Celebrate Fat Tuesday with authentic paczki from KD Market

If you need to find the best Chicago area paczki, KD Market is here to help.

KD Market is a local Polish grocery store proudly serving customers for the past 24 years. KD Market offers a variety of European and domestic products, smoked meats, daily baked breads, authentic paczki, pastries, and fresh meals - all made from scratch. But this time of year it's all about the paczki.

Paczki are a Polish tradition. Sweet Paczki appeared on Polish tables in the 16th century as a kind of surprise treat. Almond or peanut was put inside - whoever found such a Paczek had a year of happiness and prosperity. Later, doughnuts began to be filled with fruit jam, marmalade and sprinkled with powdered sugar or glazed.

Paczki are an iconic Polish dessert in Poland and they are a staple of the KD Market stores. They are made at stores daily according to an old traditional Polish recipe. The paczki dough is made from yeast, flour, eggs, milk, sugar and salt and a little bit of alcohol. The spirit helps the pastry avoid absorbing too much fryer grease. They use lard to fry paczki, because lard has a high smoking temperature, heats up well and the Paczek doesn't oxidize.

What distinguishes KD Market's Paczki from other store's Paczki is the fact that Paczki with traditional filling like plum butter, raspberry and rose hip marmalade are fried with the filling inside.

On Paczki Day, all KD Market locations are literally stormed by customers. And no wonder, because Paczki from KD Market are worth the sin. On ordinary days, bakeries make about 400 doughnuts, but during Paczki Day they make nearly 30,000!

KD Market offers paczki with traditional fillings, such as plum butter, rose hip or raspberry marmalade, which are the most popular among buyers. Their selection, however, cannot skip Paczki with Nutella, vanilla custard or black currant.

Traditional Polish Paczki can be purchased at all four KD Market store locations:

• 9500 W. Irving Park Road, Schiller Park;

• 1102 S. Roselle Road, Schaumburg;

• 835 W. Dundee Road, Wheeling;

• 1046 S. Elmhurst Road, Mount Prospect,

Or order online www.myKDmarket.com.

Order by Sunday, Feb. 27, for guaranteed pickup on Fat Tuesday, March 1.