Home-made Olliebollen

Finally a success in attempting this Dutch dessert apparently only served around New Year's Eve as of the Dutch tradition. Seems like a really difficult snack/dessert to find even in Holland! Yummy as hell.

Silver Bullet has earned himself the title of "Dessert King" with his one-time attempt of Olliebollen and his plenty attempts in making Tiramisu. Strange to find out that the biggest secret of making a succesfull Olliebollen lies in the deep fryer!

Here's the recipe of Olliebollen (literally “Oil balls”, deep fried dough balls) by the resident Dessert King:

Ingredients (for about 20 pieces)

• ½ kg all purpose flour


• ½ litre lukewarm milk


• 10gr instant yeast or 40gr fresh yeast


• 40gr butter (softened)


• 30gr caster sugar


• 10gr lemon or lime juice


• 5gr salt


• 2 eggs


• 100gr Raisins


• 100gr bleached raisins (krenten in Dutch)

Preparation:

1. Soak the raisins in lukewarm water for about half an hour. Drain and rinse.


2. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm (never cold) milk. Stir well.


3. Sift the flour and put in a large bowl. Make sure the bowl is large enough to accommodate the risen dough. If it isn’t, it can be divided between two bowls after mixing.


4. Make a hole in the middle of the flour and add the butter, sugar and eggs. Then slowly mix the milk through the flour until the dough is smooth without lumps. At this stage, mix in the raisins and the lime or lemon juice. Stir well and finally add in the salt.


5. Give the dough a final good mix. The dough will expand about 3 times the original size, so if your bowl is not big enough to contain that amount, divide the dough over two bowls instead. Cover the bowl(s) with a wet cloth or towel to prevent the dough from drying out, and put it in a dark, warm, draft free area to rise.


6. Let the dough rise for AT LEAST 1 hour, but longer is no problem.
   
   Frying:
   
   Once the dough has risen, carefully move it to the area where you’re going to fry the oliebollen. Do this with care; go too rough, and the dough will collapse again.
   Make sure that your oil is about 180°C. If the oil is too hot, the balls will brown without the insides being fully cooked. Too cold, and the balls will be hard by the time they are ready. Sunflower oil is a good oil to deep fry in, or peanut oil. Other oils will do, but make sure before using them that they can be heated to about 195°C or higher before it starts boiling.
   The easiest way is to use an ice-cream scoop to create the balls. Put the scoop in a cup of water. Then, from the edges of the dough scoop a ball of dough out of the bowl and drop it into the hot oil. If the oil is hot enough, the dough should immediately start to float. Don’t fry too many at a time, as this will cool the oil too much and make turning them more difficult.
   Some will turn on their own after about 2-3 minutes if they’re nice and round, others will have to be turned by hand. After about 5 minutes in total, the balls should be ready (nice and brown on the outside, soft but cooked on the inside). Put in a bowl or on a plate with some paper towels to absorb the excess oil. Continue until all the dough is finished.
   Serve with a generous sprinkling of icing sugar.