Fat Thursday!

Happy Fat Thursday! If you didn’t get enough of the sweet stuff on Valentine’s day then you’re in luck. Traditionally, in Poland the Thursday before Ash Wednesday is called Tlusty Czwartek, which translated to Fat Thursday. On Fat Thursday, we get to eat all the paczki, big Polish donuts, our

hearts desire! Fat Thursday begins the last week of Carnival, so celebrate we must!

Paczki are deep fried donuts that can be filled with almost everything – my two favorites are strawberry jam and custard. They are usually topped with powdered sugar or icing, but in some bakeries, you can find chocolate topped ones too. If you get a good paczek, the fact that it is deep fried will not mean that is is greasy or oily, instead it will be light, fluffy and doughy in the center.

My job is located in the biggest Polish community in New York, which happens to be home to some of the best Polish bakeries around. When I was walking to my car after work yesterday, I could smell paczki in the air because all the bakeries were prepping for Tlusty Czwartek. The smell was unreal! I don’t want to brag, but my grandmother makes the best paczki around.

But, since she is in Poland and shipping me paczki would have been excessive, I’ll settle for the store bought stuff.

If you live anywhere near a Polish deli, I suggest you check it out today, you will not regret it! You will definitely find a ton of paczki and you should get one of each to try, because calories don’t count on Tlusty Czwartek, at least not the ones from paczki! 🙂

Have a great and sweet Fat Thursday!

Have you ever tried paczki? What’s you favorite kind of donut?