Forget Valentine’s Day, celebrate Paczki Day!
By Steve DolinskyForget Valentine’s Day, celebrate Paczki Day!
By Steve Dolinskya plethor of paczki from Old Mill Bakery (photo by Steve Dolinsky)
While everyone concentrates on Fat Tuesday parties next week, Chicagoans know that today is also a big day for the million or so residents in our area of Polish descent. It’s Paczki Day today, and these squat, circular orbs of yeast-fed dough, fruit preserves and frosting will be sold in huge numbers over the next 24 hours.
In this week’s Time Out Chicago, Heather Shouse has a nice roundup of places to stuff your face full of Paczki (PAUNCH-key), but they didn’t mention‚ Oak Mill Bakery - one of the leaders in local paczki production. With six bakeries in the region - including a new cafe/bakery in Bucktown - they expect to sell about 80,000 packi…today. I spoke with owner Bogna Solak at her newest location, to talk about this delicious tradition - always held on the Thursday before Fat Tuesday. I also found the story I did on them two years ago, so you can actually see how they make the paczki. Paczki Day