I have been making this placek (low flat cake) for years but I cannot remember where I got the recipes from.
The cake varies every time I make it as I alter the type or amount of each chocolate used and I also alter the dried fruit and nuts.
It is not quite a Polish recipe as Demerara sugar is used rather than granulated & this is not a typical Polish ingredient.
Sugar
Sugar is produced from either sugar cane (a perennial grass) or sugar beet (a tap root). When sugar cane is refined you get lots of partially refined products such as: treacle, golden syrup, Demerara sugar & various other brown sugars.
Demerara sugar is so named after a region in Guyana where it was first produced.
When sugar beet is used to make sugar you do not get all these brown sugars.
In Poland the main sugar products on sale are granulated sugar and icing sugar, also you can find vanilla sugar, for baking, which is sold in little sachet which contain one tablespoon of sugar.
Ingredients
120g butter or block margarine
120g Demerara sugar
2 eggs
120g self raising flour
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla essence
100g chopped chocolate (can be a mixture of dark, milk & white)
100g chopped nuts
80g sultanas (or currants or raisins)
Note
I think dried cranberries might work well here but have not tried these as yet.
Method
Grease and line a 21 x 26 cms baking tray.
Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C
Chop the nuts and the chocolate.
Mix the nuts, chocolate & sultanas together.
Cream together the butter and Demerera sugar.
Mix in the vanilla essence and the eggs.
Mix in the nut mixture.
Gently fold in the flour.
Put the mixture into a baking tray.
Bake for around 30 – 35 minutes.
Leave to cool in the tin.
Cut into squares to serve.
Served on Royal Grafton – Woodside – 1950s
Journey From A Polish Kitchen 