Fat Tuesday, for some, means getting ready for 40 days of Lent.
MARQUETTE -- Today, local bakeries acknowledged Fat Tuesday with paczkis, a traditional Polish pastry. The close to 1,000 calorie pastries are a favorite at the Huron Mountain Bakery and part of a long-standing Polish tradition.
"A paczki is a what they have before Lent. They take all of their dairy products and they make these donuts and they have them on Fat Tuesday; that's why it's called Fat Tuesday because of all the big donuts," said Tawnie Anthony, Huron Mountain Bakery Assistant Manager. "And they take everything because they're not allowed to have any dairy products or anything like that during Lent."
These deep fried pastries look and taste similar to jelly donuts, but set themselves apart with one big difference: the calorie count. The additional ingredients are what make these sweet treats irresistible, but also more caloric.
The bakery sold close to13,000 paczkis last year and expects to sell 14,000 today, including the dozens of paczkis that have been preordered. Customers were picking up paczkis as early as 5:30 this morning.
Todd Johnson, Huron Mountain customer said, "Well, the plan was to come here and have paczkis before school started, so then they woke up this morning and realized there was no school. I woke them up anyway, took them down here."
Even with the snowy weather, management at Huron Mountain Bakery are confident customers will come out to enjoy paczkis, especially since they are only available once a year.
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