Placek z Sliwkami...Polish Plum Caking It Up like a Babcia

Babcia=Grandma

P's family does Easter well.  Previous family dinners, I have brought Filipino desserts, such as tropical fruit salad with a creamy, sweet milk dressing or mango pudding (which my mom makes and I bring).  I'm always antsy when I bring Filipino desserts to my Polish family, but my Polish family is pretty game for anything I bring. 

But this time around, I wanted to try a Polish dessert.  I got nervous because this time I was treading onto their territory and P's Babcia usually makes dessert.   I Google'd Polish desserts and although all of them looked delicious, Placek z Sliwkami or Polish plum cake looked mighty tasty and simple enough to make.  But I wanted to, as fancy chefs say, "elevate it" to the next level.

I racked my brain trying to think of how I can do this.  Some ideas included using rhubarb and strawberries instead of the plums (not possible since there was no rhubarb in the store), adding lemon zest (yawn), or using cardamom (too risque).

Then I remembered coming across a recipe for browned butter peach bars (which will also be one of my future endeavors in the summer).  I've seen browned butter used in different dessert recipes as well as in sage and brown butter sauce.  I thought why not.  Let's do this!

Used the instructions from this website to make the browned butter.  I used salted butter because that's all I had.

Browning butter was a slow process.  In keeping with the Polish theme, Polish vodka with ginger ale keeps me company.

The butter browning process in pictures:

The bubbling milk solids reminds me of disgusting blisters I have seen in nursing school.  I almost feel nauseous.

Turned brown soon after this pic.  Must watch the butter at all times.

Tried to show the brown color, but the foam got in the way.  Ignore the stain on the stove.  It's a messy kitchen.

The nutty, sweet smell of browned butter permeated the apartment, only making me that much more excited to bake.  But it was 11:00 pm and it was time to settle in for a movie (Lincoln) so I put the browned butter in the fridge.

On Easter Day:

The recipe called for 40 plums and I only bought 12.  I panicked and dragged P after church and sushi (wanted something small to tie us over) to the store for more plums. 

When I got home, I channeled my inner Babcia and forged on.  I changed the original recipe a bit.  The browned butter took the place of the butter in the cake batter.  The plums weren't the sweetest so I mixed them with brown sugar and and added cinnamon instead of cloves.  Cloves remind me too much of dental work.  I used brown sugar in the batter to further enhance the carmelized browned butter taste.  I forgot the vanilla though...argh!

I got out my hand mixer and realized the blender attachments were missing, so I had to use the dough hooks.  Argh!  It does make a difference and I ended up having to whisk it by hand in the end.

I don't think you need 40 plums either.  Those are some small ass plums if you need a total of 40 plums split in half to cover the top.

40 plums?  Don't think so.  Had some big ass plums.

The sugar/butter mixture (I just used plain butter) I sprinkled on turned out to be a sloppy mess because my butter was too soft from the oven warmed kitchen and the warm day.  I don't even think it's necessary or there may be an error in the recipe.  It seems like the intent was to make a crumble, but instead it ended up being a gloppy mess on top of the cake.

I have an oven where you can switch between heat from above or heat from below.  To fix the gloppy melted butter mess, I switched to heat from above and cranked the temp way up in order to carmelize the sugar in the gloppy mess.  Then I reduced the heat.  Unfortunately, I forgot to switch back to heat from below.  The end result is some beautiful caramel brown areas and some really shame inducing burnt areas.

Oh the humanity!  This is the best section.  I didn't have the heart to show you the rest.

At this point, I break into a sweat.  P, in an attempt to comfort me, states, "not all ventures are successful", making my anxiety skyrocket through the roof and I think I had some unkind words for him.  I debate making another cake but saw there was no time.  I then begin to saw off the burnt parts and P tries to stop me.  We take one slice out and try it.  It still tasted good...just not the burnt parts.  I tell P that I'm going to leave it at home, but he insists that I bring it anyhow because no one was going to care.  On the drive to my mother in laws, I pretend to throw it out the window.

I arrive at my mother in law's and she gets excited when she sees me carrying a cake pan.  I tell her I made Polish plum cake, but I messed it up and showed her my shame.  She clucks sympathetically that at least I tried and it should be fine.  I die a little bit inside.

Dinner was really good.  We had perogies, cabbage rolls, Easter borscht which is white and creamy rather than the traditional red borscht, Polish sausages and ham, and a potato, carrot, pea salad.  There were also lots of boiled eggs.  My mother in law even takes the boiled eggs, which I guess symbolize life, to the church to have them blessed and we each get a slice from her and a kiss with a Happy Easter wish.  And there was smoked meat bonanza.  My parents were invited this year and tried Polish food for the first time and loved it (though my Dad avoided the sauerkraut).

A selection of smoked meats from Easter.  I made note of these for my Polish deli dream.

Dinner started formal with everyone sitting at the table, but later became informal with people wandering in between the living room and dining room area eating on and off.   P's Babcia arrives and there is a flurry of happy Polish chatter. P runs back into the dining room holding up a bag of Babcia's frozen pierogi's to take home with us.  We hit the big time!

Dessert came around and my mother in law served different  loaf cakes (a dark raisin spice loaf and a cinnamon swirl loaf) and then she put this on the table.

P asks what is this.  My mother in law says it's my cake.  She says , "I found a way to make it beautiful".  It's my cake upside down to hide the burnt top.  God bless her.  My mother in law can find the positive in every situation and turn things around.  Even a burnt cake situation.

My mom is all impressed by the look of my cake.  I showed it her what it looked like right side up.  My mom is mortified.  Everyone says it's tasty.  My mom takes a bite and says it's a bit too sour for her taste, but I explain that Polish desserts aren't too sweet and they like their fruit on the sour side (at least in P's family).

I taste the cake again.  There are some caramel notes from the browned butter and brown sugar and the cake was moist from the juice of the plums.  The plums remained somewhat sour despite the brown sugar, but it was fine because it offset the richness of the cake.  You couldn't even taste the burnt bits.  I think for next time though, I will definitely let the butter brown a touch more to really enhance the nutty taste.  I was just scared that I would burn the butter (like it matters since I burnt the cake anyway).

Babcia dished a slice up and my stomach goes in knots.  Babcia also makes this cake, but with apples and blueberries.  I wanted to go the traditional route.  Babcia is also honest.  I have brought a dish before at another meal and she told me it was too sweet.  And her opinion reasonates because Babcia doesn't speak much English so the fact that she took the effort to say something to me in English really indicates her opinion to me isn't given arbitrarily.  She takes a bite and I start to get anxious that maybe I didn't put enough sugar or maybe I put too much or maybe she can taste the burnt bits.

She says "it's good".

I pour myself some wine and sit back and enjoy the rest of my Easter with my family.