With Fat Tuesday upon us, Pittsburgh's Paddy Cake Bakery and Oakmont Bakery are bustling hotspots for the traditional Polish treat: pączki. Paddy Cake Bakery in the Bloomfield neighborhood is prepped for what owner Theresa Richter describes as their busiest doughnut day of the year, per CBS News Pittsburgh. Offering 19 different flavors, they expect the demand to be steady all day long. "We're excited to make the pączki, we're excited for Mardi Gras," Richter told the publication, emphasizing the traditional recipe's rich ingredients: butter, sugar, and a generous use of eggs.
Meanwhile, Oakmont Bakery is rising to the challenge with a staggering 1,500 pounds of dough daily and an array of at least 16 flavors of the sweet, filled pastry, ensuring they meet the demand for about six thousand pączki in the pre-Lent frenzy - proving that fatigue does not play here as staff work around the clock, according to WTAE.
Owner Marc Serrao treasures the connection Oakmont's pączki has with customers' family traditions. "I love when someone comes in and says these taste just like my grandmother's, or similar to my grandmother's," Serrao expressed, detailed by WTAE, highlighting the continuation of old-world customs in modern-day Pittsburgh. Paddy Cake Bakery's clientele echoes this sentiment, with regulars like Ernie Sanchez stopping by for a final indulgence before Lent, snagging enough to share with co-workers, a pre-fast tradition he looks forward to.
Despite the presence of imitation pączki in the market, Richter warns, be careful about where you get your pączki because there are some shops out there that are in essence, impersonators, these devotees of dough and tradition Paddy Cake and Oakmont Bakery are sticking to time-honored recipes to deliver the kind of authenticity lent only by homemade, labor-intensive methods.
