Delightful Pastries Unveils 2017 Mardi Gras Paczki Menu

By Jen Chung in Food on Feb 8, 2017 7:10PM

There are 21 days until Lent, which means it's almost time of paczkis! Beloved bakery Delightful Pastries just announced their menu for Mardi Gras, which is on February 28—and there are old favorites as well as some new additions.

Paczkis are Polish pastries that are similar to donuts. Delightful Pastries explains, "Originally made to use up the lard and eggs that were prohibited during Lent, paczki is now one of the most popular sweet treats to enjoy on Mardi Gras. Different from a donut, paczki is made up of a large ball of dough rich in egg whites, deep fried and stuffed with a wide variety of fillings. Each paczki is traditionally topped with a sugar glaze or rolled in fine sugar."

Delightful Pastries Owner and Pastry Chef Dobra Bielinski says that a paczki is "denser; it’s a yeast dough that doesn’t collapse when you bite in. One of the reasons ours are so good is that we don’t use any additives; everything is from scratch - flour, sugar, water and eggs are the base." And here's their menu for 2017:

Apricot Jelly
Raspberry Jelly
Rose Pedal Jelly
Plum Butter
Fresh Strawberry & Whipped Cream
Custard Topped with Chocolate Fudge

Drunken Paczki:
Vodka & Vanilla Bean Custard
Jameson Whiskey w/ Chocolate Custard
Moonshine & Lemon

Gourmet Paczki:
Passion Fruit Jelly
Peanut Butter Frosting & Raspberry Jelly
Nutella, with hazelnut and chocolate filling (new)

They will be making 50,000 pazckis—both the Jefferson Park and the Chicago French Market will be stocked. Custom orders for pick-up on February 28 must be made by February 25.