Ingredients for dutch doughnuts a.k.a. oliebollen

  • 800 g plain flour or fine wholemeal flour
  • 2½ tsp salt
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 750 ml milk
  • 1 tbsp yeast
  • 50 g butter or Amanprana extra virgin coconut oil (if required)
  • 50 g or 2½ tbsp treacle
  • 250 g raisins
  • grated zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 to 2 firm apples cut into ½ cm cubes
  • Amanprana extra virgin coconut oil

Preparation of dutch doughnuts a.k.a. oliebollen

Mix the flour with the salt and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle. Dissolve the yeast in half a cup of milk and pour into the well. Add an extra dash of milk. Mix in a little bit of the flour until you have a runny paste, then leave in a warm place until the milk starts frothing. Melt the butter, but make sure it doesn't get too hot. Add the rest of the milk to the butter and stir in the treacle. Pour this mixture into a new well in the flour, and mix everything together, working your way out from the middle until you have a nice smooth batter. Keep beating vigorously for a couple of minutes with a wooden spoon. Add the raisins and the lemon rind last. Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and leave the batter to rise until it has doubled in size. Meanwhile, heat the coconut oil to a maximum of 170°C. Stir the apple pieces into the batter. The batter will get knocked down, but don't worry, it'll rise up again while cooking. Using an ice cream scoop, carefully drop scoopfuls of batter into the oil, letting the batter slide gently off the scoop. Fry a test ball first, making sure it's nice and brown all over. This should take around 5 to 7 minutes. Remove the test ball from the oil with a slotted spoon and cut it open. If it isn't fully cooked in the centre, but the outside is the right colour, it means the oil is too hot. If the test ball is still not brown after 7 minutes, the oil is not hot enough. Fry the rest of the oliebollen, but make sure you don't cook too many at once. The oliebollen should float nicely beside each other without touching.

Tip from Ellen:

If you cook lots of oliebollen at the same time the oil will cool down, and it can take 10 minutes for the oliebollen to turn nice and brown. Leave the oliebollen to drain on a paper towel, then arrange them nicely on a plate. They are yummiest when eaten fresh and warm! Variation: Deep-fried apple balls (replace the raisins with small cubes of firm apple – add just before frying)