Wednesday, it all represents preparation for the beginning of Lent, the 40-day period of fasting, self-examination and penitence, leading up to the death and rebirth at Easter.

It is a season in which we follow Jesus the Savior from His temptation in the wilderness, to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and to the cross on Good Friday. Lent is a season of hope. It looks to the sacrifice of Jesus for the sins of the world and anticipates the joy of His resurrection on Easter Sunday.

This entry was posted in History, Holidays, Recipes, Religion, The Culture. Bookmark the permalink.

36 Responses to Pączki Day (Detroit Style) aka Fat Tuesday

  1. nyetneetot says:
    February 28, 2017 at 12:50 pm

    sigh

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  2. czarowniczy says:
    February 28, 2017 at 1:14 pm

    Krepel!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  3. hocuspocus13 says:
    February 28, 2017 at 1:27 pm

    I want the 1 with the cream filling…and coffee…☕

    happy🍻fat🍻tuesday

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  4. auscitizenmom says:
    February 28, 2017 at 2:45 pm

    I could have worked on it all day and never come up with that pronunciation for paczek. LOL

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
  5. joshua says:
    February 28, 2017 at 4:12 pm

    where are the Brussell Sprout pastries?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  6. joshua says:
    February 28, 2017 at 4:19 pm


    what about the Czechs?
    Jahodová roláda – Czech strawberry roulade cake.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  8. familytreedet says:
    February 28, 2017 at 7:00 pm

    An event my waist line cannot afford. As a person living in the area I am well aware of how big a holiday this is. If you could be so kind as to check out my blog and tell me what you think that would be greatly appreciated.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  9. lovely says:
    February 28, 2017 at 8:48 pm

    My Fat Tuesday indulgence, salty sweet, chocolate caramel turtle cake. Heck, go big or go home 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • czarowniczy says:
      February 28, 2017 at 11:00 pm

      For my Fat Tuesday indulgence I’d turn on the local TV every few hours and watch the drunken tourists sticking to the filthy, spilled booze, vomit and God and the CDC know what else strewn French Quarter streets.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      • joshua says:
        March 1, 2017 at 8:44 am

        Czar….maybe you should just not make that application for the NOLA chamber of commerce communications spokesperson….jes thinkin here a bit…..:o

        Like

        Reply
        • czarowniczy says:
          March 1, 2017 at 10:36 am

          There was a local trash company that got the contract for cleaning the Quarter full-time. They not only kept it cleaner and actually sprayed street-perfume on it so that, for the first time in memory, it didn’t smell like hell’s dumpster, they did it with budget.
          That didn’t last long (enough) as, for some ‘strange’ reason, the city mothers decided that they wanted a new contractor when the one who actually did more than the contract call for and on budget became too familiar and popular with the public.

          Like

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