My mum taught me how to make this bollen recipe. It is a New Year’s Day staple in the Netherlands. For the first time, I celebrated New Year’s Day with my in-laws and brought this custom with me. They were blown away by this delectable doughnut-like delight.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 15 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 30 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
Ingredients
- 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
- ½ cup lukewarm water (110 degrees F to 115 degrees F)
- 4 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 1 ½ cups chopped apple
- 1 cup raisins (Optional)
- 1 quart vegetable oil for frying
- white sugar for decoration
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to the lowest possible temperature setting.
- Dissolve yeast in warm water in a small mixing bowl; set aside.
- Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add eggs, yeast mixture, and milk; beat with an electric mixer until blended. Cover the bowl of dough with a greased piece of plastic wrap.
- Turn off the oven. Place the bowl on the lowest rack of the warmed oven. Allow to rest and rise for 1 hour.
- Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed, deep skillet to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Remove the bowl from the oven; mix apples and raisins into dough. Carefully slide dough by heaping teaspoons into hot oil. Do not crowd the skillet.
- Fry fritters in hot oil until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. They should turn over on their own when they are ready to brown on the other side, but keep an eye on them and flip them as necessary. Remove them to a paper towel-lined plate and repeat with remaining dough. Dust with sugar while warm.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 340 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 57 g |
| Cholesterol | 33 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 8 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 221 mg |
| Sugars | 18 g |
| Fat | 9 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This is a great little treat with your morning coffee. I would add a little more sugar to the mixture next time. The powdered sugar was a must for our tastes. I would also chop the apples a little smaller next time.
I hate to be one of those people who rate a recipe and then change it, but if you don’t mind I’ll share what we do. We omit the yeast, etc. and use buttermilk, baking soda, and baking powder. Makes a great batter with applesauce and raisins. Fry in canola oil using an electric frying pan at 375*. Roll in sugar and devour immediately!
I added a little orange zest, which my Dutch grandmother and mother did and about a cup of dried date chunks. Everyone loved it!
I added a little orange zest, which my Dutch grandmother and mother did and about a cup of dried date chunks. Everyone loved it!
The recipe was fine the way it is. It is delish. Will make again
My Dutch husband uses orange rasp(zest) in the batter and Granny Smith apples along with the raisins. Always made New Year’s Eve and leftovers eaten on NY Day. Powdered sugar for dusting and rolling in! Eat with champagne ?? the batter should NEVER be paste-like..sorry
Its been over 25 years since our family made Olli Bollin, it was a yearly tradition until Oma past away. This year I wanted my family to get back to together, so I managed to get everyone to say yes. This day turned out amazing because of this recipe, my kids have never seen Olli Bollin or Apple Flullen and they LOVED IT. Thank you very much
My family says they are exactly like my grandma’s so this recipe is a win for me. I only used 1 pkg of yeast, shortening for frying and only raisins everything else was exactly as written. oh & I sprinkled them with sugar.
Loved these while they were still warm, really good!
Pretty good. but messy and labor intensive If I make them again, I will try additional 1/2 C sugar and additional 1/2 C of flour. I suggest that if trying for the first time, cut recipe in half.
Substituted GF flour mix. When cut in half it took 2 3/8 cup. Mixed in 1/4 c at a time till it had a stiff paste consistency, like soft peanut butter. Also tossed the apple pieces in 1 tbsp cornstarch prior to folding into the batter.
These are great! I made some too big so they were kind of raw in the middle. I had to take the raw ones and throw them in the oven. It was still really great! Thanks for the recipe!!
My partner is Dutch. We’ve been having Olliebolen since we had our first new year together. Depending on the number of guests we are entertaining, usually i divide the dough into two batches before adding the dried fruits and wait for a bit til it rises again and add one batch with the dried and candied fruits and the other one with apple rings to make appelflappen. Sieve a lot of confectioner sugar + cinnamon on them before serving. Better serve warm. Love it. 🙂
Very similar to my father’s recipe, except he added 1 tsp. vanilla and lots of cinnamon and substituted currants for the raisins. Confectioners sugar for dipping them into is a must. I have kept up this tradition in my home and it wouldn’t be the same on New Year’s Eve without making these for my kids!
very good! dipped them icing sugar
I am Dutch and we make it for old years day and we make a lot like 50-100 pieces for the familiy. On new years day we eat the “left overs”as breakfast or even as lunch. Besides oliebollen we make appelflappen, sliced apples with cinnamon and sugar in a dough Oil balls is the name becuase they look like balls baked in oil. On the oliiebollen you pour sugarpouwder (a lot) not normal sugar. You can also make them with out raisin or apple offically oliebollen are without raisin and rozijnenbollen/raisenballs are with. But most people make them with Real Dutch is to pour beer and milk in the dough and not eggs and water. For 41/2 cups flour I use about 1 bottle of beer (330 ml) and 3 or 4 cups of handwarm milk, 2 apples shopped, 2 cups of raisins, 2-3 spoons of sugar. 2 packages of yeast, teaspoon salt. Put it all together until the dough is in a thick ribbon running of your spoon and the it double it size when it rest We bake them in a pan filled with oil 2-3 ltr. I use a pan that can keep the temprature on 180 degrees C and bake for a few hours
These turned out great!! We let the dough rise 1 1/2 hours by mistake and they were wonderful. My husband is Dutch and this is our New Year’s Eve tradition. Delicious!
My mom made these every New Year’s Day when she was alive. Instead of using white sugar to decorate them, she dusted them with confectioner’s sugar. Mmmmm!
Delicious & easy!!! I didn’t read the instructions correctly & added the rasins & granny smith apples before it had rested & risen, but it still turned out perfectly. Sort of tastes like funnel cake from the fair! I made 12 servings & that was too much. Best to serve & eat immediately.
I was SO surprised to hear that this was a New Years tradition with the dutch, even though we made these EVERY New Years day- I thought it was just a family thing LOL! Our recipe did not use yeast and is very easy to make: 2 cup of buttermilk 3 tbsp oil 1 1 /4 cup sugar 2-3 eggs 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp salt 1 cup raisins 4 cups of flour. Mix all ingrediants and deep fry till golden . makes about 3 dozen YUM- bring on the holidays!
Excellent. I added about 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. They disappeared quickly!