Oak Lawn's Queen of Paczki Expects To Roll Out 20,000 'Ponchky'

OAK LAWN, IL — Oak Lawn’s unofficial “Queen of Paczki” – Anna Kaliszak, owner of the Velvet Bakery – is revving up for the bakery’s busiest day of the year. Anna expects to make over 20,000 pazcki (pronounced “ponchky”) for Fat Tuesday, which this year falls on Feb. 21.

Anna and her staff were starting to fry dough when we caught up with her earlier this week. In addition to Fat Tuesday, she was also preparing the decadent treats for Fat Thursday – the last Thursday before Ash Wednesday – when Poles celebrate Paczki Day.

Starting this Sunday, Anna, her parents, parents-in-law, husband, children and friends will be sleeping in shifts through the end of Fat Tuesday, cranking out the paczki.

“My grandparents on my mom’s side came from Poland to help make paczki,” said Kayla Kaliszak, Anna’s 19-year-old daughter.

The paczki tradition goes back to the Middle Ages, when Poles made paczki to use up all the lard, sugar, eggs and fruit in the house before fasting during the Lenten season. "Paczki Day" has since been embraced and celebrated in the heavily Polish-American Midwest on "Fat Tuesday," the last big blowout before Ash Wednesday.

She estimates that the bakery will go through 200 dozen eggs (15 per box); about 2,500 pounds of flour (that's a ton-and-a-quarter), and 100 pounds of yeast. The secret to good paczki is the dough, with just a squirt of filling (custard, cream cheese, strawberry, plum, apricot or pineapple), otherwise it's just a doughnut.

Anna has been making paczki since she was 8 years old growing up in Poland, where she helped her mom in the kitchen. Only a few people besides Anna know the Velvet Cake Bakery’s top-secret paczki recipe, including her mother-in-law, Regina, mistress of the deep fryer, her own mother and her husband.

The Velvet Bakery, 5168 W. 95th St., Oak Lawn (95th Street and 52nd Avenue), offers 15 different flavors of paczki. Singles are $1.99 each, a 4-pack is $7.96, a half-dozen is $11.94, or pick up a dozen for $23.88. Pre-order by phone at 708-424-2095. The Velvet Bakery also makes wedding, birthday and cakes for all occasions, cookies and other Polish desserts year-round. The bakery will be open from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21, or until the paczki runs out.

Watch the 2020 Patch interview with Oak Lawn's Queen of Paczki