Oliebollen (Dutch New Year's Doughnuts)
Oliebollen
The deep-fried yeast dumplings the Dutch eat to see out the year — studded with raisins and apple, rolled in icing sugar, best eaten by the frozen canal.
VIIISweets & Baking- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 30 min
- Serves
- 20
- Level
- Intermediate
On the last day of December, Dutch streets fill with the smell of hot oil. Oliebollen — literally "oil balls" — are the fried close of the year, sold from kraampjes on every corner and made in home kitchens where the windows fog with steam. You eat them standing up, sugar on your gloves, waiting for midnight and the fireworks.
An old, plain magic
The lineage is genuinely old. Fried dough studded with dried fruit appears in Dutch cookery well back into the seventeenth century, when a version called oliekoecken was recorded in the very first Dutch cookbooks of the Golden Age. Those early oil-cakes were richer and more heavily spiced, but the shape and the method — spoonfuls of yeasted, fruited dough dropped into hot fat — are recognisably the ancestor of what the country still fries today.
The two-spoon method
There is no special equipment, only technique. The dough is deliberately wet, closer to a thick batter, and the trick is to shape it with two spoons dipped in the frying oil so the sticky mass slides free into rough, tumbling balls. They turn themselves as they cook if the oil is deep enough, browning into craggy spheres.
Oliebollen are the taste of the turning year — warm, yeasted, and dusted white against the cold.
Everything depends on the oil temperature. Get it right and the crust is crisp and deep gold while the inside stays tender and studded with soft raisins and apple. Serve them barely cooled, snowed under with icing sugar, and save a few for the neighbours who inevitably follow the smell to your door.
“Test one oliebol first and taste it — if the middle is doughy, drop the oil to 170°C so the inside has time to set before the crust goes too dark.”
Ingredients
Serves 20
The dough
- 500 gplain flour
- 7 ginstant yeast — one sachet
- 350 mllukewarm milk
- 1egg
- 1 tspsalt
- 1 tbspsugar
The studding
- 150 graisins and currants — mixed
- 1tart apple — peeled, finely diced
- 1lemon — zest only
To fry and finish
- 2 litresneutral oil — sunflower, for deep-frying
- to finishicing sugar — generous
Method
- 1
Soak and mix
Cover the raisins and currants with warm water and leave to plump while you work. Whisk the flour, yeast, salt and sugar, then beat in the milk and egg to a thick, sticky batter-dough — too loose to knead, too thick to pour. Beat it well with a spoon to develop some structure.
- 2
Fold in the fruit
Drain the raisins thoroughly and pat dry, then fold them through the dough with the diced apple and lemon zest. Cover the bowl and leave in a warm place for about an hour, until doubled and full of bubbles.
- 3
Bring the oil to temperature
Heat the oil in a deep pan to 175°C. Accuracy matters here — too cool and the oliebollen drink oil and stay raw inside; too hot and they brown before the centre cooks. Use a thermometer and adjust the heat between batches.
- 4
Fry in batches
Dip two spoons in the hot oil, then use them to scoop rough balls of dough into the pan, a few at a time so the temperature holds. Fry for 6–8 minutes, turning, until deep golden all over and cooked through — break the first one open to check.
- 5
Drain and sugar
Lift onto kitchen paper to drain. Let them cool for a minute, then roll or dredge heavily in icing sugar just before serving. They are at their best warm, within the hour.
In the kitchen
The tools that make this recipe easier.
- WorthwhileDeep-fry thermometer ↗
Holds 180°C for bitterballen, kroketten, and oliebollen.
- SpecialistVlaai / tart tin ↗
Wide shallow tin for Limburg vlaai and open fruit tarts.
For the sweet table
Coffee-time (koffie met wat lekkers) is its own small ceremony.
- Koffie — strong filter coffee, one biscuit alongside
- Slagroom — whipped cream for poffertjes and tompouce
- Roomboter — good butter on the warm koek
Questions from the kitchen
Why do my oliebollen soak up oil?+
The oil is too cool, or the dough is over-proofed and collapsing. Keep the oil at a steady 175°C and fry in small batches so the temperature doesn't crash when you add the dough.
What's the difference between oliebollen and appelbeignets?+
Oliebollen are balls of studded yeast dough. Appelbeignets are whole rings of apple dipped in batter and fried — a cousin often sold at the same New Year's stall.
Can I make the dough ahead?+
It's best fried the day you make it, but you can mix the dough in the evening and give it a slow, cold overnight rise in the fridge, then bring it back to room temperature before frying.
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