Put 1 c. warm water in a glass measuring cup and add 1 T sugar + yeast. Let it sit for about 5 minutes to proof.

Next, get out your monster bowl. Mine is 13 quarts and I use it as a dishpan when reenactment camping. Around the house, I call it the Paczki bowl.

In your monster bowl, combine warm milk, 1T sugar, salt, 5 c. flour and yeast water with a wooden spoon. Do not use the mixer. Paczki requires a loving touch. Besides, this recipe is huge -- it won't fit in a mixer.

Let it rest for an hour.

Get out a smaller bowl (2.5 qts should do).

In your "small" bowl, beat the eggs well. Add the butter and sugar, beating well. (You can use a mixer for the eggs, butter, and sugar if you want. But nothing else!) Add to first bowl.

Stir in the last 6 c. flour.

At this point, you need to decide if you want it to look like a cake donut or if you want a jelly looking donut.

If you want to roll them out, you will need to make a bit stiffer dough and will want to add more flour. And you're on your own; I've never done it.

If you hand-form them, you can have a looser dough. I hand-form mine because my busha said that when you roll them, you stand the chance of overworking the dough. I don't need that kind of pressure. Besides, why fight tradition?

Rise until doubled in size.

While you are letting it double, get out a large cast iron pot or powerful deep fryer (none of those pathetic FryDaddy machines will work, sorry), and start melting your shortening. I use about 2 LARGE cans of shortening and a large, deep Lodge Dutch Oven to fry the Paczki's. I use my digital thermometer to ensure that the grease is around 350 degrees. When the grease is not hot enough, the food just soaks it up. Yuck! Also useful is a metal hamburger spatula turner for plucking them out and turning them over.

Start covering every available counter or table space with waxed paper, waxy side up. Seriously, I used about 20 linear feet of paper. I tried using parchment paper last year and don't recommend it. Use waxed -- freezer paper is okay, too.

Put a generous amount of flour on your counter. Once the dough has doubled, dump it onto the floured surface.

To hand-form the Paczki, pull off a ball of dough slightly bigger than a golf ball and smaller than a tennis ball. Roll slightly between your hands, then pat down to as close to 1/4" thick as you can get.

Place it on waxed paper and repeat. Set aside and let rise. By the time you are done shaping doughnuts, the first ones will be ready to cook.

Once your grease (shortening) is hot enough, place in enough paczki that they are not touching but have room to grow a bit. Fry until the bottoms are a nice golden brown and then use a metal spatula to flip and cook on the other side. The thinner you have made the dough, the better color you get. If you make them thicker they will almost always LOOK burnt because they get so dark.

I place them on paper towels to catch any excess grease (though if it's hot enough, there won't be much).