Frank’s in the Morning to Introduce the Cannoli Paczkis on Tuesday!

One result of Frank’s Place cannoli paczki trials. In the end it was decided that the cannoli paczki will feature mini-chocolate chips on the outside and in the filling. Photo courtesy of Jessica Bushaw.

Jessica Bushaw, the pastry genius at Frank’s in the Morning, will be debuting a special Italian-themed paczki for Fat Tuesday this year on February 9th. The cannoli paczki will feature a traditional sweet ricotta cannoli filling, spotted with miniature chocolate chips, and will be dusted with powdered sugar and extra chocolate chips.

While regular paczkis will be $1.50 each, as usual, the cannoli paczki will be $3. The batch will be limited, so if you want to try what promises to become Manchester’s signature paczki, get there early.

Paczkis are a delicious tradition in Manchester as they are in many communities stretching between Detroit and Chicago. These rich, sweet pastries have been a staple of the Great Lakes region since Polish immigrants brought the delights to the area at the end of the 19th century.

Shrove Tuesday, which we sometimes call Fat Tuesday, is the last day before the observance of Lent, the 6 weeks before Easter. For the Polish people, as with many other traditional Catholic cultures, Lent is a time of self-sacrifice which meant cleaning the house of all of its remaining luxuries. The paczki used all of the remaining butter, eggs, cream and other fat and sweets in the household, creating a heavy rich pastry meant to say goodbye to the old year.

The Italian cannoli is likely decended from the Arabic pastry, the qanawat, a deep fried tube filled with sweets, probably introduced when Sicily was The Emirate of Sicily between 831-1072AD. However, in Sicily the pastry is traditionally eaten in celebrations leading up to Lent, and in that sense is the perfect candidate for the Italian paczki!

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by Fritz Swanson

Fritz Swanson has written for The Believer, the Christian Science Monitor, Print Magazine, McSweeney's, Esopus, LSA Magazine, and The Mid-American Review. He serves as a trustee on the Manchester District Library Board. He's the designer and publisher of The Manchester Mirror.

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