Thanks for the reply's.

Delightful is definately traveling distance and sounds awesome.

I sure hope I can phone an oder in for Tuesday pick up.

Great, you have no idea how badly I'm obsessing about them now.

Has anyone tried Webber's Bakery Panczki?

Just curious. I live in the western suburbs and I have a chance to place an order to be brought to me.
Thanks for any input.

JLenart wrote:I can't believe it's almost here! and thanks to LTH it won't sneak up on me this year. My Southside Polish Heart is breaking that I will be unable to make it to the Paczki Extravagnza.

However I was wondering who you think makes the best Paczki in the city. I live in Lincoln Square and would love to order several dozen to take to a client's site that morning. The client is downtown so I know I don't want a bakery on the southside or Oakmill in Niles.

Any thoughts and opinions would be greatly apprciated.

Thanks.

I've had Dinkel's and they're pretty good. Andy's on Division is no longer there but they have a shop on Milwaukee as well. This post is making me hungry...

Just a quick follow up for next year. On Fat Tuesday, I picked up a dozen (custom ordered) paczki from Caesar's Deli on Damen and Iowa. They were fantastic.

This place has been reinvented a few times but the latest incarnation has been a wholesale "Polish" food kitchen that has a very small walk-in retail business that is opened limited hours. The selection is very limited and changes daily. Most of it is a result of what the owners are making for their clients. Apparently, most of the food here is sold to other retail stores or restaurants (I didn't ask too much) and everything I've had here is good - pierogi, stuffed cabbage, and now the paczki! I ordered them on Friday and they were open at 8am on Tuesday for pickup. Not a lot of turnover here and I wouldn't have thought about them except I live around the corner. She made the basic fruit/jam - apricot, prune, cherry, blueberry, raspberry and then a fresh strawberry. She also had vanilla and chocolate with custard. I ordered a dozen for me (my wife took them to work) and a dozen for a friend and then I grabbed another 4 for myself again. The price was $1.25 each and $1.50 for the strawberry. If you go, call ahead and order.

Caesar's Deli
901 N Damen Ave
Chicago, IL 60622
(773) 486-6190

The prune pączki from Deerfields Bakery (Buffalo Grove location) was good - fresh, tender pastry with nicely textured, fully flavored, not overly sweet filling. They are enormous, heavily glazed, with a high ratio of filling to pastry - way high for my taste - but a big hit with the local firemen who were there picking up tall stacks of boxes.

Deerfields Bakery
http://www.deerfieldbakery.com/

I'm a long time donut guy generally, and a paczki guy at least since it's become the hot thing around here--proud papa moment: daughter #2 was really bummed last Thursday when I did not get any donuts. Anyways, I've never, ever, ever, had paczki as good as what I picked up yesterday at Oak Park Bakery.

Maybe slightly less than traditional; the dough was crisp but still light. The donuts were halved and filled with a variety of fillings, essentially Oak Park Bakery's coffee cake fillings. Mmmm cheese paczki!

BTW, OP Bakery provides their surplus goods to the Oak Park Food Pantry, another reason to love 'em.

I'm bumping this since Paczki Day is fast approaching.

I've always favored Weber's Bakery for paczki as this was my local bakery growing up on the southwestside. Their fresh strawberry w/ chocolate top is my favorite. Good stuff and their signature sauerkraut rye bread which is a round loaf of moist rye bread with homemade sauerkraut and caraway seeds kneaded into the dough is really good.

I looked at their website this afternoon and found this year's info:

Get ready for PACZKI DAY!
We will have Paczki available
Thursday, Feb. 19th thru Tuesday, Feb. 24th.
WE WILL BE CLOSED Monday, Feb. 23rd.
WE WILL OPEN Tuesday, Feb. 24th at 4:00am!
We offer 14 varieties of Paczki:
Custard w/Chocolate Top
Custard w/Powdered Top
Strawberry, Jelly, Apricot, Cheese,
Prune, Poppyseed, Lemon,
Apple-Cinnamon, Pineapple,
NEW: Blueberry w/ Powdered Top,
Fresh Strawberry w/ Chocolate Top*
Fresh Strawberry w/ White Top*
*Sold in units of 4 only!
1 FREE with every dozen Tuesday only!
DON'T FORGET YOUR KING CAKE!
Place your orders now!

Another paczki alternative for those of us in the western suburbs is Ingram's Buzy Bee Bakery in downtown Downers Grove. This is my local bakery now and it's very good but I never had their paczki as I prefer to make the drive to Weber's on Fat Tuesday. Their website has info up now on their paczki day choices. The info is:

Paczki Day is Tuesday, February 24th, 2009!! Last day to place orders is Friday, February 20th!!

Ingram's Buzy Bee Bakery also has a special paczki page with a link to their paczki order form: http://www.forwardweb.com/~busybee/bakery/order.htm As I wrote earlier, I've never tried their paczki but their pastries are generally very good. One hesitation though would be their variety list includes peanut butter & jelly paczki but not rose paczki as an option.

It's going to be a tough decision. Place an order for early morning pickup of paczki & some bacon buns from Bridgeport Bakery or order from the old favorite Weber's Bakery and pickup some sauerkraut rye bread too. Tough decision.

Weber's Bakery
http://www.webersbakery.com/
7055 West Archer Avenue
Chicago, IL 60638
773-586-1234
Open Tuesday - Saturday
4:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Open Sundays
5:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Ingram's Buzy Bee Bakery
http://www.busybeebakery.com
5126 Main Street
Downers Grove, IL 60515
Phone: (630) 968-8830
Fax: (630) 968-1090
Hours:
Monday: Closed
Tues-Fri: 6am - 4:00pm
Saturday: 6am - 3pm
Sunday: Closed

Bridgeport Bakery
2907 S Archer Ave
Chicago, IL 60608
(773) 523-1121

I took part in the Paczki Extravaganza last year...and I can tell you that Cookie Monster's Delightful Pastries has excellent paczki's...and a delightful staff. I had never had Rose Paczki's before last year..and they were great. While raspberry and custard are still my favs...all the paczki's we made and sampled were excellent.

Delightful Pastries
5927 W Lawrence Avenue
Chicago, IL 60630
773-545-7215
http://www.delightfulpastries.com

Last year I had one from Swedish Bakery (5348 N. Clark, Andersonville) and it was tasty, but only because I still had a 40 minute wait at Pasticceria Natalina (5406 N. Clark) and was on my lunch break.

I'm an ass, I think those were zeppoles. Sorry all!
But I do recommend Oak Mill Bakery, and Delightful Pastries, both of which have boozy custard, and Oven Fresh. Did you notice Cookie Monster's Paczki Extravaganza on the Events board? Well worth the $30, let me tell you. Last year I got to fry some donuts as well as fill them, cut and shape Angel Wings, and take home six paczkis.

Just so you know, Gladstone on Milwaukee is now closed.

Oven Fresh
7210 W. Foster

If anyone happens to be driving to Madison next Tuesday I'll pay a delivery fee for some of these.

So just so I have this right, is Polish Paczki day always the Thursday immediately before American Paczki day (Fat Tuesday) or does it change?

I may have to make an early trip this year.

Smooth J wrote:So just so I have this right, is Polish Paczki day always the Thursday immediately before American Paczki day (Fat Tuesday) or does it change?

I may have to make an early trip this year.

Paczki Day is Fat Tuesday in America. At least that's what I've been led to believe.

stevez wrote:

Smooth J wrote:So just so I have this right, is Polish Paczki day always the Thursday immediately before American Paczki day (Fat Tuesday) or does it change?

I may have to make an early trip this year.

Paczki Day is Fat Tuesday in America. At least that's what I've been led to believe.

The Polish have it the Thursday before Ash Wednesday, you are correct. Otherwise it is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. THis is not specifically American, rather than other Catholic.

Regards,

Polish Paczki day is this Thursday, the American one is on Tuesday February 24.
If anyone is interested in coming on Sunday for our Paczki Fiesta you are more than welcome.
As far as authentic paczki go, our bakery(Delightful Pastries) and Warsaw Inn have the only one in town.
Most of the other bakeries make their regular donuts and just call them paczki, but they collapse on you when you bite into them and are terribly sweet with even sweeter filling. That is not a paczki.
Traditional fillings are PLUM BUTTER (not prune) and Rose Petal Jelly. Plum butter is made with fresh plums not dried out prunes that are reconstituted and pureed.
All the other fillings are Americanizations.
To give you a good comparison it is like eating a Chicago Pizza with Gruyere cheese and anchovies
and calling it an authentic Chicago pizza. It might be an interesting combination but it has nothing to do with Chicago pizza and is not even remotely authentic.
That is why when people say what great cheese paczki, I just want to laugh because no one in Poland makes paczki with cheese even the avant garde. I think this topic needs some clarification so people realize what an authentic paczki really is.
If anyone needs any other explanations let me know.

Cookie Monster wrote:If anyone needs any other explanations let me know.

Explanations?!?! I need a paczki!

Come on over we are frying hundreds of paczkis everyday now till Ash Wednesday.
Delightful Pastries
5927 W Lawrence Ave
Chicago IL 60630
I aleady sent some paczki to Washinton and Oregon, to those poor deprived people on the West Coast who have no paczkis to speak of.

Cookie Monster wrote:Come on over we are frying hundreds of paczkis everyday now till Ash Wednesday.
Delightful Pastries
5927 W Lawrence Ave
Chicago IL 60630
I aleady sent some paczki to Washinton and Oregon, to those poor deprived people on the West Coast who have no paczkis to speak of.

Any need (or suggestion) to order ahead for larger orders (20 or so)?

BR wrote:

Cookie Monster wrote:Come on over we are frying hundreds of paczkis everyday now till Ash Wednesday.
Delightful Pastries
5927 W Lawrence Ave
Chicago IL 60630
I aleady sent some paczki to Washinton and Oregon, to those poor deprived people on the West Coast who have no paczkis to speak of.

Any need (or suggestion) to order ahead for larger orders (20 or so)?

Probably would be best to call, especially if Cookie Monster is frying up so many paczkis these days!

Delightful Pastries
5927 W Lawrence Avenue
Chicago, IL 60630
773-545-7215

Thanks for the reminder that tomorrow is the Polish paczki day! I'll stop by Central Continental tomorrow:

http://www.centralcontinentalbakery.com/index.asp?


Last year, I was in Honolulu, where it's malasada day! Leonard's Malasadas had a sign up, and we bought of the best paczki I've ever tasted, in flavors like haupia and passion fruit. (Leonard's sell malasadas, which are pretty much paczki, all year, naturally, but they had extra flavors for the day.)

Cookie Monster wrote:As far as authentic paczki go, our bakery(Delightful Pastries) and Warsaw Inn have the only one in town.
Most of the other bakeries make their regular donuts and just call them paczki, but they collapse on you when you bite into them and are terribly sweet with even sweeter filling. That is not a paczki.

I think this topic needs some clarification so people realize what an authentic paczki really is.
If anyone needs any other explanations let me know.

I used to buy hundreds of paczkis from a couple of bakeries in Hamtramck, MI back in the old days when I had an operation in Detroit.

What differentiates a paczki from a filled donut?

Why only on Fat Tuesday? Or is that just a US thing?

Fat Tuesday is only a US thing. In Poland people eat paczki all year round, and at our bakery we make them all year round.
THe typical paczki dough is quite sturdy and not sweet, usually you have a lemon oil and rum in the dough. As you can fathom that is not your typical filled donut flavoring. Also when you bite into the doughnut it flattens out and is quite sweet with a lot of filling. A paczek (singular form) keeps its shape when bitten into, is not too sweet and the filling amount is about 1.5 teaspoons to 2 teaspoons. People eat it more for the dough than the filling, one of the earlier pictures with all that filling oozing out made me queasy. The dough has to compliment the filling and vise versa, but when the all you taste is filling then you miss the whole experience.

Cookie Monster wrote:Polish Paczki day is this Thursday, the American one is on Tuesday February 24.
If anyone is interested in coming on Sunday for our Paczki Fiesta you are more than welcome.
As far as authentic paczki go, our bakery(Delightful Pastries) and Warsaw Inn have the only one in town.
Most of the other bakeries make their regular donuts and just call them paczki, but they collapse on you when you bite into them and are terribly sweet with even sweeter filling. That is not a paczki.
Traditional fillings are PLUM BUTTER (not prune) and Rose Petal Jelly. Plum butter is made with fresh plums not dried out prunes that are reconstituted and pureed.
All the other fillings are Americanizations.
To give you a good comparison it is like eating a Chicago Pizza with Gruyere cheese and anchovies
and calling it an authentic Chicago pizza. It might be an interesting combination but it has nothing to do with Chicago pizza and is not even remotely authentic.
That is why when people say what great cheese paczki, I just want to laugh because no one in Poland makes paczki with cheese even the avant garde. I think this topic needs some clarification so people realize what an authentic paczki really is.
If anyone needs any other explanations let me know.

It aint bragging if you do it. Just got home from Dobra's, and her pastries, in this case her donuts, are indeed delightful. Clearly the best I've tried and up there with the best in donuts around here.

Thanks for the compliments.
Ask for me or say hello next time.
The same for all the other lth'rs, introduce yourself and I will give you a kitchen tour of the bakery.

Cookie Monster wrote:Thanks for the compliments.
Ask for me or say hello next time.
The same for all the other lth'rs, introduce yourself and I will give you a kitchen tour of the bakery.

Odd question: you don't have coffee there, do you?

Actually we have a wonderful Hawaiian coffee that we get shipped in and roast locally.

Cookie Monster wrote:Actually we have a wonderful Hawaiian coffee that we get shipped in and roast locally.

Great. One stop shopping!

Just so you all know if you show up on Tuesday morning at 6AM CHannel 2 will be here so there is an opportunity to be famous.
I invite all LTHrs to come, one free paczek to all LTH forum members who will show up that early.

Can I show up at 6:30 so I won't be famous?

Yes you may.