Pączki Day – A Taste of Friendship From the handwritten recipe of my friend, Mary Pyrzynski
🍩 Pączki Day - Friendship, Memories, and a Table Always Open
After a long, heavy winter… when you finally see the first touches of sunshine and tulips begin to peek out … you feel it.
That quiet excitement. The feeling that it is finally time to gather again, to laugh, to be together. Pączki Day is coming. And what a beautiful day it is, especially when you have a friend to share it with. A friend who not only shares pączki with you but also shares a family recipe, something that, in every Polish home, is a little secret, passed down with love from one generation to the next.
Growing up in Poland, Tłusty Czwartek was just… life. The smell of vanilla filled the air everywhere you went, from early morning until the next day. Lines outside bakeries wrapped around corners, and coming late to work because you were waiting for pączki was more than understood; it was expected. It was all so natural that I didn’t realize then how meaningful that day truly was.
Years later, after leaving Poland in the spring of 2000, I found myself back again, 17 years later.
That winter of 2017… it carried more meaning than I understood at the time.
It was my first trip to Bolesławiec.
Me… a girl from Trójmiasto, from Gdynia…
going to Lower Silesia.
Like many of you, I once thought you could simply walk into the factory stores and buy whatever you imagined. Well… not exactly. You get what is there. My room quickly filled with boxes stacked so high I had to make little paths between them. Even the hotel became a storage space. It was exhausting, exciting, overwhelming… and beautiful all at once.
And then, friendship showed up.
Piotr. I hadn’t seen him in over 17 years. And yet he drove across Poland to help me, just like that. Dropping everything, driving a distance like Louisville, KY to Pittsburgh, PA. We talked all night, catching up on life, on memories, on who we had become. Did we care that we barely slept? Not at all. We were just grateful to have that time. He helped me with the boxes, dragging them down from the second floor and loading his new SUV full, without hesitation. Real friendship. The kind that shows up without being asked.
We drove back to Gdynia in a car so full of pottery I could barely get out. My friends were waiting. Piotr gave me space, a table, everything I needed so I could work on packing. And every evening, someone would gently say, “Enough. Time to come home.”
That… was love.
And then, in the middle of all that… just when the last boxes were packed, I realized I could experience Tłusty Czwartek again. And I have to tell you- there is nothing like it. After so many years in the United States, I had forgotten that feeling. It was my treat to get pączki for my friends as a small thank you for their support and hospitality. I got into a taxi, and the driver turned around with fresh, still-warm pączki: “You must have at least one… two will make me happy.” I went to Hala Targowa in Gdynia and stood in line longer than I remembered, surrounded by that familiar energy. And when I came back… my friends were waiting. Fireplace on, work paused, laughter ready. We sat together, shared pączki, and simply… were.
And in that moment, I knew, this was never just about pączki. This was belonging.
That same year, in the summer of 2017, I met Mary.
And then, when the next Tłusty Czwartek arrived in 2018, and I was not in Poland, staying in the U.S., growing my little world here, Mary shared her father’s pączki recipe with me.
We made them together, my first time from scratch! And I realized something I didn’t expect. Making them with Mary didn’t make me feel sad that I was far from my friends in Poland. It did the opposite. It made me call them screaming with exitment-look what I did! It made me proud. I would show them the pączki I made, laughing, remembering, sharing that moment across the ocean. And I shared them here too, with all the wonderful customers of Surroundings Polish Pottery… many of whom have become friends.
And that is who Mary was.
She didn’t just give me a recipe.
She gave me a way to feel at home again.
This year was different.
Mary wasn’t feeling well. And somehow… I knew we wouldn’t be making pączki together. I checked on her, wanting to make sure she would have a fresh batch of pączki… but her husband and son had already taken care of that. I had this post ready, waiting for Fat Tuesday. But instead of sharing it… I was there as they moved her into the hospice bed. I had a quiet moment to speak to her in Polish, and I promised her that Fat Tuesday would always be our friendship day.
That kind of loss, so sudden, so deep, does not go away.
And so today, in honor of Mary and her kindness, her love for her family and friends, I share her family’s pączki recipe with you. Because this is what she did. She shared. She welcomed. She made people feel at home.
And I hope that every time you make these pączki, and every time you share them with someone you love, you will remember her.
Ingredients
• 2 cups milk
• 1 oz fresh yeast (or 2¼ tsp active dry yeast)
• 2 cups flour (for sponge)
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 whole egg
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ cup melted butter
• About 5 cups flour total (add gradually)
• Oil for frying
• Sugar for coating
Directions
Scald milk and cool to lukewarm. Soften yeast in milk. Add 2 cups of flour and let rest in a warm place for 30 minutes. Beat egg yolks, whole egg, sugar, vanilla, and salt until light. Combine with the yeast mixture and melted butter. Gradually add flour until the dough is soft and smooth. Let rise until doubled. Roll to ½-inch thickness and cut. Let it rise again until puffy. Fry in hot oil until golden. Roll in sugar while still warm.
And as you hold that first warm pączek in your hands… pause for just a moment.
In loving memory of Mary, may every warm pączek carry a piece of her kindness forward.
Her kitchen was always open, and her spirit will forever live at the table.
Makes over 100 pączki when friendship fills the kitchen.
Best served warm, shared generously.
💛