Dinkel's Bakery in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood plans to sell 30,000 paczkis by end of Fat Tuesday
CHICAGO - Fat Tuesday is March 1, and bakeries in Chicago are getting ready for paczki mania.
Luke Karl of Dinkel's Bakery in Chicago' Lake View neighborhood expects to have a thousand orders for paczkis by the end of the weekend, and to sell 30,000 before it's all over. He said the secret is in the recipe.
"We don't use our normal yeast raised donut recipe for this," Karl said. "We have an enriched dough with a little more butter and eggs, and it's just got a lot more flavor. It's just more rich. And especially once you add the variety of fillings that we offer, instead of our usual day-in day-out things…"
Dinkel's opens on Tuesday morning at 6 a.m. Karl said fresh strawberry is probably the most popular flavor.
Fat Tuesday is celebrated before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. Traditionally, families cleaned out their larder and used up all the rich food they wouldn't be eating during Lent.