In the heart of Little Poland– what most of us know as Greenpoint, Brooklyn– is Bakery Rzeszowska, a neighborhood Polish bakery. Large pastries pregnant with fruit and poppy seed filling await beneath a glass case. Plump loaves of babka glow with yellow-brown goodness, ready to fly off their racks as waves of neighborhood regulars quickly come and go.

During my first visit, I asked the woman behind the counter, “What is something quintessentially Polish?”.  She responded with a confused expression. “Everything is Polish”, she said in a thick accent. I decided to point to a few pastries and ask her if they were especially good. Since she replied with “yes” to all of them, it was up to me to choose from the rows of nondescript sugar-topped buns and bulbous egg-washed twists. I ultimately decided to sample their twisted pastry with poppy seed filling and what she described as a donut filled with cherry plum jelly.

Cherry and Plum jelly filled pączek

Pączek, akin to the jelly donut, is fried dough made with eggs, butter, lard, sugar, and cream.  Authentic paczki (plural) have fruity fillings such as prunes or rosebud marmalade, but can come in different flavor variations, like cherry plum. The outside of the pączek is sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar and a touch of orange zest. Since their basic ingredients are forbidden during Lent, paczki are traditionally eaten on Fat Thursday, the last Thursday before Lent. However, many Polish Americans reserve this treat for Fat Tuesday. I quickly saw that devouring this fried wonder is a perfect way to celebrate Mardi Gras. Forget the parties, give me some paczki and a napkin, I’ve gone forty whole days without them. The pączek from Bakery Rzeszowska was a heavenly balance of spongy, soft, sweet and tart.  I was expecting the dough to be slightly dry and dense, thinking back to some disappointing encounters with Czech pastries in Prague. But the pączek was spongy and moist, with subtly tart bits of cherry plum filling encased in the sweet, pillowy dough.

Twist with poppy seed filling

After I POLISHed off the pączek, I moved onto the long twist with the poppy seed filling. The twisted pastry can be more accurately described as a bread. Polish baked goods tend to all share an egg-heavy dough, which creates a yellow-tinged appearance and a texture that is dense yet soft and buoyant, a bit like Challah. My twist was filled with a traditional paste made with poppy seeds ground in a special grinder. The black paste was sweet and nutty, teasing my taste buds with flavors hinting almonds and coconut.  Each slice of this pastry presented a small, concentrated wad of poppy seed paste wrapped in eggy bread, ready to deliver one delicious big bite.

Try your hand at making your own paczki !

Bakery Rzeskowzka
948 Manhattan Ave
(between India St & Java St)
Brooklyn, NY 11222
(718) 383-8142