Popular paczki are prepped, fried and ready to go at Morning Fresh Bakeries

ADRIAN — There might be no other operation quite like it throughout Lenawee County.

Preparations for Shrove Tuesday — aka Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday in the Christian community, that marks the celebration period before the fasting season of Lent — get started multiple days in advance at Morning Fresh Bakeries in Adrian.

On Fat Tuesday it is customary for people to indulge in specially crafted, deep-fried pieces of sphere-shaped dough filled with cream, custard or other sweet fillings known as paczki (pronounced “poonch-key” in its native Poland) on this day.

Pro tip: "Paczki" is the plural form of the word. If you go to Morning Fresh or any other bakery serving up the calorie-laden treats and only want one, ask for a "paczek" (pronounced poon-chek).

Who are we kidding? Who's ordering just one?

At Morning Fresh, boxes upon boxes of special orders for paczki were placed upon several tables and counters inside the bakery’s location at 1110 S. Main St. in Adrian. Both the South Main location and the bakery’s North Adrian Highway store, 3223 N. Adrian Highway, across the street from MJR Adrian Digital Cinema 10, will be serving only paczki today. Paczki also were the only item sold Monday.

“We do about a week and a half worth of sales in just two days,” Morning Fresh owner Allen Heldt said Monday morning, while kneading paczki dough at the South Main Street bakery. “It’s a very interesting process, and its something we have been doing each year since I bought the place six years ago, and we are carrying on the tradition.

“We start preparing for this day about four, five days in advance (of Fat Tuesday), folding boxes and making sure there are enough supplies.”

This year, Heldt said Morning Fresh will have been in business for 37 years. One thing that has never changed throughout those almost four decades is the bakery’s paczki recipe. Because paczki are so popular at Morning Fresh, nearly the entire recipe is kept a secret.

“There are some people who think it’s just another glazed doughnut, but it's not,” Heldt said. “We add additional ingredients to (the recipe) to get it to where it's a paczki.”

A regular doughnut mix at Morning Fresh has water and yeast added to it, but when crafting paczki, water, yeast and four special ingredients — which remain unnamed — are added to the dough.

It’s an annual labor of love and something Heldt said he is happy to offer to the community.

“It’s a nonstop process, and every year we get better preparing for it, so that we can increase productivity,” he said. “Our customers are very loyal and they always have been. We appreciate their support. My job is to continue on this tradition.”

It certainly is not a one-man show crafting all the paczki at Morning Fresh Bakeries. In addition to Heldt, all hands are on deck for Fat Tuesday orders.

“We started the dough process Sunday evening and we’ll pretty much go around the clock until Tuesday late afternoon,” Heldt said. “We have at least 15 employees in here that bust their butts over three days to get it done. It’s all about them. We need to feed them and keep their energy up. We need to make sure everybody’s attitude is up. It’s kind of like a holiday for us.”

Daren Gallant is the production manager at Morning Fresh Bakeries and for him, Fat Tuesday and Paczki Day are all about the customers.

“Everybody that comes in and places their order naturally loves paczkis, so to see the excitement on their faces because we have them makes it all worthwhile,” he said.

Paczki at Morning Fresh come in several flavors including raspberry, custard, cream, chocolate cream, blueberry, lemon, strawberry and apple. Paczki are also available either glazed or topped with powdered sugar. One paczek is $1.70, and one dozen paczki are $19.99.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Popular paczki are prepped and ready to go at Morning Fresh Bakeries