If you’ve never had paczki before, this is the year to try them. And if you don’t know what paczki are, read on to understand why you need to have them.
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What is the history of paczki?
Paczki are a Polish tradition. Much like my Espicopalian church celebrates Shrove Tuesday with pancakes and crepes and New Orleans and others celebrate Mardi Gras with all the excess, Polish communities celebrate Fat Tuesday and Fat Thursday with paczki.
Why paczki? As Lent starts and so many treats become verboten, families had to use up the good stuff first. That meant all the sugar and fat and everything turned into delicious treats devoured before Ash Wednesday.
The Poles got it right. Paczki is my favorite way to celebrate before the start of Lent.
With its huge Polish community, you can find paczki all over the place in Chicago, and that includes the grocery stores. Do not buy your paczki at the grocery store, however. They’re mediocre, at best.
Paczki should be fresh. No grocery store can compare to what you can find at a good bakery.
If you’re looking for the best paczki in Chicago, you’ll love my article on the ultimate list of bakeries.
How do you pronounce paczki?
Paczki is pronounced pohnch-key. Polish is not a phonetic language at all.
What is the plural of paczki?
Actually, paczki is plural. It isn’t paczkis – no matter what my family might try to tell you.
A single is called paczek, which is pronounced pohnch-eck.
What are paczki?
Before we get too far into this, let’s talk about paczki. Paczki are not “just donuts” as many think. They’re bigger, always filled, and lighter and fluffier than traditional donuts.
Some stores – especially chains – sell what are essentially jelly donuts and market them as paczki. Paczki are not simply standard donuts made at a special time of year.
They have unique flavorful fillings, and they are lighter and fluffier than traditional donuts.
How are paczki different from jelly donuts?
They have completely different doughs. The paczki dough is richer and less crumbly. It should be slightly chewy but just slightly.
Jelly donuts don’t usually have dough that includes eggs or alcohol. They also use a flour with lower protein that changes the texture.
Most importantly, the filling is significantly different. Paczki should not be filled with jelly. Instead, they have fruit preserves or custard or whipped cream, and paczki have a much wider variety of flavors available.
What makes paczki lighter and fluffier?
Shhhh there’s just a little bit of vodka added to the dough that lightens the texture and also ensures they don’t absorb as much grease from the frying oil.
Once fried, paczki traditionally get rolled in sugar, dusted with powdered sugar, or lightly glazed. Some flavors, like custard, may have a chocolate glaze.
Because they are bigger and fluffier, you should see a lighter “line of demarkation” around the middle of the paczki where it’s too tall to fit into the oil on either side. It still gets cooked, but doesn’t have the time in the oil to get the color.
Less greasy, lighter, bigger, and filled with awesome flavors? Sign me up!
Can I order paczki online?
If a bakery near you offers online ordering in advance, do it. This will save you a ton of headache and waiting in line the day of.
For the bakeries here, you can order many of them online, but they are for pickup only. These bakeries do not ship.
Paczki are best fresh, so it takes a lot of expertise to ship them properly to ensure that when you receive them, they taste as amazing as you anticipate. That said, there is a solution.
If you’ve never ordered from Goldbelly before, you’re in for a treat. They specialize in mail order foods local to specific areas from the locations you know and trust – and they know how to ship them properly.
Rose’s Fine Foods from Detroit offers paczki via Goldbelly, but make sure you order quickly. People have figured out this secret, and they sell out fast every year.
Goldbelly also features king cakes from a variety of bakeries (no surprise, mostly in the New Orleans area for true authenticity) if that’s more up your alley.
Use the code GetInMyBELLY to get $15 off your first order of $50 for new customers.
What are paczki flavors?
Paczki always have a filling. Traditionally, they remain “whole” and get filled through a hole, pun intended.
Generally the filling is a sweet fruit compote, almost like a jam, although custard also fits that traditional bill. Rose, plum, apricot, strawberry, and black currant are some of the most common traditional fillings.
As with any foods, you find them outside the traditional, as well. Some say they aren’t “real” paczki, but find what you like best and enjoy it.
To that end, you find many bakeries cut the paczki in half before they fill them. This ensures a more even and consistent filling, but they also tend to be messier to eat.
I’ve seen flavors everything from peanut butter chocolate to key lime to salted caramel and more. Many bakeries fill with whipped cream and fruit (more traditional) or cream cheese and fruit (semi-traditional) or buttercream and fruit (not as traditional).
No matter what, paczki are different from jelly donuts, and not only because I flat out don’t like jelly donuts. The filling should not be jelly, but more of a fresh fruit compote.
When are paczki available?
Paczki are traditionally available just before Lent. Some Polish bakeries may also offer a limited selection of paczki all year long, but this is not standard.
Many bakeries offer paczki just on the celebration day. For many, that means both Fat Thursday and Fat Tuesday.
However, other bakeries may start to offer them a week or even sometimes more before Fat Tuesday. Generally, sales end on Fat Tuesday.
What’s Fat Thursday?
In the States, we celebrate Fat Tuesday on the day before Lent, and this is Paczki Day. However, in Poland, it was traditionally celebrated on the Thursday before Lent starts.
The holiday is called Tłusty Czwartek, and many bakeries in Poland sell not just paczki but also faworki, also known as angel’s wings.
Pronounce this one: woos-tee chvar-tek.
How much do paczki cost?
Paczki vary greatly in price from bakery to bakery. Polish bakeries tend to be less expensive, as they sell huge quantities to their Polish clientele.
Other bakeries may make great paczki but treat it as more of a novelty and price it accordingly. In 2025, I paid anywhere from $1.79 to $6.10 for a single paczek.
