Local bakeries stock up on paczkis for holiday
Quality Dairy employee Pee Vang, who handles special orders, picks up paczkis from a tray before packaging them in a box Monday afternoon at the company’s plant at 1335 Diamond Reo Way in Lansing. The company’s plant can produce up to 5,000 paczkis per hour and workers took extra shifts on Monday to produce enough supplies for the traditional Polish holiday. Justin Wan/The State News
Tweet
Hours before some Christians prepare to cut back on luxury items for Lent, local businesses, students and the university plan to offer ways for people to have one last feast with paczkis.
Paczkis are a baked good that originated in Poland. The treat, a fried pastry that can be stuffed with a variety of fruit and custard flavors, is traditionally baked and eaten on Fat Tuesday, the day before the Christian holiday Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Lenten season.
Businesses such as Quality Dairy get into the spirit of the holiday by mass-producing paczkis for order and pickup.
The business’ tradition of making the pastries in Lansing began in the early 1980s when owners began researching traditional paczki recipes and attempting to grow a paczki following in the area, Quality Dairy fresh food category manager Bret Coy said.
“This longtime tradition that has been built with Quality Dairy and the community is pretty strong now,” Coy said.
Gallery: Quality Dairy Prepares ...
Roma Bakery, 428 N. Cedar St., in Lansing, also takes part in the paczki tradition and offers a variety of flavors, including chocolate and ricotta sweet cheese, employee Anne Marie Dionise said.
Dionise said an important distinction needs to be made: paczkis are much more than doughnuts.
“They are not just doughnuts — they are a specialty item with Christian roots,” she said. “The dough itself is so good … it’s one of our busiest days of the year.”
The Polish Club at MSU also is partaking in the celebration by painting the rock on Farm Lane and selling traditional paczkis for $1 between 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. at that location, club president Anna Stala said.
Stala said this is the first year the club is partaking in the sale and will offer about 150 paczkis from a specialty Polish store about an hour away from campus.
If students are unable to make it off campus or out to the rock on Farm Lane on Fat Tuesday and still crave a paczki, residential halls also will be serving the treats, Culinary Services communications manager Lindsey Bliss said.
“We do this every year — it’s part of the tradition,” Bliss said.
Coy said students often stop by Quality Dairy stores on Fat Tuesday to enjoy a paczki or several, regardless of their religious affiliation.
“The price certainly fits their budget,” Coy said. “Everybody just has fun with it — it’s a good time.”
At Quality Dairy, paczkis go for 99 cents each, $4.99 for a half dozen and $8.99 for a dozen, Coy said.
Stala said the meaning of the paczkis runs deep for those who connect to its Polish heritage and hopes the club’s sale and other Fat Tuesday events will show students the tradition behind the tasty treat.
“It brings people together — it’s something you can relate to and learn more about,” Stala said. “We try to keep that culture and tradition alive in the young generation.”
