Oliebollen

From the American iconic "bourbon balls" for Christmas to the good old Dutch tradition for New Year's Eve: Jeroen made "oliebollen" (literally translates to "balls of oil") today. According to Wikipedia and other websites oliebollen are somewhere between doughnuts and New Orleans beignets, but Gabroen says oliebollen are oliebollen. Period. So today's version was made with trappist beer for extra flavor and they turned out pretty nicely. A new tradition is born in the Gabroen household. For anyone who's interested (we know Marcia is for sure), here's the recipe for 40-50 balls: - Dissolve 50 gr fresh yeast in 1/4 cup lukewarm milk - add 5 eggs, 15 gr salt, 125 gr sugar, 70 gr butter, 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract, pepper and cinnamon to the yeast and mix well - in a large bowl, add 1 kg all purpose flour and make a well in the middle; pour the yeast mixture into the well and mix - while stirring, add 2 cups of milk and 3/4 cup of trappist beer (or an Imperial Stout beer) - mix till smooth batter and leave to rise for 1 hour covered with a damp cloth - gently fold 500 gr raisins, 500 gr currants, 1 tsp lemon juice and 3 apples cut in small pieces into the batter


- leave to rise for another 15 mins - meanwhile, heat about a gallon vegetable oil in a dutch oven (i have no clue why this is called a dutch oven, but that's a topic for some other post some other time) to 330-350oF - deep fry about 6 bollen at one time for about 6 minutes, turning them halfway for even browning, and let them cool on tissue paper; they should have the size of a small apple


- cover with plenty of powdered sugar, take a bite and the new year will be here before you know it


Pretty darn good for a first time, or as Jeroen's dad put it: "not bad for an little amateur".


Jeroen's mom and dad arrived today from Holland on their way to snow-birding in Florida.