It's the most wonderful time of the year

No, not Christmas. Fat Tuesday. The time just before Lent. Why, you may ask? Paczki Day, of course!

Making paczki is a long-standing family tradition, passed down from my grandmother, to my mom & her sisters, and now to the next generation. It's probably my favorite of any of our Polish heritage traditions (oplatki at Christmas being the other top contender). It's an all-day adventure to make the paczki, which is why my mom always made them the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, and I've now undertaken that adventure myself - beginning at 8 AM, finishing aroung 2 PM.

Mixing up the dough:

Rising dough:

Rising cut paczki:

Frying paczki:

Time for a taste:

Many paczki, big mess:

(full disclosure - these are last year's photos; I didn't take any this year, aside from one at the very end, to document the 107 paczki we made.)

I've shared the family recipe with some friends, and my friend Trina gave it a go this year. I love that she made them, and enjoyed them - it warms my heart to pass this on to some of my fellow women. Having no children of my own, and only a nephew in the next generation, it's a little disappointing to miss out on the opportunity to pass down of one of my favorite traditions. Not that Nephew can't make these (and he's currently at an age where he still wants to help out!), but there's something special, something enduring, about the matriarchal lineage of very traditional family recipes.

Comments

[Sarah]

I don't recall Jim's (Polish) grandmother ever making paczki! Jim says she used to, but he and I have been together for sixteen years now, and if she has during that time, I don't remember it. I do have the family pierogi - I think I will have to adopt your paczki recipe to go along with it! Would it be totally wrong to do a non-Lenten trial run, since I'm a little late for this year? :-)

[Stylishboots]

There were a handful of times that my mom made them for non-Lenten functions - a "foods of the world" thing for my 6th grade class, an 8th grade graduation treat requested by a friend of the family, and I'm pretty sure one other occasion, too. So I'll allow it. ;-)

[Lasik surgery]

I make often this kind of paczki as you call them, we say donuts and my family enjoy them every time. We eat with a glass of milk and strawberry jam, sooo delicious.