For all of you that live in the Ukrainian Village / Wicker Park neighborhood (or would travel here), I just put my order in for Caesar's Deli's (info uptread) paczkis for Tuesday morning pick up. You need to order in advance as this is not a typical bakery with a high turnover. They are open today until 5 or 6pm (sorry of the late note but I just ordered mine). They open on Tuesday at 8am. They offer: vanilla and chocolate custard ($1.25) and apricot, prune, fresh strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, and cherry ($1.50). Cheers.

Has anyone been to Jarosch in Elk Grove for paczkis? Years ago there were lines out the door! I remember a large variety of filling choices.

Cookie-

Your posts reminded me to mention how much your black sunflower seed-rye bread means to me. My favorite summer lunch is a slice of that bread with some good butter and a slice of local tomato. One can get all three at the Daley Plaza market.

Regarding paczki, I have to say, I'm the last person to question authenticity and tradition, but I'm a sucker for the "Americanized" stuff.

I used the opportunity to have a family outing. My mom, my sister, my nieces and nephew will meet at Duke's for lunch; hoping that their kugelis reminds me of my grandmother's. I hope that the 20 odd page menu will not overwhelm me, but I know better. I'll be a blithering idiot by page 14 and will have no idea of what to order. Then, off to the Weber's to pick up our pre-ordered paczki, then to Racine Bakery for both pre-ordered paczki and rye bread, and finally to Bobak's to buy something tasty. Maybe a bacon bun will surprise us along the way, too . And all of this within a few short miles of each other. Ah, such a lovely day it will be.

JeffB wrote:Regarding paczki, I have to say, I'm the last person to question authenticity and tradition, but I'm a sucker for the "Americanized" stuff.

JeffB-

I had never had the rose petal jelly in a paczek but fortunately corrected that mistake at yesterday's Paczki Extravaganza hosted by Cookie Monster. It was fantastic and very traditional.

-The GP

People in the office are descending upon the paczkis as I type this... Excellent! The custards were the first to go!

I like the rose jelly one too, but I am resisting the urge to pig out...

We ate at Hortex the other night and afterwards they brought us complimentary paczki with the rose filling-- first time I've tried it. Odd at first, but surprisingly likable (only 50% of the kids agreed, however). The paczki was really good (though slightly marred by candy sprinkles-- 0% of the kids agreed that that was a problem), so fresh I wondered if they were whipping them up in the back. Maybe. Anyway, it prompted me to swing by Delightful Pastries on Saturday and they were plenty good too. Maybe, just maybe, paczki are just really good. It's a theory!

Hortex
7419 W Irving Park Rd
Chicago, IL 60634
(773) 625-1200

I had never had the rose petal jelly in a paczek but fortunately corrected that mistake at yesterday's Paczki Extravaganza hosted by Cookie Monster. It was fantastic and very traditional.

May be a niggling point, but is this rose petal or rose hip jelly? I bought some over the weekend and the bakery (Oak Mill) also referred to it as rose petal jelly. I've bought rose hip jelly in grocery stores, but have never seen rose petal.

Definitely my favorite filling.

Rose petal. According to Cookie Monster, the rose petals are ground up with sugar, a process made easier with a food processor. The petals come from what we determined must be a rambling rose, not just any rose plant.

....been eating rose jelly paczki for years. I like them as well as some of the other jellies that seem to be "traditional Polish" if not "traditional paczki" (eg, apricot and "mandarin" (orange/marmalade?) at Andy's). But a boozy custard with chocolate icing is hard to beat.

JeffB wrote:...But a boozy custard with chocolate icing is hard to beat.

Tell me about it. I got my regular custard and my boozy custard paczki mixed up. No wonder Mr. X had such a smile on his face!

I posted a while back regarding the supremacy of Andy's paczki over Alliance's, and I did have some bum paczki from the hipster shop a few years back. Now that Andy's on Division is gone, I gave Alliance another shot based on Jazzfood's approval. And they were good.

On fact, Dobra might approve. While most filling choices were non-traditional fruits, the dough and the amount of filling were very traditional. Not a jelly donut.

Anyone have a paczki recommendation near Evanston? The only place I know of that has them is Bennison's; I asked my boyfriend to stop there on his way to the YMCA after work (way to counteract a workout!), but I suspect they may be gone just about everywhere by then.

Has anyone ever had the paczki from Jewel? Unfortunately, that may be my only option today to pick some up on the way home. I'm skeptical. Highly skeptical. But I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Thanks!

I had occasion to try a very non-Polish Paczki from Roeser's Bakery today. It was guava filled and quite delicious.

Roesser's Bakery
3216 W. North
Chicago, IL
773-489-6900

Cookie Monster wrote: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.

If my mum and sis didn't live far south (one in Indiana), I'd have convinced them to go to Dobra's. Instead, we ended up at Grand Dukes (Lithuanian, for my mum's father's side of the family) for lunch, then to Weber's and Racine Bakery each for a few paczkis (for my mum's mum's side of the family). We wanted to compare. My mother, who lives in Indiana not far from a large Polish area, stopped at a local bakery and got some there, too.

Somehow I only ended up with ones from Racine! How unfair. My mother says the ones from Indiana are indeed as Dobra described. On my drive home, I tried one of the Racine Bakery ones. It was hearty, dark in color on the outside, a deep yellow/tan color inside, with the dough looking more like pate a choux than a donut, not very sweet, maybe 2 t filling, and I don't recall that it flattened out - in fact I'm sure it kept its shape. It definitely did not remind me of a donut (I don't like jelly donuts much).

Since we were in the area and my mom was looking for Lithuanian Rye, we also stopped at Bobak's. They were also selling paczkis - not sure where they got them or if they made them. I got one just for the heck of it. It, however, looks like it will be the donut dough variety from a bit I pulled off, just to see how it compared.

Unfortunately, not one of these places had rose petal, though two had rosehip. Alas, I will find a way to get to Dobra's eventually.

I am about to take a walk to enjoy the sunshine and warmth. I will pass two bakeries. I may just stop just to see what they have (if indeed they have any left), but doubt they will be the "real" thing.

Fortunately, I did not have to pin my hopes on paczki that Jewel had to offer last night. I discovered that Swedish Bakery in Andersonville had them! And they still had quite a few after work last evening. They had been sold out of the custard filled ones since early afternoon but I was able to procure a blueberry, strawberry, cheese, and cherry-cheese paczki for dessert. They were delicious!

Swedish Bakery
5348 N Clark St
Chicago, IL 60640
(773) 561-8919

Mamma Susi (the Turano bakeshop) has pretty damn good paczki for a bunch of Calabrese primarily making Sicilian breads. Raspberry and Lemon are the standouts.

6501 W Roosevelt Rd
(between Gunderson Ave & Scoville Ave)
Berwyn, Il 60402

I wanted to thank all the LTH'rs who came to us on paczki day, I know it was a zoo and slightly insane and I was barely coherent. Channel 2 showed up 7 hours later than scheduled.
We sold out of paczki by 4PM. This year was our best ever.

Cookie Monster wrote:I wanted to thank all the LTH'rs who came to us on paczki day, I know it was a zoo and slightly insane and I was barely coherent. Channel 2 showed up 7 hours later than scheduled.
We sold out of paczki by 4PM. This year was our best ever.

7 hours later than scheduled? So not until like 10 or 11 AM? It's not like it was a big news day.

I'm happy to report that Mr. X and I were very happy with all the paczki I brought from the Extravaganza. I also shared some with my neighbors and boss. The rose petal remained my favorite.

I bought a half dozen from the Oak Mill Bakery mentioned above. Two each of chocolate-glazed custard, prune and rose petal.

I ate a chocolate first and wondered what the big deal was. I didn't think the custard had a 'boozy' taste, nor did the whole thing marry particularly with the chocolate.

Then I tried the prune. That was a hit. Slightly tart, the filling helped me better appreciate the sturdier texture of the paczkek. I very much enjoyed the rose petal I tried later as well. I guess I'm a traditionalist.

These were my first paczki, but I look forward to trying some from Delightful Pastries sometime soon.

Incidentally, I mentioned that these were my first paczki in the bakery and the counterwoman chided me. "You've never been here? You've been missing out."

I was in a bit of a rush, but this bakery seemed to have a lot going for it in addition to the character. I'll be sure to stop in again soon.

Cookie Monster wrote:I wanted to thank all the LTH'rs who came to us on paczki day, I know it was a zoo and slightly insane and I was barely coherent. Channel 2 showed up 7 hours later than scheduled.
We sold out of paczki by 4PM. This year was our best ever.

Absolutely the best paczki I've ever tasted (great textures and fillings), and that's why I show up year after year. My absolute favorites are the ones filled with strawberry and custard. Words cannot describe what a treat these are. Keep up the great work.

Absolutely the best paczki I've ever tasted (great textures and fillings), and that's why I show up year after year. My absolute favorites are the ones filled with strawberry and custard. Words cannot describe what a treat these are. Keep up the great work

.

You are welcome, thank you for the kind words and thank you for supporting us

I bought some paczki from Cookie Monster's Delightful Pastries Tuesday. The first I'd ever bought myself [altho I've been the beneficiary of the generosity of co-workers in the past ].
I thought that Cookie Monster's were outstanding. Like all of her baking, the paczki weren't overwhelmed by sweetness. The dough had good texture, a good yeasty taste [I didn't taste distinctive rum or lemon notes, they just tasted GOOD] and they weren't dry. I ate an entire boozy custard, and had fractions of the strawberry/custard and the plum. As much as the boozy custard is as delicious as billed, my favorite was the strawberry/custard. The mixture of savory-sweet fried dough & fresh fruit & smooth sweet creaminess were simply perfect.

Did you say that you sell these year-round? Since I'm such a lapsed Catholic that I'm a Unitarian, I have no issues with eating these during Lent .

Giovanna

Hi,

I was looking for something else, when I found a source for Paczki's in Mokena.

Fleckenstein's Bakery
19225 S LaGrange Rd
Mokena, IL 60448
708-479-5256

in the west suburbs you cant beat the fresh paczki baked on Friday/Saturday at

Roselle Deli
107 Main Street
Roselle, Il 60172
630-539-4660

The other fresh baked goods cant be beat either..all baked on premises

JeffB wrote:Cookie-

Your posts reminded me to mention how much your black sunflower seed-rye bread means to me. My favorite summer lunch is a slice of that bread with some good butter and a slice of local tomato. One can get all three at the Daley Plaza market.

Absolutely! It's become a staple in my house. Unfortunately, my dog managed to get on to the dining room table, open my shoulder bag, break through the plastic bag, and eat an entire loaf* that I brought back from Daley recently. I feel like a slice or two is a whole meal, how my beagle made it through ~20 slices is a mystery.

Anyway, this morning I went to drop my Mom off at the airport and I made a quick stop past the bakery for the first time (I always get their stuff at the farmers' market). The seeded rye is safely in the fridge away from the dog, and two paczki (glazed/raspberry-filled and chocolate-covered/custard filled) devoured along with my morning coffee. Great stuff!

-Dan

* Actually, it comes in half-loaf increments, but it's still a ton of bread

While I haven't tried the paczkis at Fleckenstein's, it's a very good bakery. We have ordered birthday cakes from them in the past. My husband used to have a manager who would pick up danish and coffee cakes there and bring them in for meetings and he was always talking about how good they were. I'll have to take a ride out and check out the paczkis.

Suzy

Last week I went to Madison for work and swung by the W. Lawrence location of Delightful Pastries to pick up some paczki for my Madison coworkers. I got a 50/50 mix of raspberry and plum butter - the latter was my personal favorite, though opinions were mixed in the office (everyone agreed that they're delicious though, just arguing over preferred filling).

Anyway, on Saturday I need to go to Old Town to fill up on spices, and decided I'd check out the new storefront and grab a paczki. They didn't have any plum (though I was told they could be ordered in advance), so I got a raspberry and one that was basically a bismarck. $2/each. Ouch. The week before, out on W. Lawrence, they were $.95/each. Fancy new digs, upscale location, price tag to match.

-Dan

Greetings, fellow foodies --

I'm brand-spankin' new to this list as a member, though I have lurked here on and off for about six months. I finally bit the bullet and joined in -- Mardi Gras seems like an appropriate day to do so!

After long residence on the north side (which I miss dearly, for many reasons ), I have returned to the area of my birth, the SW side, only now I'm stuck being a suburbanite for the first time (ouch, not used to the culture change) and find myself in need of advice. Since it's Paczki Day, can anyone advise me as to where to get the best paczki in this neck of the woods?? I realize I'm asking this pretty late, but I've gotta try -- I need a paczki fix really badly! Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

webdiva


It's not the food you bite, it's the bite in your food that counts.