For bakeries like Simple Simon , Fat Tuesday is the busiest day of the year as customers across Wisconsin pour in to buy dozens of pączki for the annual holiday.
Pączki (pronounced POONCH-kee) are Polish, jelly-filled pastries most commonly enjoyed on Fat Tuesday, the last day to indulge in foods before Lent. The pastry is traditionally filled with fruit jams like prune, apricot, plum and poppy seed.
Midwestern bakeries have adopted the tradition, giving it it’s own American twist with flavors like custard, chocolate, lemon, blueberry and more.
Dawn Ebert, owner of Simple Simon in Appleton, said when the bakery first started selling pączki in the 1980s, one rack of 25 dozen would last them throughout the season. Now, they sell at least 10,000, which Ebert said is in part due to the party atmosphere the bakery has on Fat Tuesday.
“Each year we have tried to figure out how can we sell more, how can we get the party started, so to speak,” Ebert said. “So for that day we have accordion music that we have played, everybody is in their beads, I have pączki fairies that are running around helping customers. We really make it a fun, happy day in the middle of February.”