Windsor gobbles up paczkis on Fat Tuesday

There were long line-ups at several Windsor bakeries Tuesday morning as people tried to get their hands on paczkis by the box.

The traditional Polish treat is a star. It's the must-have pastry in these parts on Shrove Tuesday, also called Fat Tuesday.

Tony Blak said his staff at Blak's Bakery ballooned to 40 people Tuesday in order to handle the crowds.

The extra help consists of family and friends. Blak said one sister is retired. The other brings her husband and son.

Blak's son and daughter are lending a hand. His sister, who helps run the bakery, is there, of course, but so are her two daughters and son.

Blak's two sisters from Toronto are also on hand. One is retired. The other brings her husband and son.

"We're bringing in first cousins, too. It's a lot," Blak said.

Even the neighbour next door gets in on the action.

"It's kind of like homecoming week for all the people that have used Blak's bakery through several generations. If they've moved a little bit further, some of them, even out of town, they make the trip here to Blak's bakery for their paczkis," Blak said. "For us, it's the busiest day of the entire year. It's almost twice as busy as our second-busiest day, which is Christmas."

Blak's bakery offers seven flavours of paczki, including a new Nutella paczki this year.

"We've had some people who were interested in a chocolate. Actually what we have is a Nutella, which is chocolate and hazelnut," Blak said. "We're finding that's really popular with people who are ordering their paczkis this year."

Shrove Tuesday has been around since medieval times in England. Traditionally, it was a day for Christians to confess their sins and be absolved by a priest before the beginning of Lent.

It was also a day to rid the house of the rich foods that you were supposed to give up during the Lenten period foods like milk, eggs and fats.

The paczki, pronounced poonsh-key, is a round, jelly-filled dough ball tossed in icing sugar traditionally eaten on Shrove Tuesday.

Paczki purists order the prune-filled variety, but the pastries also come in raspberry, lemon, strawberry, prune, blueberry, apple, custard and occasionally chocolate.

Depending on the recipe, one paczki packs 25 grams of fat.

The paczki phenomenon came to Windsor from the city of Hamtramck, Mich., just across the Detroit River.

A rush of Polish immigrants arrived there in the early 20th century seeking work at the Dodge Brothers automobile factory.