Joliet’s Donut Den continues Paczki Day tradition

The crew at Joliet’s Donut Den was already hard at work preparing hundreds of orders of Paczki ahead of Tuesday, which has become an annual tradition.

There was such anticipation that Donut Den has a sign counting down until “Paczki Day.” Bruce Aronson, the owner of Donut Den, said Fat Tuesday has become the busiest day of the year for his bakery as they prepare the sweet treat that locals have come to crave.

“It’s very chaotic, but it’s actually kind of fun when everybody’s running around like crazy,” Aronson said.

Paczki (pronounced PUNCH-key or POONCH-key) are a doughnut-like pastry popular in Polish cuisine, especially on Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras. The day comes just before Ash Wednesday, which is the start of Lent for the Catholic Church and other denominations, traditionally a period of penitence and fasting before the Easter holiday.

Aronson said his crew uses a richer dough for Paczki than it normally uses for donuts, injecting different types of filling flavors including strawberry, cherry, apple, lemon, apricot, blueberry, cheese, French silk and vanilla custard.

It takes a lot of work. For example, the crew uses fresh strawberries in preparation and just trimming the green tops off each strawberry is “a job in itself,” Aronson said.

He added the anticipation to get one of the treats is so significant, that they had to cut off pre-orders on Sunday as they were already anticipating about 500 orders in all for Tuesday.

“It’s all hands on deck,” said Kelly Battiatio, the manager of Donut Den.

Battiatio added she got to work at 9 a.m. Monday and would leave whenever the job was done. Despite the hard work, she said she actually loves the preparation stage in the several hours ahead of Tuesday’s rush because of the energy the staff has to get done such a big task.

“It’s go, go, go,” she said.

Aronson said the Paczki Day tradition has only grown since he bought the Donut Den back in 2009. He had grown up in a family full of bakers and after going into the realty business, decided that he wanted to run his own shop.

He started the Donut Den with just four employees and a smaller space than it occupies now at 3043 Theodore St. in Joliet. The bakery now has 20 employees.

Still, when Pazcki Day rolls around, Aronson said it’s become so busy, he even needs to call in some reinforcements to help filling all the orders.

“It’s kind of grown every year,” he said. “It just gets huge.”