Home recipe kuchnia polska

Pączki

Name: Pączki
Prep time: 60 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 190 min
Cuisine: kuchnia polska
Ingredients: 500 g all-purpose flour (Wrocław type 500 or cake type 450, plus a little for dusting); 30 g fresh yeast (or 10 g instant yeast); 250 ml milk (lukewarm, about 37 °C, not hot); 4 pcs egg yolks; 50 g sugar (plus 1 teaspoon for the starter); 50 g butter (melted and cooled); 1 tbsp spirit, vodka or rum (not necessary; Ania Gotuje adds up to 2 tablespoons); 1 pinch salt; 180 g rose petal jam or thick plum preserves (160–200 g, depending on how much filling you like); 1 l rapeseed oil or lard (enough to have about 4 cm of fat in the pot; Kwestia Smaku suggests 1–2 liters of oil); powdered sugar (for dusting cooled pączki); 120 g powdered sugar for icing; 3 tbsp lemon juice for icing; candied orange peel (for sprinkling on icing)

Homemade pączki made from yeast dough with egg yolks, deep-fried, filled with rose petal jam and topped with icing or powdered sugar. Tips on achieving a light ring and substituting fresh yeast and rose jam abroad.

Servings: 16 sztuk
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 3 h 10 min
Difficulty: Medium

Domowy pączek z lukrem na talerzu na koronkowej serwetce

The story behind the recipe

The first Polish pączki were not sweet: they were made from dough filled with lard and eaten during Fat Thursday, which is part of the carnival season. Mikołaj Rej mentions them in "Żywot człowieka poczciwego," and Lind's dictionary connects the word itself with the German "Krapfen." In Silesia, they are called kreple, and the form "Kraeppel" appears in a Silesian chronicle from 1714. It is uncertain when sweet pączki became popular in Poland.

They became fluffy and round in the 18th century when yeast was added to the dough. Jędrzej Kitowicz described pączki from the court of Augustus III: influenced by French chefs, the dough was so light that a compressed pączek returned to its original size. Maria Śleżańska in "Kucharz polski" from 1932 provides a recipe for "perfect pączki" and dusts them with sugar mixed with grated lemon zest right after frying. The Opatów pączek from Świętokrzyskie is listed in the Traditional Products List, registered in 2014: with a lighter ring around it, filled with plum or rose jam, fried in lard in small batches, made the same way since 1966.

Fat Thursday is the last Thursday before Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent. Pączki were fried then to use up lard, sugar, eggs, and fruits before the fasting period. According to a folk belief, anyone who does not eat a single pączek on that day will not have good fortune for the rest of the year, and in the past, some pączki contained an almond or nut that was supposed to bring luck. A survey by Opinia24 for Too Good To Go in 2026 found that 95% of adults aged 18-65 eat pączki on Fat Thursday, totaling around 88 million pieces. In Michigan, the tradition has moved to Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. The center of Pączki Day is Hamtramck, a Polish enclave in Detroit settled by Polish workers: a parade takes place there, and lines form in front of bakeries throughout the Detroit area. Chicago celebrates both on Fat Thursday and Fat Tuesday. It is uncertain when exactly Pączki Day began to be celebrated in Hamtramck.

Ingredients

Dough (about 16 pączki)

500 g all-purpose flour (Wrocław type 500 or cake type 450, plus a little for dusting)
Abroad: USA and Canada: all-purpose flour; UK: plain flour; Germany: Weizenmehl Type 550
30 g fresh yeast (or 10 g instant yeast)
Abroad: USA: instant yeast or active dry yeast, 10 g instead of 30 g fresh; UK: fresh yeast can be found in bakeries near supermarkets
250 ml milk (lukewarm, about 37 °C, not hot)
4 pcs egg yolks
50 g sugar (plus 1 teaspoon for the starter)
50 g butter (melted and cooled)
1 tbsp (15 ml) spirit, vodka or rum (not necessary; Ania Gotuje adds up to 2 tablespoons)
Abroad: vodka or rum
1 pinch salt

Filling

180 g rose petal jam or thick plum preserves (160–200 g, depending on how much filling you like)
Abroad: rose petal jam or rose petal preserve in Polish stores; according to a linguist, also plum preserves or other fruit jams

For frying

1 l rapeseed oil or lard (enough to have about 4 cm of fat in the pot; Kwestia Smaku suggests 1–2 liters of oil)
Abroad: USA and Canada: canola oil

For finishing (optional)

powdered sugar (for dusting cooled pączki)
Abroad: USA: powdered sugar; UK: icing sugar
120 g powdered sugar for icing
3 tbsp (45 ml) lemon juice for icing
candied orange peel (for sprinkling on icing)
Abroad: candied orange peel; Germany: Orangeat

Method, step by step

Starter: crush the yeast with a teaspoon of sugar, add 1–2 tablespoons of flour and a few tablespoons of lukewarm milk. Mix and set aside for about 15 minutes until it foams up well. If it does not foam, the yeast is dead: start over. Instant yeast can be added directly to the flour.
Beat the egg yolks with sugar until fluffy. In a large bowl, sift the flour, add the rest of the milk, the starter, the beaten yolks, and salt. Knead the dough, gradually adding the cooled melted butter, and finally the spirit, if using. Knead for about 15 minutes until the dough is smooth, shiny, and starts to pull away from your hands.
Cover the bowl with a cloth and let the dough rise in a warm place without drafts for about 60 minutes, or up to 80–90 minutes if necessary, until it doubles in size.
Transfer the risen dough to a floured surface and roll it out to a thickness of 1–1.5 cm. Cut out circles with a glass or shape smooth balls from pieces of dough. Place them on a floured surface or baking sheet, spaced apart.
Cover the pączki with a cloth and let them rise again for 20–40 minutes. This stage determines the light ring: well-risen, light pączki will float high in the fat.
In a wide pot, heat the fat to 175–180 °C, preferably using a thermometer. Fry a few pączki at a time, placing them in the fat with the risen side down first.
Fry for 2–3 minutes on each side until golden, and turn them only once. If they brown too quickly, lower the heat. Make sure the temperature of the fat does not drop between batches.
Remove the fried pączki with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels or a rack.
Transfer the jam to a piping bag or syringe with a thick tip and fill the pączki from the side.
Dust the cooled pączki with powdered sugar. For the icing, beat the powdered sugar with lemon juice into a thick mass, drizzle it over the still warm pączki, and sprinkle with candied orange peel.

Tips

Lack of a light ring. Pączki did not rise long enough before frying, the dough was not kneaded enough, or there was not enough fat or it was at an uneven temperature. Well-risen, light pączki float high and have a light ring around them. This ring is also considered a sign of fresh fat.

Brown on the outside, raw on the inside. There was too much sugar in the dough, or the fat was too hot. Stick to about 50 g of sugar for 500 g of flour, and if the pączki darken too quickly, lower the heat.

Greasy and heavy. The fat was too cold. Use a thermometer and fry a few at a time, as each batch lowers the temperature. Without a thermometer, drop a slice of raw potato or a piece of dough into the fat: bubbles should appear immediately, and the dough should float and start frying.

Dough does not rise. The milk was too hot and killed the yeast: it should be lukewarm, not hot. If the starter does not foam after 15 minutes, the yeast is dead, and you need to start over.

Filling before frying. This is the traditional method: flatten a piece of dough, place half a teaspoon of jam in the center, seal the edges well, and place the pączek seam side down. Robert Sowa advises using only half a teaspoon, as more will leak during frying. Ania Gotuje prefers to fill the pączki after frying, as this prevents a hollow space from forming inside.

Spirit. Traditionally, adding spirit to the dough prevents pączki from absorbing fat. This is a belief, not a proven rule: there are no studies on this, and the author Ania Gotuje adds it rarely and does not see a significant difference. It can be omitted in all recipes.

Fillings and toppings. Traditionally rose petal jam or thick plum preserves, today also mixed fruit marmalade, liqueur, pudding, chocolate, or cottage cheese. Dust pączki with powdered sugar when they cool, and glaze while still warm, sprinkling with candied orange peel. Maria Śleżańska dusted them with sugar mixed with grated lemon zest straight from the fat.

Abroad. Fresh yeast is often unavailable in supermarkets in the USA and the UK. King Arthur advises converting fresh yeast to instant or active dry yeast by multiplying their weight by 0.33, meaning instead of 30 g of fresh, use 10 g of dry; instant yeast can be added directly to the flour without a starter. In the UK, fresh yeast can sometimes be found in bakeries near supermarkets, and ScandiKitchen sells it in 50 g packages. Flour: in the USA all-purpose flour, in the UK plain flour, in Germany Weizenmehl Type 550, as Type 405 does not work well in yeast dough. Rose petal jam is made from the petals of the wrinkled rose and is hard to find outside Polish stores. A linguist suggests substituting it with plum preserves or other fruit jams, and one blogger mixes rose jam with strawberry jam because the rose has a strong flavor. Canola oil is used in the USA and Canada instead of rapeseed oil. Substitute spirit with vodka or rum.

Photos

Pączek w bulgoczącym tłuszczu z bliska, ze złotym wierzchem i jasnym paskiem dookoła

Domowe pączki posypane cukrem pudrem na talerzu w zielony wzór

Fat Thursday Cakes and desserts Polish cuisine Vegetarian Substitutes abroad

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