Oliebollen: Dutch New Year Doughnuts
Oliebollen are the raisin doughnuts the Dutch eat on 31 December, from street stalls and at home, waiting for the new year. The two things that decide the outcome: the batter is a thick batter and never gets kneaded, and the oil has to sit at 175 °C — hotter burns the outside and leaves the middle raw, cooler and they soak up fat.
Ingredients
- 500 g plain flour
- 350 ml lukewarm milk
- 2 eggs
- 7 g dried yeast (or 20 g fresh)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 150 g raisins
- 1 tart apple in small dice (optional but traditional)
- Neutral oil for deep frying, plenty
- To serve: icing sugar
Method
- 1
Soak the raisins in warm water for 15 minutes and drain well. Dry, they pull moisture out of the batter and stay hard.
- 2
Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the lukewarm milk and leave 10 minutes until foamy.
- 3
Mix the flour with the salt, add the eggs and the yeasted milk and beat with a wooden spoon into a thick, sticky batter. You do not knead it and you do not roll it: this is a batter, closer to cake than to bread.
- 4
Fold in the raisins and apple. Cover and prove for 1 hour somewhere warm, until doubled and full of bubbles.
- 5
Heat the oil to 175 °C. Without a thermometer: a small piece of batter should surface in two seconds and colour in a minute and a half.
- 6
Scoop portions with two spoons dipped in water —that way the batter releases on its own— and let them slide into the oil without flattening them.
- 7
Fry 6 to 8 at a time for 6 to 8 minutes, turning once one side is golden. Crowd the pan and the oil temperature drops and they turn greasy.
- 8
Drain on kitchen paper. Fry one on its own first and cut it open: if the centre is raw, lower the heat and lengthen the time before doing the rest.
- 9
Dust with icing sugar only just before serving, and eat them warm.