Feed your sweet tooth on Paczki Day, Fat Tuesday

Flat balls are sweet and full of paczki calories

I must take a moment to honor a piece of my heritage, straight out of Poland. I honor it not only because there’s a village with my name on it and I know my ancestors came from the country, but because today is Paczki Day – or just Paczki for short. This goes to show you that Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday aren’t strictly a New Orleans celebration. In fact, Paczki Day is the way Poles celebrate the “last hurrah” before Lent on Ash Wednesday.

Instead of having a street sweeper push you out of the French Quarter, wouldn’t you much rather have your wits about you on Fat Tuesday so that you can enjoy a traditional pączki treat from a bakery? It’s a flattened sphere of dough, fried nice and deep and full of something sweet. Powdered sugar, icing or dried orange zest typically top it off, which leads to consideration of paczki calories. Oh well – just get a payday cash loan to start your diet program on Ash Wednesday.

How do you say “paczki?”

Despite my cultural connection to Poland, I don’t know much more Polish than the name of Krzysztof Kieślowski, one of my favorite film directors. So I had to check with E-Portage for a guide on how to pronounce paczki properly. It is correctly pronounced “punchki,” but some make the mistake of saying “punchki” or “poonchki” (that one sounds appropriate for Fat Tuesday, doesn’t it?) No matter how you say it, paczki resemble jelly doughnuts or bismarcks. Fillings can be fruity or creamy, depending upon the baker.

Here’s a paczki recipe from Recipezaar

http://www.recipezaar.com/Authentic-Polish-Paczki-83936

I don’t include the directions here. For that, check out their Web site. However, here’s what you’ll need to make around 18 paczki. Be prepared to pack it on, sweet eaters!

12 egg yolks

1 teaspoon salt

2 (1/4 ounce) 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 cooked apples or poppy seed filling

Oil or lard for deep frying!