POLISH PACZKI
Last week it was Ash Wednesdaytherefore the day before was Fat Tuesday meaning it's a free-for-all at the pastry counter at our gourmet food emporium and I have a major sweet tooth always waiting to be satisfied.
I don't know how I've avoided any tooth loss due to the boxes of Good & Plenty's, snickerdoodles or the ubiquitous Wisconsin cream puff I've consumed as a child and young adult. Maybe growing up in Wisconsin where every meal and snack was accompanied by a huge glass of ice-cold milk saved my incisors. I was never in danger of a calcium deficiency. It wasn't due to enforced dental care either. My Mom was a true country girl and a mint flavored toothpick picked up at the local restaurant we went to on our twice a year dining out excursion was as close as we got to teeth cleaning. Somehow I've made it to adulthood and beyond with all my teeth still intact including a couple of back molars that never made it above the gum line.
Wisconsin's culinary claims to fame have mostly been tied to beer and cheese but there's a strong food network built around ethnic sweets as well. The Germans gave us their sweet chocolate cake and pfeffernusse at Christmas.
The Danes gave us the kringle.
I don't know who brought elephant ears to the table but we had them grilled letting the sugar caramelize and ooze over our breakfast plates way back when I was a child.
Growing up our neighbor was what could be described as one of the first supermarkets in Madison. We had back access to the store letting us in right at the pastry counter where fresh doughnuts, pies and cakes were brought in daily. Glazed, crème filled, sugared and sprinkled were laid out under a tiered glass case. During the summer the neighborhood mom's would rotate a midmorning coffee klatch requiring one of us to run next door and collect a couple dozen doughnuts of our choice. Bismarks, Long Johns, fritters and a host of yeasty doughnuts in a myriad of flavors and icings sat on wax paper trays ready for the picking.
There were chocolate, vanilla and cinnamon doughnuts to chose from.
A favorite of mine was the bakery's petit fours that they called little cakes iced with butter cream frosting and rosettes so sweet and sugar laden your teeth hurt once you bit into one.
The pastry counters of Wisconsin haven't changed much since then but the market has become a bit more sophisticated. The counter has now extended to include handmade truffles, hand-dipped strawberries and gourmet popcorn.
Madison has also become a leader in the American chocolate industry. CocoVaa, Candinas Chocolatier and Gail Ambrosius have started and stayed in Madison. CocoVaa in its initial entry won a 2018 Grand Master Chocolatier Award at the Internaitonal Chocolate Salon competition in Paris; a feat few seasoned chocolatiers have earned.
I almost made it out of Wisconsin on Fat Tuesday without falling for a stop for a last sugar rush before sweets would be taken away for lent. I had a flight to New York but to get there I had to pass my local market knowing they'd have a table piled high with Polish Paczki. They only sell them the week before lent. They're pronounced POOCH-key, a jelly filled doughnut either iced or sugar coated and the size of a ten ounce filet mignon. I kept pinching my spare tire as I neared the market but it wasn't enough of a deterrent. I pulled in and there was the table.
The last day they'd have this table stocked with six packs of Paczki, a package of six on sale for $3.99. You could chose from raspberry, Bavarian custard, lemon or prune. With these you can get your sugar fix and regularity all at the same time. Is there any wonder tractor butt has Wisconsin origins?
So if you see me during lent please don't comment on my butt and know I ate all six before Fat Tuesday turned into Ash Wednesday. Do you think I might be a candidate for JLo's ten day no sugar, no carb diet? I doubt I could survive.
THE GALLERY
American Fair #183, 2015
Pamela Littky, photographer
Represented by Weiss Katz Gallery, New York
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