Pączki Are the Stuffed Polish Doughnuts You Need to Know About

Pączki (filled doughnuts) are what Polish people indulge in on “Tłusty Czwartek” (Fat Thursday). The large, deep-fried pieces of enriched yeast dough are traditionally cooked in lard, filled with homemade plum marmalade or wild rose petal jam, and topped with a powdered sugar glaze and candied orange peel. Do I have your attention yet?

Tłusty Czwartek is the Polish equivalent of Fat Tuesday, except it’s celebrated on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday, just before the beginning of Lent. But it doesn’t matter if you’re Catholic or not — everyone in Poland, and many Polish people living abroad, too, celebrate Tłusty Czwartek. Because no matter your beliefs, we can all agree that stuffing yourself with doughnuts is a good thing.

These days, you have to get up early if you want to buy pączki on Fat Thursday, as the queues outside bakeries start forming in the early hours. In my family home, we made pączki ourselves, a tradition that we continue to this day.

I can still remember my Nana standing in the kitchen, adding ingredients “by eye” (as a professional confectioner she can “weigh” everything by hand, a skill I truly envy), kneading the dough, and forming and then frying lots and lots of pączki — the smell in the air was truly unforgettable! And she always filled them with her plum marmalade.

Because my Nana can’t make them anymore, it’s my dad (her son) who makes them now, and myself, too. By continuing our family tradition while living abroad in Ireland, it makes me feel a little bit closer to my family and introduces our Polish culture to my daughters.

You’ll start by whisking together the egg yolks with the flavorings: sugar, salt, vanilla, and alcohol (my Nana would always pour a shot of plain vodka into the dough; this recipe calls for dark liquor for flavor). Why the booze? My Nana said it ensures the doughnuts don’t turn out greasy — many Polish people put a small piece of peeled potato in the frying oil for this same reason. If you want to omit the alcohol, swap in water to keep the same ratio of liquid to flour.

When the mixture is pale and fluffy, whisk in warm milk, pour that mixture into the dry ingredients (flour and instant yeast), and begin to knead. You’ll add oil and butter at the end of the kneading process, once the gluten is already partially developed. (If you add the oil and butter at the beginning, the fat “sticks” to the flour, preventing proper gluten development). You’ll know the dough is ready when it forms a fairly smooth, firm ball, and the dough pulls cleanly away from the sides of the mixing bowl.

At this point, you’ll refrigerate the dough for about three hours or until doubled in size. Chilling the dough gives the butter a chance to firm up, which will make the dough easier to handle. The rest in the fridge also extends the proofing process, which deepens the flavor of the dough. You can also refrigerate the dough overnight, but if you want to go that route you’ll need to reduce the amount of yeast by one third.

When the dough is ready, you’ll divide it into small pieces, roll each one into a ball, flatten them, then let them rise again. This process gives the paczki their signature pillow-like shape (similar to a Boston cream doughnut). Then, working in batches of five to six pączki (they puff and expand a lot), gently place each one upside-down in the hot oil and fry until dark golden-brown, about 3 1/2 minutes per side.

As for filling and topping, you can keep it simple or go as over-the-top as you please. Every year on Fat Thursday, bakeries come up with new flavors and sometimes new shapes of pączki, but in my opinion there’s no need to change something that’s already pretty perfect. In my family, pączki are either enjoyed plain with just a dusting of powdered sugar, filled with jam using a piping bag, or simply cut in half and filled with jam, chocolate spread, or whipped cream. If you don’t have the traditional plum or wild rose petal jam, feel free to use whatever you like or have on hand. My kids’ favorite filling is strawberry jam.

After filling, you can top the doughnuts with a simple powdered sugar glaze and some chopped candied orange peel. Enjoy immediately, and don’t be shy: one of the more recent traditions of Fat Thursday is a competition between family members, friends, and even coworkers to see who can consume the most pączki in one day. And that’s a tradition I can get behind.