Short answer: no. Think of the paczek as the jelly doughnut’s lavish cousin. While a good jelly doughnut is light and airy, a paczek is denser and more brioche-lik, thanks to more eggs in the dough.

News photo The bakery team at Super One Foods in Iron Mountain was busy Monday making about 8,000 paczki for Fat Tuesday in preparation for the Lenten season. The traditional deep-fried, rich pastries are still made from scratch at the local store.

Paczki Day, also known as Fat Tuesday, is being celebrated across Chicago March 4, 2025. Here are 25 bakeries to find the Polish treat.

Jimmy Metcalf, manager at Johan's Pastry Shop in Petoskey, said they bake around 4,000 of the special pastry just for the day.

In Metro Detroit, the focus is on Polish paczki, and bakeries from all backgrounds roll out the lard and sugar for fruit- and custard-filled confections. Polish bakeries are well-stocked, of course, but even the area's many Italian bakeries get in on the fun with the now-popular and expected cannoli paczki.

The fried treats were born out of a melding of European Carnival and Catholic cultures that were brought to Milwaukee by Polish immigrants.

Mardi Gras or 'Fat Tuesday' is here, while Ash Wednesday will kick off the start of Lent and 'fish' Fridays. Here are the dates to know