Make Your Pączki at Home With This Traditional Polish Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What are the traditional Polish paczki flavors? ›

Powidła (stewed plum jam) and wild rose petal jam are traditional fillings, but many others are used as well, including strawberry, Bavarian cream, blueberry, custard, raspberry, and apple. Pączki have been known in Poland at least since the Middle Ages.

Pączki are pastries made from deep-fried flat dough with fruit or cream filling and are topped with a light dusting of sugar. The traditional fruit filling is prune, but others include apricot, lemon, blueberry, raspberry and custard.

Pączki are very rich donuts, deep fried and then filled with fruit or cream filling and covered with powdered sugar or icing. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. Traditionally, Lent was 40 days of fasting, meaning only one meal a day and full fasting on Friday.

The most popular paczki are custard filled or filled with fresh strawberries and cream.

These paczki are best the same day they are made. If having leftovers, store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

First of all, the cause of celebration with paczkis has always been affiliated with Lent. They're made to have around for the Lenten season to celebrate the time frame before fasting begins until Easter; hence Fat Thursday and Fat Tuesday.

Paczki are pretty similar to the jelly filled yeasted donuts you get at a donut shop, although the dough itself is slightly sweeter. But they differ from most donuts that have holes in the center. The dough is also a bit richer and chewier than a traditional donut.

"When you eat it, it doesn't collapse. It fluffs right back up." In a Smithsonian article from February of 2023, Bielinski noted that paczki dough is richer and denser than a doughnut. It's complemented by a sweet fruit preserve filling, a thin glaze on top, a hint of orange or lemon peel, or even a trace of rose.

Light and fluffy brioche donuts filled with a strawberry rose jam, and coated with a rose sugar!

Are paczki healthy? ›

The nutritional facts of paczki are hard to pin down because the size and ingredients vary. Spectrum Health registered dietitian Jill Graybill said they have 400 to 700 calories and 25 grams of fat or more. That's roughly a third of the calories and fat recommended in a healthy 1,800- to 2,000-calorie diet.

The paczki are best the same day they are made, but can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Paczki are essentially Polish doughnuts, though denser and richer than your typical American yeasted doughnut. Traditional fillings include rosehip jelly or plum jam, but now they can be found filled with a variety of jams and sweet creams.

What's the difference between paczki and sufganiyot? In Poland, jelly doughnuts are called paczki which means flower buds. Traditionally, they were fried in lard which sets them apart from sufganiyot, which are fried in oil.

"When you eat it, it doesn't collapse. It fluffs right back up." In a Smithsonian article from February of 2023, Bielinski noted that paczki dough is richer and denser than a doughnut. It's complemented by a sweet fruit preserve filling, a thin glaze on top, a hint of orange or lemon peel, or even a trace of rose.

Grebe's Bakery

Additional flavors will include cinnamon sugar-coated apple, chocolate-iced buttercream, chocolate-iced custard, white-iced raspberry, sugar-coated raspberry, glazed blueberry, glazed sweet cheese, powdered sugar lemon and glazed prune. Pricing for all pazcki is $2.25 each or $25 per bakers dozen (13).

Paczki dough is richer and heavier than what you'll find in a typical American doughnut. The richness can be chalked up to the ingredients: yeast, eggs, milk and plenty of butter.