Paczki Day at Elleson’s Bakery in Sycamore is a family affair: ‘It’s going to be an 18-hour day’

SYCAMORE – Fat Tuesday is known by many names – the day before Ash Wednesday, Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday, or as Ken Elleson, owner of Elleson’s bakery in downtown Sycamore, calls it fondly: Paczki Day.

It’s a family affair for Elleson, whose son, Eric Elleson, traveled to the family bakery at 344 W. State St. from Michigan this weekend to help prepare fresh Polish-style filled donuts for customers to gorge on before Lent begins Wednesday. The family was preparing homemade dough Monday and planned to work all night making the pączki from scratch to be ready at 5 a.m. for Fat Tuesday. After the all-nighter, the shop will be open through 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“I had to pull in the rest of my family, one from Michigan and the other one from Kenosha (Wisconsin),” Ken Elleson said Monday as he prepped for one of the shop’s biggest days of the year.

The bakery business dates back at least a century for the Elleson family, he said. His ancestors opened their first sweet pastry shop in Davenport, Iowa in the early 1900s. In Sycamore, the family shop annually offers pączki in 12 different flavors: apple, blueberry, cherry, peach, strawberry, lemon, raspberry, apricot, pineapple, banana cream, cream cheese, buttercream, chocolate buttercream, custard and chocolate custard.

Paczki Day coincides with Fat Tuesday as a precursor to Lent. It’s a holy time marked by Christians meant to prioritize confession and absolution leading up to Easter. So what to do before that 40-day period, where many people fast? Eat donuts, of course.

The Polish holiday originated as a way to use up all the eggs, sugar and other goodies in the home before Lent, during which sweets or other treats weren’t consumed. The day grew in popularity regionally, among midwestern cities including Chicago and Detroit, and has become a staple leading into the Lenten season.

When deep-fried, Paczki can be filled with fruit, jam or custard and topped with glazed or powdered sugar. Other variations include different fillings, such as frosting and buttercream, while being topped off with things such as chocolate and or granulated sugar. Plum and rose hip jams are traditional Polish fillings.

The correct Polish pronunciation of “pączki” is “pownch-key,” but many pronounce it “punch-key” or “poonch-key.” The ogonek, or little tail, on the “ą” is important: paczki with an “a” and not the “ą” means “packages” in Polish.

Most Elleson’s customers are encouraged to get their orders in ahead of time, since the demand is high for the popular pastry, which is traditionally topped with powdered sugar. Orders can be placed during business hours also by stopping into the bakery.

Outside of Christmas, Sycamore Pumpkin Festival and a few others, Pączki Day is one of the biggest of the year for Elleson’s.

“It’s going to be an 18-hour day,” Elleson said. “In the past five years, Fat Tuesday has really taken off.”

Although the majority of donuts were filled and fried Monday into the night, the crew at Elleson’s will work into Tuesday, too, if labor can keep up with demand.

“This has gotten to be a real big day, so we pull in all my kids to help,” Elleson said.

Elleson said pączki is what Fat Tuesday is all about

“Basically, we quit making everything else,” he said. “Tomorrow is dedicated only to pączki. It has gotten so big, it is all we can do.”