Bakery Window · Fat Thursday Icon

Pączki (Polish Filled Doughnuts)

Photo: Karol Chomka / Unsplash · Unsplash License

Traditional pączki dough includes a splash of spirit, usually vodka, which helps stop the dough soaking up too much oil in the fryer.

Pączki are deep-fried Polish doughnuts made from an egg-rich yeast dough, traditionally filled with rose-petal jam, though plum jam or custard are common too, then dusted with powdered sugar or glazed. Bakeries stack them in the window and sell them by the dozen straight over the counter, especially on Fat Thursday.

Why it's made this way: Poland eats an estimated 100 million pączki on Tłusty Czwartek (Fat Thursday) alone — a custom that began as a way to use up the household's lard, sugar, and eggs before Lent's fasting began.