KAUKAUNA, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Many people here in Northeast Wisconsin rushed to their favorite bakery early Tuesday morning to celebrate Fat Tuesday with the famous paczki.
A Kaukauna Bakery has been making these treats on this day for years.
Hill Top Bakery Owner Lynn Engel spent Tuesday morning filling the Polish treats to be served fresh to her customers.
“Everybody wants to eat a bit more and a little bit more partying before tomorrow when Lent starts. It’s just grown bigger and stronger every year.”
Staff members at Hill Top say that on Fat Tuesday, the store is busy from open to close — and usually sells out by 5 p.m.
“I know one year we made about 4,000 paczkis, so probably between 3,000 to 4,000 paczkis. We also make our raised donuts as well, so that’s another several thousand raised donuts we will be making as well,” says Manager Gabrielle Engel.
In order to make that many, the staff begins baking the night before.
“My dad, who is the owner, he usually just keeps going, making the doughs all the way through the day because he doesn’t like to say no to people that we sold out,” says Gabrielle.
Lynn tells us, these aren’t just any ordinary donuts.
“The paczki dough that we make from scratch, it’s got more eggs in it, a little more sugar. So, it’s just a richer, chewier dough, that just gets plumped full with any sorts of filling.”
Aside from the classics, some of the flavors Hill Top offers include Boston Crème, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, Chunky Monkey and Maple Bacon Bourbon.
It’s these flavors that keep people like Jill Nettekoven coming back.
“Heard it on — actually, I think — one of the news channels, and I’m like, ‘I got to go try those,’ and came here. Now, I’ve been coming the last few years. I learned you have to preorder, so you get what you want because they go quite quickly,” says Nettekoven.
Nettekoven sticks to her two favorite flavors.
“I’m getting a dozen, but I’m sharing with my family — six raspberry filled and six prune filled. Those are my favorites,” says Nettekoven.
The bakery also serves King Cakes, another Fat Tuesday Tradition, with a sugar baby at the bottom. Whoever gets the slice with the baby, is believed to have good luck.
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