Windsor bakeries preparing for Fat Tuesday

By Millar Hill

Once a year thousands of people indulge in a tasty treat they don’t need to feel guilty about.

The paczki (pronounced: poonch-key) is a Polish custard-filled doughnut coated in powdered sugar or a glaze that ranges from an average of 500 – 700 calories.

The doughnuts were traditionally created to use up a household’s supply of lard, sugar and eggs in preparation for the Lenten fasting season.

Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras is a time of feasting before Ash Wednesday, the first day of fasting for Lent in western Christianity. The Tuesday is better known as Paczki Day in Windsor and throughout southwestern Ontario as well as in some nearby parts of Michigan.

Julie Gill is the manager of Blak’s Bakery in Windsor and said it’s one of the busiest days for the bakery.

“Weeks in advance we have to get our filling ordered,” said Gill. “Some fillings we make and others we order. We have to adjust our schedule. Normally we have 20 people working but we have 30 to 40 [working] on Paczki Day.”

Blak’s Bakery alone will be making roughly 35,000 doughnuts for Fat Tuesday.

“We actually had to stop [taking] pre-orders this year. We stopped at 300 orders for Tuesday,” said Gill.

Doug Romanek, owner of Nana’s Bakery in south Windsor, said it takes roughly four hours to make a batch of paczki, which is 60 doughnuts.

Romanek call his doughnuts “Lowczki” because they are made with ingredients that make them low in calories and fat.

“We make them by hand, so it takes longer,” said Romanek.

Nana’s Bakery will be making 35 batches for Fat Tuesday.

“Basically, our goal is to survive through the day,” said Romanek.