Tag: Mardi Gras

PĄCZKI is pronounced Poonch-Key or Punch-Key

Happy Fat Tuesday.  

Today some friends brought over this fancy box of Pączki from the Oakmont Bakery, decorated with a Mardi Gras mask. What a nice surprise to find on the porch.  Steve and I cut one in half and shared it.

Later we cut another one in half and shared it.  So a total of one apiece but two different fillings on Monday.

Looking forward to Tuesday’s sampling. The idea is to eat the last of rich fatty treats prior to Ash Wednesday that marks the beginning of Lent.

Two years ago I posted how my friend Donna introduced me to Pączki in the Brookline neighborhood Party Cake Shop bakery. (pronounced Poonch-Key or Punch-Key)
Pączki  means “little package” in Polish.  It is a traditional filled baked good fried in deep fat and filled with different fruit or cream fillings. They can be glazed or sugared on the outside.

 

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Bakery Case in the Party Cake Shop in Brookline
Here is a fruit filled one. Some have custard or cream. Pączki is from 2019 post at Party Cake Shop Bakery

 

A sign in the Party Cake Shop window

 

 

 

 

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Traditional King Cake for Mardi Gras

“The King Cake tradition is thought to have been brought to New Orleans from France in 1870.” Wikipedia   

 

This King Cake created at the Party Cake Shop in Brookline on the Boulevard where I got the Paczki last Thursday.

Here is a Traditional New Orleans King Cake Recipe made with yeast .- a brioche like dough https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/traditional-new-orleans-king-cake/

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Pączki Sales are Hot for Fat Tuesday

Tuesday March 5th is Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras.

Pączki  is pronounced Poonch–key. The Pączki sign was in the bakery window as my friend Donna and I were headed to her home after eating breakfast in Dormont.  I had never heard of them.We parked and I went into the bakery and Lynn was wonderful to tell me all about the Pączki.  I bought six, three for Donna and three for Steve and me.  Lynn put each order in white bakery bags.    When we got back to Donna’s we cut one in half and shared it along with a cup of tea.

If you live in Pittsburgh they are available through Fat Tuesday at the Party Cake Shop on Brookline Boulevard.

Here is what the Party Cake Shop says   “Pączki is a pre-Lenten Mardi Gras tradition deriving from the Polish word meaning little package.

These little packages are large pastries enriched with egg yolks and deep fried like a doughnut. Each Paczki is available plain or filled with various fillings that include: vanilla custard, lemon, apricot, buttercream, chocolate buttercream, raspberry jelly, or prune and finished off with a toss in granulated sugar. “

The taste reminded me of a fresh doughnut from childhood.  Much tastier than any doughnut I have eaten in years.  I see there are recipes online to make your own but a trip to Party Cake Shop would be well worth the effort.  Last summer visiting friends took the ‘Burgh Bits and Bites Food Tour in Pittsburgh’s neighborhood of Brookline.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Nod to NOLA in Honor of Mardi Gras

NOLA, not shot ON Mardi Gras! Want to see the real deal in real time? Travel on over to Carla’s One Wild and Precious Life blog  with parades, floats and beads, dogs dressed up  and crazy fun, her mom visiting (from my old hometown in Jersey-WOOT!) for her first Mardi Gras.  You will enjoy seeing Mardi Gras as it happens. My photos shot when I was visiting for a photography show at New Orleans Photo Alliance in June 2009.

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When to Turn the Pancakes Over

You wait until the bubbles start and edge looks like it is starting to get a bit dry. The center set.  Tradition to eat pancakes the day before Lent.  Growing up and living next door to the church in the rectory, you remember stuff like the Pancake Suppers in the undercroft (what they called the church basement).  Everywhere now you hear Mardi Gras for Fat Tuesday but not so much about Shrove Tuesday.  And of course the IHOP just claims it is Pancake Day as if they invented the tradition.

Pancakes

Flapjacks
Silver Dollars
Short Stack.
Real maple syrup from the jug.
Butter.

Made this batch for the grandchildren in Columbus on Saturday morning.
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