Oliebollen

The Dutch New Year's Eve dough balls, a wet yeasted batter dropped straight into hot oil with raisins and apple, drained and buried in icing sugar

Origin: The Netherlands

From the journey of Wheat.

Oliebollen are eaten in the Netherlands on the last day of the year and, by long convention, hardly at all on any other. Stalls, the oliebollenkramen, appear on street corners from November, and a national newspaper test ranking them is an annual fixture that people take seriously. The batter is wet, closer to a thick pouring consistency than a dough, and it is scooped with two spoons straight into hot oil, where it puffs into an irregular ball. The dish is old and the sources are pleasingly specific. A very similar fried dough appears in Dutch cookery from the seventeenth century, and Aelbert Cuyp and other painters of the period show them being made. The frequently repeated story that they were eaten at midwinter so that a sword-wielding Germanic goddess would glance off the fat-soaked eater is folklore rather than history, and the atlas records it as such. The wheat behind them is not, historically, Dutch. Amsterdam was the grain market of Europe rather than a great grower of grain: the moedernegotie brought Baltic wheat and rye down the Vistula to Danzig and across the sea to the Zaan mills, and it was that reliable, cheap, imported flour that made a country of bakers. The distinction that matters at a Dutch stall is between plain oliebollen and the ones with fruit; a variant with apple in slices rather than pieces is an appelbeignet and is a different thing entirely.

Ingredients

Batter

  • 500 g plain flour
  • 7 g instant dried yeast
  • 1 tsp fine salt
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar
  • 400 ml whole milk, lukewarm
  • 1 egg

Fruit

  • 150 g raisins and sultanas, mixed
  • 1 apple, peeled and finely diced
  • 2 tbsp dark rum or apple juice, to soak the fruit

To cook

  • 1.5 litres sunflower oil, for frying

To finish

  • 4 tbsp icing sugar, to finish

Method

  1. Soak the raisins and sultanas in the rum or apple juice with two tablespoons of warm water for twenty minutes, then drain.
  2. Whisk the flour, yeast, salt, and sugar. Beat in the lukewarm milk and the egg to a smooth, thick, pourable batter, the consistency of a very heavy pancake batter.
  3. Fold in the drained fruit and the diced apple. Cover and leave in a warm place for one hour, until risen, domed, and full of bubbles.
  4. Heat the oil to 175C in a deep heavy pan, filling it no more than a third.
  5. Using two dessertspoons dipped in the hot oil, scoop a ball of batter and drop it in. Fry four or five at a time for six to eight minutes, turning once, until deep golden all over.
  6. Test the first one by breaking it open. The inside should be cooked through, airy, and slightly moist, with no raw batter at the centre.
  7. Drain on kitchen paper and repeat, letting the oil come back to temperature between batches.
  8. Dust heavily with icing sugar just before serving, and eat warm.

Notes

Plain oliebollen, made with no fruit at all, are entirely standard and are what many Dutch households prefer. The frequently told story about a Germanic goddess and fat-soaked eaters is folklore, not history. The dish is well documented in Dutch cookery from the seventeenth century, which is interesting enough. The batter can be made the night before and left in the refrigerator, which improves the flavour; bring it back to room temperature and let it rise before frying. An appelbeignet is a ring of apple in batter and a different item on the same stall.

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