A word from our sponsors: Heidi’s Serves up Paczkis – A Tasty Fat Tuesday Delight

Terri McGovern holds tray of freshly baked paczki's. /Karen Mahoney photo

Note: Hedi’s Bakery is a westofthei.com sponsor.

Prepare to loosen your belt. Paczki Day — Feb. 21  — is almost here, and they don’t call it “Fat Tuesday” for nothing!

A ball of dough, actually symbolizes the excesses of the day.

Flour, a little sugar, lots of eggs and yeast comprise the dough.

Roll the ball in boiling oil for a few minutes, douse it with powdered sugar, and you have the paczki.

Pronounced “poonchkey,” the little dough ball that was once a staple of pre-Lenten celebrations for Eastern Europeans is becoming a popular wintertime treat for everyone, whether they know the symbolism or not.

/Karen Mahoney photo

The treats, which often are made even more sinful with fruit or cream fillings, have found their way from the floury tables of immigrants’ homes to bakery shelves.

Heidi Schuerstedt of Heidi’s Bakery in Paddock Lake began making paczki’s 18 years ago when she and her husband, Michael operated their bakery in Niles, Il selling an astounding 37,000 of the pre-Lenten delicacies.

“This was a heavy Polish German community,” she said. “We were also supplying many large Catholic Churches in the Chicago land area. When we sold the bakery in Niles, we weren’t able to fry so we outsourced the paczki and filled them ourselves. What is nice now since we opened the bakery in Paddock Lake is that we are able to fry our own again, and Michael’s recipe is really good.”

Don’t be fooled by Michael’s German ancestry, and the assumption that a German baker cannot make a good Polish paczki.

“In Germany we also celebrate this day, but call it Berliner Tag,” explained Heidi. “People in the Midwest know this day more as Paczki day due to the publicity from the newspapers and the web.”

Heidi’s Bakery offers 18 varieties, including the traditional prune, custard, raspberry, and apricot, but also very popular are cherry/cheese, blueberry, strawberry whipped cream, and peach.

“We will be selling them for $1.25 each and some will go for $1.45 if they have double filling or whipped cream,” said Heidi. “We are taking orders now, which would be a help so we can meet the demand on Tuesday.”

Terri McGovern and owner Michael Schuerstedt with freshly baked paczki's and hot cross buns. /Karen Mahoney photo

 Heid’s Bakery is located at 24221-75th Street

Paddock Lake

Hours Monday-Friday 6am-6pm

Saturday 6am-3pm

Sunday 6am-1pm

To place an order: call 262-586-8000