OLIEBOLLEN: A WINTER HOLIDAYS' RECIPE

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Remember oliebollen?  The Dutch dumplings I mentioned in my previous post? As I have written I liked them so much, I decided to look for the recipe and share it here for the ones willing to give it a try. They can be made plain or they can be enriched with raisins, currants and apple. Both versions usually get dusted with icing sugar before serving. Some people also add citrus zest and candied cherries, but so far I never tried them this way. Also, the oliebol can be filled after baking with whipped cream, pastry cream or jam. The filling can add extra sweetness since the dough itself is not very sweet.
Next time I visit The Netherlands for New Years Eve I will definitely try the wipped cream filling. I am very inspired.

It must be said that oliebollen are most delicious just recently baked. Afterwords they stay tasty for 1-2 days and can be warmed up in the microwave - but freshly baked they're just unbeatable, believe me.

You will need about 1,5 hours for preparation and extra 45 minutes for cooking.
Time very well spent, I'd say. Here are the ingredients:
– 400 g of flour
– 2 tsp of salt 
– 20 g of fresh yeast
– 300 ml milk, luke warm
– 1 tbsp of sugar
– 2 eggs
– 200 g of raisins, soaked, washed and dried
– 1 big apple, peeled, cored and chopped in small cubes. Traditionally Goudreneitten apples are used for this recipe.
– fat for deep frying
– icing sugar.

1 Dissolve the yeast in the milk, leave for a few minutes to get frothy. 2 Mix the flour, salt and sugar. 3 Add the eggs and the yeast-milk mixture to the flour. 4 Use a wooden spoon, whisk (needs to be a sturdy one) or dough-hooks and a mixer to mix everything together. 5 Keep mixing for about 10 minutes to develop the gluten. 6 Mix the raisins and apple through. 7 Cover the bowl and leave to rise for about 1 hour. 8 Heat the fat in a deep fat fryer or suitable pan to 170C. 9 Form spheres from the risen batter with 2 spoons, or an ice cream scoop, dipped in the hot fat and let them slide into the hot fat.

Bake them until brown, in 4-6 minutes. When the temperature of the fat is correct, the oliebollen will turn their selves over when the first side has browned enough. Using a slotted spoon, place them in a colander to get rid of most of the fat, then place them in another colander layered with kitchen paper towels. Use more kitchen paper towels between the layers to absorb the remaining fat.

For plain oliebollen, just leave out the raisins and apple, but keep the same weight in total. Don't forget to tet me know what you think, if you make them. Enjoy them hot and dusted with lots of sugar.

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