Polish Fat Thursday can be compared to Pancake Day celebrated in many English speaking countries or Mardi Gras because it is all about being gluttonous and losing yourselves in partying before the time of Lent comes - everything is allowed, except moderation, diet, listening to music on low volume, modesty!
Fat Thursday is celebrated on the last Thursday before Lent by eating pączki (pon-chqi) - fist-sized large doghnuts filled with rose jelly (classic version), plum preserve or eggnog (in Poland known as advocaat). The outside of these hefty treats is usually coated in a sweet glaze just to ensure you get plenty of sugary goodness in every bite. There will be no more chance to celebrate before Easter, so you have to eat as many pączki as possible!
Some bakers fill a few pączki with almond paste instead of marmalade and encountering this filling is said to bring good luck. An old Polish superstition states that if you don't eat at least one doughnut on Shrove Thursday, you will no longer be successful in life.
Another traditional treat consumed on Fat Thursday is faworki - ribbon-shaped, thin strips of crispy pastry dough sprinkled with powdered sugar.
For confectioners and bakers it is one of the busiest time of the year. Statistics SHOW that for the past few years around 100 million doughnuts and many hundreds of kilogrammes of the faworki are eaten on Fat Thursday in Poland. The money spent on Fat Thursday delicacies today would buy 200 apartments of 50 square metres in Warsaw and as many as around 430 in Bydgoszcz, northern Poland.
Here you will find an easy recipe for traditional Polish pączki with step-by-step photos: http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/polishdesserts/ss/paczki.htm
and for faworki: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4kLT1ZfVes.
Fat Thursday is celebrated on the last Thursday before Lent by eating pączki (pon-chqi) - fist-sized large doghnuts filled with rose jelly (classic version), plum preserve or eggnog (in Poland known as advocaat). The outside of these hefty treats is usually coated in a sweet glaze just to ensure you get plenty of sugary goodness in every bite. There will be no more chance to celebrate before Easter, so you have to eat as many pączki as possible!
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| Traditional Polish pączek |
Some bakers fill a few pączki with almond paste instead of marmalade and encountering this filling is said to bring good luck. An old Polish superstition states that if you don't eat at least one doughnut on Shrove Thursday, you will no longer be successful in life.
Another traditional treat consumed on Fat Thursday is faworki - ribbon-shaped, thin strips of crispy pastry dough sprinkled with powdered sugar.
For confectioners and bakers it is one of the busiest time of the year. Statistics SHOW that for the past few years around 100 million doughnuts and many hundreds of kilogrammes of the faworki are eaten on Fat Thursday in Poland. The money spent on Fat Thursday delicacies today would buy 200 apartments of 50 square metres in Warsaw and as many as around 430 in Bydgoszcz, northern Poland.
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| Queue to the confectionery in Warsaw |
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| Waiting for pączki on Chmielna street in Warsaw |
Here you will find an easy recipe for traditional Polish pączki with step-by-step photos: http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/polishdesserts/ss/paczki.htm
and for faworki: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4kLT1ZfVes.
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