• Polish Yeast Dough Plum Cake with Crumble – in polish called ‘ciasto drozdzowe ze sliwkami i kruszonka’ – is a Sunday treat – cake known in every Polish family.
  I am personally not a huge fan of sweets by nature, but this cake breaks my heart… and reminds me of  dinners at grandma’s house when I was little.
  It was always a magic to me how to make this cake especially that the yeast dough sticks to your fingers like glue during times when I had no mixer with a hook. But nowadays, with mixer in most kitchens, this can be done almost ‘touchless’ and made me finally give it a try. Once made – you will always want to make it given the fast it’s really super easy and will throw your guests at your door (unless you don’t want it) – and your spouses at your knees (yes you want it!).

SERVES: 20x30cm baking pan or 2 loafs

PREP TIME: 1 h 40 min (15 min prep time + 30 min wait time + 55 min bake)

NEED: baking pan 20x30cm, oven, mixer, small pot

INGREDIENTS:

1. 1 cup milk (200ml)
2. 40g fresh yeast
3. 1/2 cup sugar (100g)
4. 4 cups flour (500g)
5. 1/2 cup oil
6. 1 egg
7. 1/2 tsp salt
8. 20 plums, cut lengthwise in strips

CRUMBLE INGREDIENTS:

1. 1 cup flour
2. 1/4 cup butter (50g)
3. 1/2 cup sugar

RECIPE:

1. Add milk, yeast and sugar (ingredients #1-3) to the pot or mixer (if it does have the heat up function) and warm up over low heat up to lukewarm temperature (37-40C), stirring to mix all ingredients well.
2. Into the mixer (with a dough hook) or into a bowl with yeast place flour, oil, egg, and salt (#4-6) and knead until the dough is smooth (for my mixer it takes approx. 2 min).
3. If the dough is too sticky, add 2 tbsp of flour and knead until smooth and not sticky anymore.
4. Leave the dough in the mixer or bowl, cover with cotton cloth and set aside in a warm place for 30 min. It should double the size (don’t worry if it doesn’t and move on with next steps, sometimes it doesn’t grow for me too and still comes out great).
5. Preheat over to 120 C (250F).
6. Prepare crumble: in a bowl, cut together flour, butter, and sugar with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
7. Press the dough evenly into the buttered loaf or baking sheet, arrange the plums and sprinkle with crumble.
8. Place in the 120C oven, increase temperature to 150C and bake for 30 min. It will be raising slowly.
9. Increase the temperature to 180C and bake for another 20-25 min. DO NOT open the over in the meantime. The cake should have a golden color.
10. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

PAIR WITH: coffee, wine, tea