Paczki Day Has A Busy Holiday Feel For Mokena's Fleckenstein's Bakery

MOKENA, IL — Bob Fleckenstein has been in the paczki-making business for more than four decades, giving him plenty of firsthand knowledge of what this time of year means — not only for his business but also for those who come to his Mokena bakery looking for the Polish sweet treat.

Fleckenstein’s, which has locations in Mokena and New Lenox, has been creating paczki for 45 years, using a proprietary recipe that has served the local business well over the decades. Fleckenstein, who along with fellow Master Baker Ray Fleckenstein, makes thousands of paczkis each year, understands the bakery will see an uptick in business in the coming days.

But after so many years in the baking game, Fleckenstein knows that the increase in business this time of year just goes with the territory.

Unlike years ago, when Fleckenstein’s made the jelly or chocolate-filled pastries every day, the bakery now only offers them two days, including Thursday and Fat Tuesday, when customers will walk into the bakery’s two locations in search of their annual fix of the Lent-time favorite.

Fleckenstein told Patch on Tuesday he never knows how many orders will come in from year to year. The bakery stopped accepting orders for Fat Tuesday at 5 p.m. on Thursday when the window for getting orders in officially closed. But regardless of the year, Fleckenstein knows that Paczki Day holds a special place in the hearts of those who celebrate.

“It’s like any other holiday — it’s a big day,” Bob Fleckenstein told Patch. “It’s a very busy day — a lot of customers. What else can I say?”

“It’s a very big day …but you can only make so many, and we make thousands of them.”

This year, Fleckenstein’s is offering several varieties of paczki including angel cream, apple, apricot, blueberry, chocolate, cheese, cherry, custard, prune, lemon, raspberry and strawberry. This year, the bakery will offer a new variety — pineapple — which is an experiment for a business that tries to offer as many options to customers as possible.

So, is there a fan favorite for a bakery that was among the first in the region to offer paczki and that once made a couple of hundred dozen to accommodate customers?

“It’s just like anything else – you never know what they’re going to buy,” Fleckenstein told Patch. “Each person has their own preferences.”

Fleckenstein said that the good secret to a good paczki is making it unique and not using typical doughnut dough. His recipe — which he says he won't divulge — comes from a baker friend of his who lives “a long ways away from here” and that offered up the formula that the bakery has now used for the majority of time Fleckenstein’s has been offering the delicious Danish.

But Fleckenstein says in order to differentiate between doughnuts and paczki, care must be taken.

“Don’t make a Bismark and call it a paczki,” he said. “It’s not the same. But there are people who make a regular Bismark, and they use that. We don’t. We have a special formula for the paczkis.

“But we enjoy it. That’s why we keep doing it.”

Fleckenstein’s Mokena location can be found at 19225 S. La Grange Road and the New Lenox location is at 352 W. Maple St.

Walk-ins will be available for both paczki and King Cakes at both locations, but customers are encouraged to pre-order. The form for orders can be found by clicking here.