How to Make Paczki! Mmmm... Not Doughnuts

So, that didn't take long! Here's the Paczki (pronounced POHNCH-KEE) video recipe I just produced for About.com's Eastern European Foods site. It's quite an easy recipe, and it's traditionally made on what we call "Fat Tuesday," the day before Ash Wednesday.

This surprisingly light, fried Polish pastry is most similar to our American jelly doughnuts – but, please, do not use the term "doughnut" around any Polish people. They go totally "świrują" (Polish for crazy)! They're right, doughnuts have holes, and these are indeed hole-less.

I had never made this exact recipe before, and was surprised how much less sweet it was than one would imagine. The dough is very similar to a soft roll, with just a hint of sweetness.

While the actual Paczki dough itself wasn't very sweet, the final package – warm soft dough, sweet fruit filling, and powdered sugar dusting – was just right. If you don’t drink coffee, you should really think about starting, just so you can drink it with these. It's a perfect pairing.

By the way, you know the drill; since I can’t embed the actual video player in the blog, when you click on the video you'll be taken to a recipe page on About where you can watch the clip. Just don't forget to comeback here for comments, questions, and general fried pastry discussion.

Special thanks to Barbara Rolek for the recipe! If any of you want to explore some more Polish recipes, or any other Eastern European cuisine, check out her great site. Enjoy!