Oliebollen (“oil balls”)
A traditional New Year's Dutch snack, a sour dough, optional with raisins, apple, candied fruit, deep-fried in oil, and served with a dusting of powdered sugar.
Servings: 0
Equipment
- Aebleskiver (or oliebollen) pan
Ingredients
Dough
- 2¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tsp koshering salt
- 1 large egg
- 1½ tsp instant yeast
Flavorings
- 1 large apple finely chopped
- 1 cup raisins (optionally soaked in something alcoholic)
- 1 cup golden raisins (optionally soaked in something alcoholic)
Frying
- 6 cups frying oil vegetable
Serving
- 1 cup powdered sugar (confectioner's sugar)
Instructions
- Put dough ingredients together, and stir it until it is smooth.Add the flavoring ingredients and mix thoroughly.
- Cover with plastic and let it rest for 45 minutes.
- Preheat vegetable oil in a deep pan to 375°F.Preheat oliebollen pan to medium hot.
- Put some oil in the aebleskiver pan (½-1 teaspoon per opening). As the center opening usually gets hotter, I keep extra oil in there, and coat the empty outer ring that I cook in with a brush.Pour the dough in the openings with a spoon.When it is set, flip it over (2 spoons works well), until the whole ball is golden brown and firm.If you don't have an aebleskiver pan, you can shape the oil ball with two spoons immediately into the deep pan, or with a metal serving spoon that is round and deep.Put in the deep pan and fry until deep brown.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar (a powdered sugar shaker is nice to have) and eat with your hands.
Notes
Note: the “oliebollen” pan is a family thing: my great grandmother (the mother of my paternal grandmother) was a chef at De Gouden Leeuw (The Gold Lion) and handed down the pan. It seems to be a Danish aebleskiver pan, so we guess she was from around there.