With Fat Thursday and Fat Tuesday just around the corner, bakeries across the Chicago area are gearing up for the annual rush of paczki orders, but many are facing challenges due to soaring egg prices.

Slawa Dudek, a manager at Olympia Bakery in Hickory Hills, said the bakery has been preparing paczki dough since early February.

At the European bakery, Dudek said the paczki dough is a traditional recipe brought from Poland by her aunt and uncle, the bakery owners. Because the process is time-consuming, she said the bakery prepares the dough in advance and freezes it.

“It is an old recipe,” Dudek said. “The dough has to be rolled by hand.”

Come Fat Thursday and Fat Tuesday, the bakery fries the dough and fills the paczkis with a variety of traditional Central European flavors like rose hip and prune, as well as popular American choices such as raspberry, custard, fresh strawberry and cream, lemon, and apple.

However, the rising cost of eggs, a key ingredient in both the dough and the custard filling, has added strain to the bakery’s production costs.

“The price is almost, I think 300% higher than last year,” Dudek said. “It’s crazy because they go up every week, the price is higher and higher and higher, and we think even after the Fat Tuesday, the price will go up.”

Olympia Bakery, which has been in Hickory Hills since 1995, buys liquid eggs in bulk, Dudek said, but the price hikes have forced them to raise prices.

Regular paczki will increase from $1.50 to $2.29 each, she said.

“You can’t replace eggs for anything because if you want to try to put it less, you’re not going to have the same product,” Dudek said.

In recent weeks, egg prices have increased due to the onslaught of avian influenza, which has forced farmers to slaughter millions of chickens, helping to push U.S. egg prices to more than double their cost in the summer of 2023.

Despite the rising cost, Fat Thursday, on Feb. 27 this year, is expected to remain Olympia Bakery’s busiest day of the year, with about 25,000 paczkis sold last year, according to Dudek. It marks the last Thursday before Ash Wednesday, kicking off six weeks of Lent when many people fast or give up certain foods and activities in preparation for Easter.

Fat Tuesday, a popular celebration in America falling on March 4 this year, sees slightly lower paczki sales but is still a hectic day for the bakery, she said.

Other bakeries like Creative Cakes in Tinley Park have also had to adapt to rising egg prices.

Ashley Fahrenwald, production manager at Creative Cakes, said the bakery hasn’t had trouble sourcing eggs, but the cost has been a challenge.

“When we buy them in bulk, typically with other things you’re going to get a discount, but with the eggs we’re actually paying a higher price then you might go to the grocery store and get them,” Fahrenwald said. “So it’s actually a lot higher than people realize.”

Fahrenwald said the bakery recently paid $7.87 per dozen eggs, typically purchasing 15 dozen at a time. She said she worries that by the holidays the price could reach $8 a dozen.

According to the USDA’s 2025 food price outlook, egg prices will “continue to experience volatile month-to-month fluctuations,” with a projected increase of 20.3% this year. In December, the average price of eggs per dozen nationwide reached $4.15, though prices vary by region and type.

Many of the paczkis at the Tinley Park bakery are filled with custard, Fahrenwald said, which requires three to five eggs for a single serving.

While the bakery is known for its high-quality custom cakes and doesn’t sell as many paczki as other bakeries, the rising cost of eggs is making production more expensive, Fahrenwald said.

Each batch of paczki requires 32 egg yolks and 16 egg whites, she said.

Last year, the bakery raised their paczki prices to adjust to the higher costs, and they are maintaining those prices this year, with specialty paczki priced at $4.25 and regular ones at $2.95, she said.

As egg prices and supply remain volatile, shoppers have become accustomed to seeing signs in grocery stores warning of purchase limits and challenges in sourcing eggs.

Some businesses have taken steps to curb the affect of the cost increase. Breakfast chain Waffle House implemented a 50 cent surcharge per egg in February, shifting the cost burden to diners.

In 2023, egg prices more than doubled due to the widespread bird flu outbreak that began in 2022, which severely affected egg supply, compounded by rising feed, fuel and labor costs.

When the virus is found on a poultry farm, the entire flock is slaughtered to help limit the spread. And with massive egg farms housing up to a million or more chickens, just a few infections can cause a supply crunch.

The bird flu outbreak has also taken a toll on local farms, including family owned Kakadoodle farm in Matteson, which lost its entire flock to an outbreak in January.

While some Southland bakeries raised the price of the beloved deep-fried dough filled with sweet fillings, others, such as The Velvet Bakery in Oak Lawn, are holding steady at $1.99 each, according to assistant manager Kaya Kaliszuk.

Last year, the bakery sold 35,000 paczki, with each batch of 500 requiring 60 eggs, Kaliszuk said. However, the bakery, which offers some paczki flavors year-round, may eventually raise prices to reflect the rising cost of ingredients, she said.

Fleckenstein’s Bakery, with locations in New Lenox and Mokena, set their prices a month ago at $2.85 each compared to $2.45 in 2023.

Ray Fleckenstein, who owns the bakery with his parents, Bob and Joan, said eggs aren’t as expensive as other ingredients that go into their recipe.

“It affects it by a few dollars, but not enough to make it a big problem,” Fleckenstein said.

Despite rising costs, the sweet treat is expected to continue to draw long lines of eager customers on Fat Thursday and Fat Tuesday.

This beloved tradition is deeply rooted in Chicago’s history, which became a major hub for Polish immigrants in the 19th century, according to the Encyclopedia of Chicago.

While early Polish settlers primarily established themselves in Chicago’s northwest side in an area known as “The Polish Downtown” at the intersection of Division, Ashland and Milwaukee Avenues, Polish communities also flourished across the city’s South, West and East sides, according to the Encyclopedia of Chicago.

By 1980, many Polish Americans had moved to the suburbs, forming working-class communities drawn by heavy industry, and by 1990, 65% of the local Polish American population called the suburbs home.

Dudek, a manager at Olympia Bakery, said nearly everything they make follows traditional Polish recipes passed down through generations. Since opening almost 30 years ago, the bakery has been a staple of the local community, serving up paczki along with Polish sweets like kolaczki, a small cream cheese dough cookie filled with jam, she said.

On Fat Tuesday, the bakery will serve 13 flavors of paczki, which includes the five flavors sold daily.

smoilanen@chicagotribune.com