The running of the punchkis: Pre-Lenten Polish pastry has local bakeries busy
By Mike Danahey mdanahey@stmedianetwork.com February 21, 2012 10:04AM
Employee Tammi Buttrum carries a tray of paczkis (pronouced punchkis) to a bakery display case Tuesday morning at Herb's Bakery in Elgin. The traditional Polish doughtnut is sold on Tuesday before Lent. | Michael Smart~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: March 23, 2012 8:12AM
ELGIN — While revelers were parading and throwing beads in New Orleans on Fat Tuesday, locals lined up early at Herb’s Bakery in Elgin to take part in another heavy-duty pre-Lenten tradition: the running for the punchkis.
Perhaps that should be “the rolling” of the punchkis.” For punchkis (or paczki) are Eastern European pastries that typically become available only as a final high-caloric indulgence before the austerity associated with the 40 days prior to Easter.
While there are ethnic variations on this filled-donut theme, the punchkis in these parts are most closely associated with the Chicago area’s sizeable number of residents of Polish ancestry.
Among them is Clint Borucki, who runs Acme Design, and Elizabeth Haney was at Herb’s picking up two dozen for that office Wednesday morning.
Workplace orders were commonplace at Herb’s. They included one for Renee Bosch, who came in for 16 punchkis for Asta Care Center, and another for Cathy Dunne, who stopped in for an order of 54 punchkis placed by Reliance Tool, where they are a Fat Tuesday staple.
“I’ve been working there 12 years and we’ve been getting them at least that long.” Dunne said. “I’m also getting some pretzels, just in case somebody doesn’t want a punchki.”
A heavy Bismarck
For those unfamiliar with the pastry, “They’re like a Bismarck but with a fried, raised dough that is heavier and sweeter,” said Wendy Wessel, who is vice president of the family-run west side business.
Herb’s Bakery, at 1020 Larkin Ave., has been selling punchkis one day a year for more than 20 years, according to Wessel. They have become more popular in the Elgin area as more people from Chicago have moved here in the last dozen or so years, she surmised.
Wessel recalled that her father, Herb, started selling punchkis at his bakery at about the same time a Polish organization was making a nationwide pitch on their behalf. He got the recipe from a family friend.
“As a kid, up until then I had never heard of them,” Wessel said
The Elgin bakery sold 240 dozen punchkis in 2011 and has sold as many 350 dozen on past Fat Tuesdays, offering raspberry-, lemon-, blueberry-, cheese-, custard-, apricot-, strawberry- and prune-filled varieties at $1.15 each.
Tuesday, Wessel got to work by 3 a.m. because several big orders of 10 dozen or more had been placed to be picked up at 5 a.m. When the store officially opened at 6, Wessel said, there were a dozen people waiting for their punchkis.
Between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. there was a steady stream of customers, most of them there for the holiday treat.
Easier to find
Punchkis have become easier and easier to find in recent years, with grocery chains such as Woodman’s in Carpentersville stocking them, and even bars such as Bandito Barney’s in East Dundee giving them away to customers Tuesday.
At Sugar Hills Bakery at 644 S. Main St., Algonquin, the treats went on sale last week on Fat Thursday, the other traditional day for their availability in Poland, as part of the Polish feasting of six days leading up to Ash Wednesday.
By noon last Thursday, Sugar Hills sales clerk Emily Kramer said the shop had sold hundreds of the punchkis. The Alqonquin spot offered raspberry, strawberry, apricot, prune, lemon, plain and rose hip varieties for $1 each, and strawberry with cream cheese and ones with strawberry, blueberry or cherry and whipped cream for $1.89 each.
The shop also offered chrusciki, Polish-style crullers, a fried-dough and powdered-sugar dessert served around holidays at $4.95 for a box of 10 to 12.
For the last 10 years or so, Piece-A-Cake Bakery, 304 N. River St., East Dundee, has been selling punchkis on Fat Tuesday, too, and it sold 1,200 in 2011. Co-owner and pastry chef Diane Ahrens recalled that a man from Michigan back then had been spreading the word about the punchki. She worked with recipes from other Chicago-area bakeries to come up with her own take: raspberry, blueberry, apricot, prune and Bavarian creme, which sold for $1.25 each, and ones stuffed with full strawberries at $2.75 apiece.
“They are fun to do and awesome to eat,” Ahrens said.
King cakes, too
Tuesday also marked the last day to get king cakes, a New Orleans tradition that Piece-A-Cake and Herb’s sell seasonally from the Feast of the Epiphany (Jan. 6) through Mardi Gras.
As Louisiana music played on the store’s ceiling speakers, Wessel, who was donning purple and green beads, said that while there seemed to be a dearth of Mardis Gras festivities in the area, she had sold 85 of the colorful cakes since Saturday.
“They’re fun for the office,” said Karen DeBach as she waited in line to get her two king cakes Tuesday morning for her coworkers at First Community Bank of Elgin.
As for the next holiday item on Herb’s menu, Wessel mentioned Irish soda bread in advance of St. Patrick’s Day. March 17.
“We also have pretzel rolls, and you can’t have beer without pretzels,” she said.
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