Polish Placek Coffee Cake #FoodieExtravaganza

    When I saw that this month's theme for Foodie Extravaganza was coffee cake, I knew I wanted to do something fun and a little different.  With this year's Easter Open House being a brunch theme, I had the perfect venue to serve lots of coffee cake! Nana's family is Polish, so I thought it would be fun to try out another fun Polish recipe.  The babka from I made last year around Easter was so fun, I knew there had to be more delicious Polish recipes that would fit the bill.

   There were quite a few fun versions of Polish placek out there.  All started with a rich yeast dough, full of butter and eggs. Then they are topped with a crumb topping called Kruszynki.  Most were baked in loaf pans and they all looked delicious.  I found a recipe on a Polish parish's website that was from a newspaper clipping dated March 17, 1966.  This is Mrs. Mary Lipinski's recipe of 124 Colt Street, city unknown.  It seemed like Mary might know a thing or two about placek, so I knew this would be the recipe I would go with.

    This is a large recipe, meant to yield 4 loafs.  I wanted to bake it in rounds instead, giving it more of a coffee cake feel.  Plus, I just love to bake in my cast iron skillets.  It yielded the perfect amount of dough to make 1 12" cake and a 9" one as well.  You could certainly cut it in half and make 2 loaves or maybe a couple of 8" rounds.

Polish Placek Coffee Cake

Makes 4 loaves or 1 12" and 1 9" round

Serves 32

Part One Ingredients;

2 cups scalded milk, lukewarm

2 T sugar

3 cups flour

1 T dry active yeast

Part Two Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups butter

2 cups sugar

6 eggs

1 T salt

4 cups flour

2 tsp vanilla

Kruszynki (Crumb Topping):

1 1/4 cup flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter, softened

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix together all of the ingredients in the part one list.  Cover with a towel and let rise for a half hour.
2. In your mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy.  Add sugar and beat until completely combined.  Add eggs one at a time, beating between each addition.  Add flour, salt and vanilla and mix until just combined.  
3. Stir together the yeast mixture and the butter mixture until if form a soft (and very sticky) dough.  Place in greased pans and let rise until doubled in size.  Don't let them rise over 3/4 of the way up the pans, so they don't go over while baking.
4. In a small bowl, mix sugar and flour for crumb topping.  Use a fork to cut the butter into the sugar, flour mixture.  Sprinkle over dough.
5. Bake at 350 F for 30-40 minutes for loaves and 35-45 for cast iron skillets.  Mary says not to over bake them because the dough will get dark. 

      It's Foodie Extravaganza Day and this month's theme is Coffee Cake with Caroline from Caroline's Cooking is hosting What is Foodie Extravaganza? It's when a group of bloggers get together and make a recipe using one main ingredient. Where do we get the ingredient? We look at The Nibble and pick something off of their list. You can check out our group Pinterest board for past recipes. If you're a blogger, you can join along with us by requesting to join on our Facebook page. Now, on to the goodness being shared this month:

Almond Raspberry Cake by Food Lust People Love

Blueberry vanilla coffee cake by Fearlessly Creative Mammas

Cappuccino Cake by G'Gina's Kitchenette

Caramel Coconut Coffee Cake by cookinandcraftin

Classic Coffee Cake by Basic N Delicious

Coffee Cake Cookies by Sew You Think You Can Cook

Coffee Cake in a Jiffy by Our Good Life

Coffee Cake Muffins by I'm Hungry

German Beer Coffee Cake by Wholistic Woman

Gluten free hazelnut pear cake by Caroline's Cooking

Kärleksmums (Swedish Coffee Cake) by Tara's Multicultural Table

Lemon Thyme n Mint Loaf by Baking in Pyjamas

Orange Coffee Cake with Pecan Streuse by A Day in the Life on the Farm

Polish Placek by Cooking With Carlee

Simple Coffee Cake by Sneha's Recipe

Strawberry Coffee Cake Muffins by Making Miracles