Discovering a New Road to Sweetness Heaven

A quick photo before it's gone

​You know what I love? Finding new desserts.

Like when I discovered kolaches in the small, North Texas town of West. Originally from the Czech Republic, these sweet dough pastries with fruit in the middle would send me to sweetness heaven.

As Fat Tuesday approaches, Pam and I always celebrate Mardi Gras in our own way by going to Publix for a traditional King Cake. This year, while strolling the bakery isles, we saw a new confection by the King Cakes: Paczki.

They looked like big donuts. As we are also fans of donuts, and intrigued by the name, why not give them a try?

One taste and it was another expressway ride to sweetness heaven! I had to know more about paczkis, so of course I clicked over to the trusty Wikipedia:

They come from Poland, and have been around since the Middle Ages. A paczki is "a deep-fried piece of dough shaped into a flattened ball and filled with confiture or other sweet filling. . .Although they look like... jelly doughnuts, pączki are made from especially rich dough containing eggs, fats, sugar, yeast, and sometimes milk. They feature a variety of fruit and creme fillings." Ours had a custard filling, and was much denser than regular donuts.

While Poland marks Fat Thursday (the last Thursday prior to Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent) with paczkis, in America, Polish communities celebrate Paczki Day on Fat Tuesday (thus the connection). It even goes on to say some Paczki Day celebrations are larger than St. Patrick's Day festivities, especially in a Polish community near Detroit. It is likened to the Mardi Gras of the Midwest. Who knew?

Thanks to Publix, the Barker household now has a new tradition: King Cakes and paczki. If I could just find some kolaches around here, we could make it the Fat Tuesday Trifecta.

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