two of the very traditional NYE treats in The Netherlands are "oliebollen", loosely translated to "oil-balls"... and "appel flappen", or "apple-fritters"...
sounds worse than it is, believe me... generations of Dutchies have gorged themselves on these treats and walking down a Dutch street on NYE you can smell sweet batter cooking in the hot oil just about at every house.
my earliest memories of NYE are of my mother cooking in the kitchen with a scarf wrapped around her hair, (otherwise her hair would smell of deep-frying oil during the evenings party...) using 3 huge pans full of oil, a bucket or two of batter and two spoons to drop the batter in the oil...and buckets, literally several buckets of olie-bollen, and huge platters of appel-flappen standing on the floor of the cellar, ready to be put on plates, dusted with lots of icing sugar and delivered to households around town, where older or sick people lived who didnt get the chance to cook their own; mum felt that no -one should be wihtout these traditional treats on NYE!
in the household of my aunt and uncle it was my aunts task to cook the appel-flappen, but my grandfather cooked the olie- bollen for both families... somehow he thought that was a mans task
and also there: buckets and huge platters, ready to be shared.
for days after, when you went visiting to wish people Happy New Year, you were given staler, and staler, olie-bollen and appel flappen for morning tea/coffee, until, after about a week, youd happily throw the next plate-full into the garden!! ;D
the fact that Christmas and New Year here in Australia happen in the summer season, takes some of the fun out of the hot and sticky job of cooking seasonal sweet delicacies in hot oil, but, every year i get itchy fingers around 10AM on New Year Eve and inevitably, come 7PM we have a plate of sugar covered fingerfoods on the table...
so, in case you too feel like punishing yourself over a hot stove, heres the recipe: it is a "fluid" recipe, so no quantities...
olie-bollen.
white flour, sugar, salt, raisins, currants, sultanas, cinnamon, chopped apple, milk, beer, yeast.
about 4 cups of flour in big (4-5 Litre) pot or deep mixing bowl, add some salt, sugar, cinnamon.
activate yeast in warm milk with sugar, pour over flour, add beer whilst stirring... the batter should end up the consistency of thick custard.
add dried fruit ( i add lots!) and 1 big apple chopped in small pieces (granny smith is good..); add some milk to make the batter "flow" just a bit easier.
taste the batter: it should be slightly salty and sweet.
cover with damp cloth, leave to rise until at least double size....
heat about 6 cm oil in deep pan (oil should be at least 5 cm from top of pan) to just smoking, turn down heat a bit and drop clumps of the batter from a n oiled spoon or ice-cream scoop in the oil.
if the batter has risen properly the olie-bollen will brown on the underside to a CS7-8 in about 90 seconds, then turn over by themselves ( or with little help from a fork) to cook on the other side for another minute.
fish them out with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
i generally test the first one by breaking it open to see if the inside has been cooked through... it needs to be "just cooked", otherwise they end up really tough and dry.
if they are brown on the outside, but still uncooked inside, turn down the heat a bit.
layer the olie-bollen on a plate; dust each layer generously with icing sugar. eat lots.
appel-flappen.
peel, core and slice apples (Granny Smith) in 1 cm thick rings.
sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon, leave to marinade for about 1 hour.
make thick batter from white flour, salt, sugar, cinnamon, equal quantities of beer and milk.
oil should be hot, but not smoking.
take slice of apple, dry off with kitchen paper, dip in batter and fry quickly in shallow oil, both sides.
if they cook too long, the apple turns to apple sauce...
layer on plate and sprinkle with icing sugar and cinnamon.
once you have finished cooking, call me and i will come to get some... it is really tooo bloody hot here to even contemplate cooking them myself.... i think... :-/
Have a great New Years Eve!!
L
sounds worse than it is, believe me... generations of Dutchies have gorged themselves on these treats and walking down a Dutch street on NYE you can smell sweet batter cooking in the hot oil just about at every house.
my earliest memories of NYE are of my mother cooking in the kitchen with a scarf wrapped around her hair, (otherwise her hair would smell of deep-frying oil during the evenings party...) using 3 huge pans full of oil, a bucket or two of batter and two spoons to drop the batter in the oil...and buckets, literally several buckets of olie-bollen, and huge platters of appel-flappen standing on the floor of the cellar, ready to be put on plates, dusted with lots of icing sugar and delivered to households around town, where older or sick people lived who didnt get the chance to cook their own; mum felt that no -one should be wihtout these traditional treats on NYE!
in the household of my aunt and uncle it was my aunts task to cook the appel-flappen, but my grandfather cooked the olie- bollen for both families... somehow he thought that was a mans task

and also there: buckets and huge platters, ready to be shared.
for days after, when you went visiting to wish people Happy New Year, you were given staler, and staler, olie-bollen and appel flappen for morning tea/coffee, until, after about a week, youd happily throw the next plate-full into the garden!! ;D
the fact that Christmas and New Year here in Australia happen in the summer season, takes some of the fun out of the hot and sticky job of cooking seasonal sweet delicacies in hot oil, but, every year i get itchy fingers around 10AM on New Year Eve and inevitably, come 7PM we have a plate of sugar covered fingerfoods on the table...
so, in case you too feel like punishing yourself over a hot stove, heres the recipe: it is a "fluid" recipe, so no quantities...
olie-bollen.
white flour, sugar, salt, raisins, currants, sultanas, cinnamon, chopped apple, milk, beer, yeast.
about 4 cups of flour in big (4-5 Litre) pot or deep mixing bowl, add some salt, sugar, cinnamon.
activate yeast in warm milk with sugar, pour over flour, add beer whilst stirring... the batter should end up the consistency of thick custard.
add dried fruit ( i add lots!) and 1 big apple chopped in small pieces (granny smith is good..); add some milk to make the batter "flow" just a bit easier.
taste the batter: it should be slightly salty and sweet.
cover with damp cloth, leave to rise until at least double size....
heat about 6 cm oil in deep pan (oil should be at least 5 cm from top of pan) to just smoking, turn down heat a bit and drop clumps of the batter from a n oiled spoon or ice-cream scoop in the oil.
if the batter has risen properly the olie-bollen will brown on the underside to a CS7-8 in about 90 seconds, then turn over by themselves ( or with little help from a fork) to cook on the other side for another minute.
fish them out with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
i generally test the first one by breaking it open to see if the inside has been cooked through... it needs to be "just cooked", otherwise they end up really tough and dry.
if they are brown on the outside, but still uncooked inside, turn down the heat a bit.
layer the olie-bollen on a plate; dust each layer generously with icing sugar. eat lots.
appel-flappen.
peel, core and slice apples (Granny Smith) in 1 cm thick rings.
sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon, leave to marinade for about 1 hour.
make thick batter from white flour, salt, sugar, cinnamon, equal quantities of beer and milk.
oil should be hot, but not smoking.
take slice of apple, dry off with kitchen paper, dip in batter and fry quickly in shallow oil, both sides.
if they cook too long, the apple turns to apple sauce...
layer on plate and sprinkle with icing sugar and cinnamon.
once you have finished cooking, call me and i will come to get some... it is really tooo bloody hot here to even contemplate cooking them myself.... i think... :-/
Have a great New Years Eve!!
L

.
. Mind you, had a couple of very willing little helpers back then and now theyve grown up and probably dont give olie-bollen a single thought. Made em in PNG too.... we were up there for quite a few years as well. Went down very well with the locals I have to say 


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