Poland

Blog Post No. 2

2015-4-14

By Daniel Wojcik

 

Poland is a largely Catholic nation, so naturally its most important holidays are Catholic occasions.  Easter and Christmas are celebrated with large breakfast feasts.  In addition, Fat Thursday, the Thursday before Lent, is a very popular in Poland.  This is everybody's last chance to fill up on sweets before the fasting of Lent.  The most popular food for this occasion is the pączki, which is a type of Polish doughnut.

 

 

Pączki are typically a filled flattened-sphere of light, rich dough made out of eggs, fat, sugar, yeast, and sometimes milk.  They are typically frosted or covered in confectioner's sugar, and have a sweet filling.  Pączki didn't actually start out this way- they used to be made out of regular bread and filled with meat instead of jam or custard.  However, around the 17th century someone had the brilliant idea to make them sweet in order to use up the sugar and lard that wouldn't be of use during Lent.  Later during the mid 18th century the recipe was refined under the auspices of French cooks who made the dough lighter and spongier, finally resulting in the doughnut we know and love to eat today.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C4%85czki