If you don’t know what a paczki is, you may have to wait until next year to find out. Today is Fat Tuesday, known as Paczki Day in many Polish communities — and as polish jelly-donut day among many others who crave the sweet annual ritual. And while one bakery in Michigan is attempting to set a local record by selling 12,000 of the confections, if you haven’t lined up already, you’re probably too late.

According to the Flint Journal:

Donna’s Donuts owner John Gibbons was well-prepared for the bakery version of “Black Friday” — the rush for paczki on Fat Tuesday.

Gibbons hired 10 extra employees, scheduling them in continuous shifts to make, package and take orders for the Polish pastries filled with custard, cream or fruit.

“It’s organized chaos,” Gibbons said Monday. “It looks like a smoking room because of the sugar in the air.”

Last year, the shop sold 770 dozen paczki, and this year’s sales approached almost 600 dozen by yesterday. The store sold out of pazki by 2:30pm on Fat Tuesday last year, and even with increased volume, the same is likely to occur this time around.

Donna’s Donuts on the way to breaking goal of 1,000 dozen paczki sold [MLive.com]

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