Arrive early on Tłusty Czwartek, or “Fat Thursday” at Syrena Bakery and you’ll be greeted by the sight of rows upon rows of powdered sugar-dusted pillows. In Polish tradition, the six days leading up to Lent are a time of revelry and fried dough. Pączki—pronounced “pownch-key”—the plush, yeast-raised doughnuts filled with prune jam or rose jelly served in anticipation of the fast, have become a particular point of pride among Polish diasporic communities across the Midwest and Eastern Seaboard. In Chicago, parts of New York State, and Hamtramck, Michigan, the…
