Fat Thursday 2025. When is the foodies’ holiday?
In Polish tradition, Fat Thursday is a day when you can indulge your diet. This is the time when we eat donuts and faworki. Fat Thursday is a physical holiday and depends on the date of Easter. It always starts the last week of carnival. In 2025, Fat Thursday falls relatively late – only on February 27. This means that this year we will have an exceptionally long carnival. In Polish tradition, you could also eat donuts and faworki during carnival.
Faworki for carnival 2025. What is the most common mistake?
Chrust or faworki is definitely one of the favorite delicacies of many Poles. The recipe for faworki is often kept in the family and passed down from generation to generation. it is a shortcrust pastry that almost falls apart when eaten. The secret to the perfect flour is flour, or more precisely, one specific type. The type of flour we use determines whether the dough will be crumbly and soft. Different types of flour absorb and combine other ingredients differently. The higher the type of flour, the more compact and dense it will be. The secret to perfect faworki is carefully selected flour. In the case of brushwood, it is type 450 flour, i.e. classic wheat cake flour. It will make the dough for faworki easy to knead, and after frying the brushwood will be crisp and light.
Add this ingredient to the faworki dough. They will be perfectly soft and delicate
One of the chefs’ secrets when preparing faworki is beer. They are added instead of spirit. Beer makes faworki come out plumper and have more characteristic bubbles on the surface of the dough. They are crunchy and melt in your mouth. Since I started using this trick, my faworki have always been eaten with pleasure. I add about 500 ml of wheat beer to 0.5 kg of flour and knead the dough traditionally with egg yolks, sugar and butter.
Where did faworki come from in Polish cuisine?
Faworki, also known as brushwood, is a typical Polish delicacy. In the past, faworki were fried in almost every Polish home during Carnival. The legend indicates that faworki were created by accident. A young confectioner accidentally dropped a strip of donut dough into the hot oil. Due to the high temperature, the cake took the shape of a braid, and the confectioner sprinkled it with powdered sugar. For many years it was similar to dough for donuts, but over time it was modified to make the brushwood lighter and more crumbly. The traditional recipe for faworki contains flour, egg yolks, a spoon of spirit (so that the dough does not absorb fat during frying), cream and sugar. Baking masters suggest that faworki should be fried in lard. Thanks to this, their taste is the best. However, there is a mistake that many housewives make. As a result, faworki lose their lightness and crunchiness.
