Paczki season continues at Courtland Bakery until March 4

Staff at Courtland Bakery includes from left Kennedy Neville, Rayne Sales, Sherri Rowland, Rachel Robinson, and Madison Altwassen. (Chris Abbott Photo)

Chris Abbott, Post Correspondent

First introduced in Courtland as a way to boost sales during two of the slowest – and coldest – months of the year, the paczki season continues this year at Courtland Bakery until March 4.

The annual tradition starts at the bakery in January and ends the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of the 40-day Lenten season leading up to Easter. This year Shrove Tuesday - also known as Pancake Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, or Paczki Day - is the fast-approaching March 4.

Emigrants from Poland pronounce the large, pie-filling donuts ‘poonch-key’ or ‘pooch-key’, which they use at Courtland Bakery.

“We’ve been doing this since 2000,” said Courtland Bakery co-owner John Peazel, noting their first paczki season was celebrated along with twin grandsons, who just had their 26th birthdays on Feb. 16.

The bakery itself celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2014 with Mary and John Peazel owning it 37 of those 75 years. The original owners had it 27 years, and there were six other owners in between, all at the same Courtland location, which has been rebuilt and greatly expanded over the years. With an eye on eventually retiring, the bakery has been listed for sale more than 10 years – at a fair price.

Its name is known up and down Highway 3 from Windsor to Fort Erie.

“Highway 3, this is a very good location,” said John. “When we first bought the bakery, the highway count was about 23,000 cars a day. It’s probably 30,000 cars now. That’s why we invested money in that big LED sign outside. I read an article saying that sign should help you increase sales by 10-45% and it does help us.”

People will drive up to several hours to get their paczkis, baked fresh Tuesday-Saturday during the 6-8 week season. You can call the day before your visit to get the ones you like (519-688-2023).

“I’ve talked to so many bakers, January and February is a very slow time and if you need something to bring people in, you need to put up something special. Do this! Last year, I think we sold 28,000 paczkis… which is a lot of paczkis,” John added with a laugh. “It gives your sales at that particular time such a boost.

“I have seen it where we make 200 dozen paczki in a night – that’s a lot of paczkis.”

John said most paczkis sold at grocery stores use ‘donut filling’, which is water, flavour, sugar, and colour.

At Courtland Bakery, they use good quality pie filling.

“We buy the very best pie filling,” he said, “and we make sure there is a lot of pie filling in there. I want to see a dozen paczki weigh at least five (pounds), but I don’t want to see them weigh seven.

“So we want to put lots of filling in them, and we have about 12 different kinds.”

This year they are actually offering 13 fillings - apple, apricot, banana, blueberry, cherry, chocolate, Holstein, lemon, Nutella, plum, raspberry, strawberry, Venetian – with four different toppings, plain, glazed, sugar and powdered sugar.

Baking is a science, said John, and making the paczki is no different. Machines are used to form the dough, ensuring consistency. The rest is ‘let it rise, fry it, and then fill it.’ It keeps the staff of 29 (six in production), including full and part-time, busy.

Over the years, customers have asked for recipes, and Peazel is happy to oblige… with a condition.

“I say, ‘I sure will!’ We give away all of our recipes, whether you are a customer or another baker. But I’m kind of a funny guy. If someone asks for the cream cheese recipe for cheese crowns, I give them my recipe. It starts off with a 44-pound block of cream cheese. You want to know how to make croissants? The recipe starts with 200 pounds of… I don’t break it down,” he smiled.

chris@granthaven.com