Walk into a Polish cukiernia on a Saturday morning and the counter is mostly yeast dough: buns filled with fruit or sweet cheese, rings of fried dough, cream squeezed between sheets of pastry. It is a baking culture built on butter, eggs and patience rather than on chocolate.
The classic Polish pastries are pączki (filled doughnuts), faworki (angel wings), drożdżówki (sweet yeast buns), jagodzianki (blueberry buns), kremówka (cream slice), karpatka (choux cream cake), ptysie (cream puffs), rurki z kremem (cream horns), makowiec (poppy seed roll) and babka. Most are made from an enriched yeast dough; almost none of them use chocolate.
This list is the bakery counter specifically, not the whole dessert table. If you want cheesecakes, cookies and layer cakes, our 40 best Polish desserts covers those. Here are the 18 things you would actually queue for at a Polish bakery, grouped by the dough behind each one.
Fried at the Counter
Poland fries more of its pastry than most of Europe. All four of these are at their best within an hour of leaving the pan.
1. Pączki (Polish Doughnuts)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 1 review
Rich yeast doughnuts filled with rose jam or plum butter and finished with icing and candied orange. Eaten by the million on Fat Thursday, and the dough wants a spoon of spirit in it to keep them from soaking up oil.
2. Faworki (Angel Wings)
Thin ribbons of dough knotted and fried until they shatter, then buried in powdered sugar. The dough is beaten hard against the worktop first; that is what makes them blister.
3. Oponki (Cheese Doughnuts)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 2 reviews
Little rings made with twaróg and no yeast at all. Half an hour from bowl to plate, which is why they are the ones Polish mothers actually make on a weekday.
4. Racuchy z Jabłkami (Apple Fritters)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 3 reviews
Thick yeast batter poured around apple slices and fried soft rather than crisp. Somewhere between a pancake and a doughnut, and eaten warm with sugar.
Drożdżówki — The Sweet Yeast Buns
The heart of a Polish bakery. One enriched dough, four different fillings, and every one of them is breakfast.
5. Jagodzianki (Blueberry Buns)
Soft yeast buns packed with wild blueberries under a crumb topping. They appear for about six weeks in summer and Poles queue for them.
6. Drożdżówki z Jabłkami (Apple Buns)
The autumn version, with spiced apple in the hollow and kruszonka scattered over. The dough is the same; only the season changes.
7. Drożdżówki z Serem (Sweet Cheese Buns)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 2 reviews
Sweetened twaróg piped into the middle, sometimes with raisins. The most-sold bun in Poland and the benchmark for whether a bakery is any good.
8. Chałka (Braided Sweet Bread)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 4 reviews
A soft, faintly sweet braided loaf, eaten with butter and jam or turned into the best French toast you will make. Keeps two days and stales usefully.
Cream and Choux
Where the Polish bakery gets ambitious. All four are built around a cooked pastry cream, and all four are sold by the slice.
9. Kremówka Papieska (Papal Cream Cake)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 1 review
Two sheets of puff pastry with a thick layer of custard cream between them. Named after John Paul II, who told a crowd in Wadowice how many he could eat as a boy.
10. Karpatka (Carpathian Cream Cake)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 2 reviews
Choux pastry baked until it cracks and humps like a mountain range, hence the name, filled with vanilla custard buttercream. Far easier than it looks.
11. Ptysie (Cream Puffs)
Choux buns split and filled with whipped custard cream. The Polish version is bigger and less sweet than a French chou à la crème.
12. Rurki z Kremem (Cream Horns)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 1 review
Puff pastry wound around metal cones, baked crisp, then filled with cream to order. Fill them early and they go soft, which is why bakeries pipe them in front of you.
The Rolls and the Babka
The big yeast bakes that get sliced for a crowd. These three carry every Polish holiday table.
13. Makowiec (Poppy Seed Roll)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 3 reviews
A yeast roll spiralled around a dense, dark poppy seed filling. Bake it two days ahead; it slices cleanly only once it has fully settled.
14. Rolada Orzechowa (Nut Roll)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 2 reviews
The same construction with a ground walnut filling instead. Sweeter and more forgiving than makowiec, and the better one to start with.
15. Babka Wielkanocna (Easter Babka)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 3 reviews
A tall fluted yeast cake, plain enough to eat with coffee and rich enough to count as dessert. Do not open the oven early or it will drop.
From the Piekarnia
Not everything behind the glass is sweet. These three come from the bread bakery next door.
16. Cebularz Lubelski (Onion Flatbread)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 4 reviews
A flat wheat round topped with onion and poppy seed, from Lublin and protected by EU designation. Savoury, cheap and completely addictive.
17. Obwarzanek Krakowski (Kraków Bagel)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 3 reviews
A braided ring boiled then baked, sold from blue carts on every Kraków corner. Chewier and drier than a New York bagel, and eaten plain.
18. Placek z Kruszonką (Yeast Cake with Crumble)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 from 1 review
A sheet of yeast dough under a thick layer of buttery crumble. Sold by the slab, made for a crowd, and the plainest thing on this list by design.
More from the Polish Sweet Table
The cookies, cheesecakes and layer cakes that sit beside the pastries:
- 40 Best Polish Desserts
- Kolaczki (Jam Cookies)
- Rogaliki with Jam
- Szarlotka (Polish Apple Pie)
- Sernik (Polish Cheesecake)
- Wuzetka Chocolate Cake
- Miodownik (Honey Cake)
- Polish Christmas Desserts
Polish Pastries FAQ
What are the most famous Polish pastries?
Pączki and faworki are the best known abroad, both tied to the last days before Lent. Inside Poland the everyday favourites are drożdżówki — sweet yeast buns with cheese, fruit or crumble — along with kremówka, karpatka and makowiec.
What is the difference between Polish pastries and Polish desserts?
Pastries come from a bakery counter and are built on yeast, choux or puff dough: buns, doughnuts, rolls and cream slices. Desserts is the wider category and includes cheesecakes, layer cakes, cookies and puddings that are made at home rather than bought. There is overlap, but a Pole would not call sernik a pastry.
What are Polish breakfast pastries?
Drożdżówki, almost always. A sweet yeast bun with twaróg, apple or blueberry, eaten with coffee or tea. Chałka with butter and jam is the other common breakfast, and obwarzanek if you are walking to work in Kraków.
When do Poles eat pączki?
Tłusty Czwartek, Fat Thursday, the last Thursday before Lent. Bakeries sell well over 100 million of them in a single day and the queues start before dawn. Superstition says you must eat at least one or you will have bad luck all year.
Can Polish pastries be made ahead or frozen?
The yeast bakes freeze well: makowiec, nut roll, babka, chałka and unfilled drożdżówki all freeze for up to three months. Pączki, faworki, oponki and racuchy are fried and must be eaten the same day. Rurki and ptysie should be filled within an hour of serving.
Which one did your family buy on a Saturday morning? Tell me in the comments — and pin this list for the next time you have a free afternoon and a bag of flour.
