Softball-sized lemon- and blackraspberry-filled paczki. P-J photo by Michael Zabrodsky

Many people enjoy the pink stripe cookies.

They should as Ecklof’s Bakery has been making the cookies for many years.

“The pink stripe cookie is definitely the leader of the pack. That’s the one that’s been handed out for free to kids ever since 1956,” owner Chad Ecklof said.

The bakery, located at 832 Foote Ave., was named winner in the Best Bakery category in the 2022 Chautauqua County Best of the Best contest sponsored by The Post-Journal and the Dunkirk OBSERVER.

Besides the pink stripe cookies, Ecklof’s also makes paczki or doughnuts.

Martha Skinner prepares a breakfast item. P-J photo by Michael Zabrodsky

The traditional recipe for Polish paczki (POHNCH-kee), or doughnuts, is a splurge food before Lent fasting begins, according to thespruceeats.com.

“In the United States, Fat Tuesday, also known as Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, and Paczki Day, is the day to indulge before Lent begins. … making them was a way to use up ingredients such as butter, sugar, eggs, fruit, and lard before the dietary restraints of Lent started, in order to avoid food waste. Some accounts say these fried foods date all the way back to the Middle Ages, but immigrants have brought this tradition with them to places such as the United States, where many communities still make them. These fried rounds of yeast dough are typically stuffed with rose hip, prune, apricot, strawberry, raspberry, or sweet cheese filling. Some people make these puffy doughballs without a filling and roll them in granulated sugar, which is equally delicious. Whichever way you make them, keep in mind that paczki differ from regular doughnuts insofar as these Polish treats are sweeter and richer,” the website noted.

This year, Mardi Gras is Feb. 21.

And Ecklof’s has been making paczki since January. Ecklof said most area bakeries wait closer to Mardi Gras to make paczki. “Everybody else waits until closer to Fat Tuesday when they’re traditionally made, but I start them up right away,” he added.

Ecklof said his fillings for paczki include custard lemon, red raspberry and black raspberry. He added that paczki are made with extra butter and extra sugar.

“We fill them with extra filling, and then we glaze them with the honey glaze. And so they end up becoming a big softball-sized doughnut just bursting with filling,” Ecklof said.

Since 2005, when the bakery was moved from the South Side plaza to its current location, the lunch counter was opened, the bakery offered a lunch menu. “But then last year, we installed all of the equipment and everything to start up our breakfast service. So we do a full breakfast service as well. And we offer that Tuesdays through Saturdays,” he said. The breakfast counter is open from 7 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. while the bakery is open until 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. on Saturday.

What sets the bakery apart from others, Ecklof said, is, except for some jelly fillings, that it’s a scratch bakery.

“But other than that our cream fillings and our custard fillings and everything we make all of that from scratch,” Ecklof added.

For more information call (716) 488-1516 or visit ecklofbakery.com.