Although they look like a jelly donut, the Polish treat* is made from a very rich dough that contains eggs, fat, sugar and (sometimes) milk. A small amount of grain alcohol is added to the dough to prevent the oil from soaking in when it's deep fried. While certainly denser than a traditional donut, the influence of French chefs during the reign of Poland's August III made the dough much lighter than it reads in print.
Inside the paczki a fruit filling - prune, raspberry, apple, lemon, cream, etc - and the outside is sprinkled with sugar or iced.
This morning I stopped at the neighborhood bakery - an Italian one, but Milwaukee-fied enough to promote paczki's. I picked up two dozen, with 18 of those being shipped off to my parent's apartment.
Enjoy your Fat Tuesday!
* (pronounced PAWNCH-kee or PONCH-kee but some speakers pronounce the word as POONCH-kee, PUNCH-kee or PANCH-kee)
From Beth on FB: There's a large Polish population in South Bend, so paczkis are big here, too. Oddly enough, the best ones are made by an Italian bakery!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your fat tuesday and the lead up into Easter.
ReplyDeleteMmm...those look delicious! Hope you enjoyed every bite!
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