Paczki

Ever since I was a kid, there was only one holiday that I looked forward to the most. Apart from Halloween and Christmas, of course. In polish it’s called ‘Tłusty Czwartek’. It falls on the last Thursday before Lent. The english translation of this holiday gives a lot of insight on what we do on this holiday, and it’s translation is “Fat Thursday”. Because Lent is usually a time of fasting, Fat Thursday provides us with a last day of feasting until Easter. Every year my mom never fails to make paczki. Paczki are jelly filled doughnuts with powdered sugar on top, and they are so much better than any Dunkin’ doughnut (which is surprising for me to say as I find myself at Dunkin’ a few times a week). You can fill paczki with a variety of things like strawberry jam, Bavarian crème, custard, and my personal favorite, wild rose petal jam.

Paczki are hard to make and take a lot of time to prepare, so I will try to explain it in the best way I can. Here are the things you need to make this delicious dessert:

• 2 1/4 tsp of instant yeast
• 1 cup of whole milk
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla
• 2 Tbsp of melted butter
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 3 cups of all-purpose flour
• Oil (for frying purposes)
• Powdered sugar
• Filling of your choice (in this case it’s wild rose petal jam)

To start you will need to heat the milk in a small pan until it is steaming with small bubbles that form around the edges. Remove it from the heat and let it cool until it is lukewarm. These steps are crucial to not kill the yeast. In a bowl of a stand mixer (large bowl is fine too), dissolve the yeast in the milk and leave it for 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes, add 1 cup of flour. Mix together and leave it alone for 20-30 minutes, so it’s really bubbly. While waiting for that, beat the yolks in a separate bowl until it is light and fluffy. To your yeast mixture, add the melted butter as well as the granulated sugar and mix. Add your salt and vanilla as well as the beaten egg yolks. You should also start adding more of the flour to your bowl in small portions. You don’t need to add any more flour once the dough is moist, soft, but not sticky. Before removing the dough, lightly flour your surface and then kneed the dough for about a minute. If the dough is sticking to your hands add more flour. Form the dough into a ball. Next, grease a clean bowl and add your dough. Cover that bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise until your dough has doubled in size. This process can take over an hour before it rises fully. After the dough has doubled, deflate the dough and pat out onto a floured cutting board. With a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 1/2 inch thick circle (it doesn’t have to be perfect, mine never are). Cut out 3 inch circles and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Once done, cover with a clean towel and let it rise again till it doubled (which can take up to 30 minutes). After that, you’re going to heat oil to about 360 degrees in a large pot. You can now fry the paczki until it’s golden on one side, and then flip it to fry the other side. I usually use a fork to flip them. Once fried, put on a cooling rack for about 30 seconds and immediately roll in powdered sugar. Let them stand until they are completely cooled. Once they have cooled, using a knife, poke a hole on one side making sure you don’t go all the way through the paczek. Use a pastry bag or a ziploc bag with a whole on one corner to pipe the jam inside. And you’re done! Now I know not many are going to want to go through this whole process, but I guarantee you it’s well worth it.