Paczki offer a sweet way to ring in the new year
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It’s the polish pastry that causes a confectionery commotion.
January 6 is always a sweet day at Oakmont Bakery — it’s Paczki Day for the iconic family owned and operated bakery.
Customers can’t get enough of paczki (pronounced pohnch-kee), the popular filled crispy fried treat that is richer than a traditional donut, and originally hails from Poland.
“Demand for paczki grows every year,” said Oakmont Bakery owner Marc Serrao.
Poland even has a national holiday known as “Paczki Day,” which is celebrated annually on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday.
The pastry’s origins date back centuries, during the reign of August III, when hardworking Polish women aimed to clear their kitchens of sugary, rich foods and scraps before the beginning of Lent.
“It was a polish tradition to use up all of the sweets before Lent,” Serrao said. “It was a way to use all of the jellies, jams and preserves and put them into fried dough.”
Oakmont Bakery offers 15 flavors of paczki annually beginning on Jan. 6, also known as 12th Night.
They will be available until the end of Lent.
Social media posts announcing the 2019 paczki flavors sent their followers into a frenzy, as Facebook posts asked for a new flavor this year, peanut butter cream.
The request didn’t go unnoticed by bakery General Manager Tony Serrao.
“We will start peanut butter cream this week,” Tony Serrao said. “We absolutely had so many customers asking for that flavor and we listen to the feedback from our customers.”
Paczki sales average about 1,000 daily at $2 each. Four additional staff members are added in January to meet paczki demand.
“We sold almost 2,000 — that’s 900 more — this Jan. 6 than last year,” Tony Serrao said. “We say, “Forget your diet and buy it.”
Customers can pre-order their favorite paczki for pick-up, but 90 percent of their customers are walk-ins, Marc Serrao said.
“Customers love to see the bakery process and the hustle and bustle,” Marc Serrao said. “We have customers that drive in from West Virginia and Ohio. They like to linger and love watching the bakery.”
At Oakmont Bakery, paczkis are fried in vegetable oil for about a minute until brown.
The staff cooks them in batches, producing 36 dozen about every three hours.
Each is glazed (some get a dusting of powdered sugar) and filled with flavors such as cherry, apple, blueberry, cookies n’ cream, lemon, peach, prune (Lekvar), raspberry and coconut cream.
Richer than a donut, paczki dough is heavier, with more egg, milk and butter added, allowing for a dough that can accommodate the generous amount of filling.
And then there’s the bacon.
Michelle Trusiak of Leechburg sampled her first maple bacon paczki Monday.
“The crumbled bacon on top was not too crunchy, it was just enough and added a saltiness to balance the sweet maple flavor. It was filling, denser in texture and scrumptious.”
Although paczki can pack a caloric punch (20-30 grams of fat and more than 400 calories in each depending on the filling), customers line up for paczki, which also can be frozen, said customer Ed McPherson of West Deer.
“I am going to surprise my wife with some paczki today,” McPherson said while loading up on four flavors Monday at Oakmont Bakery. “This is our annual tradition and my wife likes to freeze them, too. I like eating mine room temperature and they are delicious.”
Top sellers are Pittsburgh cream (vanilla butter cream) and cherry.
“All of our fruit filled paczki have real chunks of fruit, the cherry ones are whole cherries,” Marc Serrao said.
Serrao originally added paczki to his bakery line-up more than 20 years ago, when he saw a recipe in a baking magazine.
He made two dozen, sold them, and customers were calling the next year seeking paczki.
College student Audrey Dougherty of Sarver visits Oakmont Bakery “almost daily” during her college holiday break.
“My favorite is the raspberry,” she said.
“I’ll never quit selling paczki,” joked Marc Serrao. “They would behead me in the town square.”
Joyce Hanz is a freelance writer.