Recipe:Oliebollen

Oliebollen (Oil balls)

What you need for a nice bowl of balls:

1 kilogram of all purpose flour 0,75 litre of sparkling water 50 ml of lukewarm milk 2 eggs 80 grams of fresh yeast (I used 21 gram of dried yeast) 50 grams of butter (real butter, no margarine!) 30 grams of sugar 15 grams of salt 10 grams of cinnamon grated lemon peel from 2 lemons (only the yellow part, the wit part is bitter) 200 grams of raisins 100 grams of currants 100 grams of candied orange peel 150 grams of sour apple, in small cubes enough unused oil for frying (if you use used oil your oliebollen will take the taste of what you baked in it before)

Wash the raisins and currants with lukewarm water and dry them with a tea towel. Put the butter in small pan and melt it on low heat. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk. Put the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl and mix. Put the eggs in the bowl and mix them in too. Then add the sparkling water bit by bit while whisking it; keep on whisking until all lumps are gone. (I usually use a stand mixer for this) Add the milk with the yeast, de melted butter, the grated lemon peel and the cinnamon. Mix it again. Add the raisins, currants, candied orange peel the and apple pieces and mix slowly by hand with a wooden spoon for three minutes.

Moisten a tea towel with lukewarm water and put it over the bowl. Put the bowl on a warm spot and let it rise for an hour. After that heat the oil to exactly 180 degrees. Keep it at 180 degrees for a few minutes or so before you start baking to make sure the whole pan is at 180 degrees.

Mix the dough slowly by hand with a wooden spoon for another three minutes again. Use a scoop or two spoons. Keep them in the oil for one second and then scoop a nice round piece of dough from the bowl and carefully slip it into the hot oil. Repeat two or three times. Let the balls bake for three minutes and turn them around with a fork so the other side is in the oil. Bake for another three minutes. Take the balls out with a skimmer and put them in a strainer lined with several layers of kitchen paper. Put some powdered sugar over them just before you serve them. If you want you can do this by putting the sugar in a small tea strainer.

Don't reheat the balls in the microwave, but use a low temperature oven.