Pączki for Luck
'Pączki', photo: iStockphoto/Getty Image Poland’s love affair with doughnuts dates back to the 16th century. Back then, pączki were known as kreple (from the German Krapfen). In the 18th century, historian Jędrzej Kitowicz, author of the fascinating treatise A Description of Customs During the Reign of August III, described modern doughnuts eaten at the court as ‘fluffy and light’, comparing them to the old-fashioned ones which could give someone a black eye when thrown at their face, thus proving that, whilst the tradition has lasted, the recipe has continued to evolve.
The Polish language also indicates that doughnuts hold a special place in Polish hearts. There exist several proverbs and idioms referring to pączki, the best known of which is ‘living like a doughnut in butter’, meaning to live in clover. Another – far less known and far more vivid – saying is the warning: ‘Those who don’t eat a stack of pączki on Fat Thursday will have an empty barn and their field destroyed by mice’.
As the last proverb indicates, doughnuts are believed to bring happiness, and refusing to eat them is considered not just rude, but also unlucky. Accordingly, contemporary Polish pastry chefs endeavour to cater even to vegan or gluten-intolerant doughnut-lovers. Although the traditional recipe calls for lard, eggs, wheat flour, and loads of sugar, new variations are being created to address every possible dietary restriction. Fillings also vary: the traditional rose preserve can be replaced with vanilla custard or chocolate ganache. The only rule is to keep them light and fluffy, which is only achieved when the yeast dough is properly aerated.
A Tradition We Share
'Pączki', photo: Monika Zbojeńska/IAM As often happens with recipes that are considered ‘traditionally Polish’, there is some cultural controversy. For example, some people argue that pączki are merely Berliner Pfannkuchen, sometimes known as ‘Berliners’ (famous for a John F. Kennedy controversy: an urban legend states that, when he said ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’, instead of ‘Ich bin Berliner’ during his visit to West Berlin in 1963, the American president called himself a ‘jelly doughnut’ and not a ‘citizen of Berlin’, therefore causing a lot of levity amongst native speakers; this is not true, however, since people from Berlin only use the name Pfannkuchen to describe these pastries). Indeed, the differences between them are minimal (like the ratio of flour in the dough or the time spent frying in fat), but so is the difference between Berliners and Italian bomboloni.
Then there are also Dutch oliebollen, which are direct ancestors of American doughnuts, which obviously differ from pączki, since they have a hole in the middle and aren’t usually filled. But with traditional recipes, there's rarely a need for definitive appropriation. What matters is the role a dish plays in a nation's collective imagination – and pączki are very dear to Poles.
Fat Thursday: The Sweetest Tradition
'Pączki' queue. Fat Thursday in Wrocław, photo: Krzysztof Zatycki / Forum Fat Thursday, the last Thursday prior to Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, is one of the most important Polish holidays, and it mainly revolves around eating as many doughnuts as possible, all in the name of good luck. Statistically, each Pole eats two and a half doughnuts ‒ or pączki in Polish ‒ on that day, which constitutes a whopping 100 million for the entire nation. In the most famous pastry shops (Zagoździński in Warsaw or Michałek in Kraków), people queue up to purchase these balls of fried dough, traditionally filled with rose jam or plum preserves.
Colourful donuts at Lajkonik Bakery are being sold for Fat Thursday, photo: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Image Yet nowadays each self-respecting cake shop needs to have its own version; there are vegan and gluten-free doughnuts for the health-conscious and those who follow a plant-based diet, as well as modern, elaborate versions for a less traditional clientele. In past years, some cake shops have added fillings such as creme patissiere and salted caramel to their repertoire, and even experimented with more exotic ingredients such as hibiscus and matcha.
They are so beloved that the good old American ‘donut’ never became popular in Poland (unlike cupcakes and muffins which took the country by storm). It might be the hole in the middle: Poles like to get their money’s worth. Dunkin' Donuts, the most famous American doughnut café, opened in Warsaw for the first time in 1996 – right in the middle of the nineties fast-food era, when Poles dived right into the wonderful fat- and carb-driven world of McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell – but, six years later, the American donut experiment came to an end. They made a comeback a decade later with more European flavours like Nutella and plum, but the chain closed once again in 2018.
Pączki Take Over America
A newly opened Dunkin Donuts in Warsaw, photo: Franciszek Mazur / AW On the other hand, pączki seem to have lately taken the U.S. by storm, becoming one of the most sought-after items of Mardi Gras. In places where many Poles live – such as Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo and NYC – old-school pastry shops and bakeries compete with some of the more modern, fusion-inspired places in the quest to delight and surprise. Some of the American ideas for pączki sound delicious: Chicago’s Deerfield Bakery offers 20 varieties, some of which are classic examples of Americana – like peanut butter; New York’s Rzeszowska turns Boston cream pie into a doughnut; at the New Palace Bakery in Detroit, you can find ‘Chocolate/Marshmallow Crunch’ pączki, coated in milk chocolate and graham crackers, or the Hamtramck Boat (banana custard, strawberry and pineapple with a milk-chocolate coating). Yet there are also more controversial ideas such as the ‘Coney Pączki’: it’s a mashup between a pączek and a hot dog in which the bun is replaced by a glazed doughnut and the filling consists of steamed sausage, mustard and chopped onions.
A Polish purist might react to some of those American concoctions much like Italians react to Hawaiian pizza. And yet, no recipe – for pączki or otherwise – is ever written in stone, but instead it is ever-changing, constantly modified and adapted for different times, places and tastes.
