By Isla Quinn
Oil balls. That is the name, and it is almost the whole recipe.
Wikipedia calls the oliebol a Dutch beignet, a doughnut eaten traditionally on New Year’s Eve. It says the dough is scooped, with an ice cream scoop or a pair of spoons, into hot oil, which gives the ball its shape. People eat it with raisins baked inside and powdered sugar on top.
What goes in
Wikipedia gives flour, eggs, yeast, salt and milk, with baking powder in some versions, and usually raisins, currants and sometimes candied peel. It names the appelbeignet as a separate thing: a slice of apple in batter. DutchReview, a site written for people living in the Netherlands, says oliebollen are fried in a pan with a layer of oil and that cinnamon or apple pieces can go into the batter. A family-recipe blog, A Dollop of History, uses a yeast dough with apples and currants, lets it rise, drops it into oil from two spoons, and says the balls float, need turning, and come out deep golden. It rolls them in sugar and, in one relative’s version, cinnamon. The blog is one family’s recipe, and we give it as that.
Where you meet them
Wikipedia says that in winter oliebollen are sold on the street from mobile stalls. DutchReview calls the stall an oliebollenkraam and says the usual dressing is powdered sugar. Wikipedia adds the Belgian cousin: in Flanders it is a smoutebol, from smout, meaning lard, and is often cooked in animal fat and usually not filled, and in Wallonia and northern France it is a croustillon, served hot in a paper cone with a small plastic fork at fairgrounds.
The name’s own history
Wikipedia says the Dutch ate oliekoek, oil cake, for centuries before oliebol, and that a painting from around 1652 shows a young woman with a pot of oliebollen that looks much like today’s. DutchReview gives the painter as Albert Cuyp. Wikipedia and DutchReview both date the earliest recipe they know for oliekoecken to the 1667 cookbook De verstandige kock, The Sensible Cook. DutchReview says those oil cakes were flat, filled with raisins, apples and almonds.
Why New Year
Nobody knows who ate the first one. The sources we read offer several guesses, and none cites a document, so we pass none on.
Dates in order
- Around 1652: the painting of a young woman with a pot of them, according to Wikipedia and DutchReview.
- 1667: the first known recipe for oliekoecken, according to Wikipedia and DutchReview.
- 1868: oliebol recorded in the Van Dale dictionary, according to Wikipedia and DutchReview.
Questions a buyer would ask
If you are shopping for a recipe book or a fryer for the season: what oil does it use, and what fat is traditional where the recipe comes from? Does a recipe say oliebol, smoutebol or croustillon, and are they filled? We name no maker, no book and no stall.
Quick answers
When are oliebollen eaten in the Netherlands? According to Wikipedia, traditionally on New Year’s Eve, and in winter they are also sold at mobile street stalls.
What is the oldest oliebol recipe? Wikipedia and DutchReview, a site for people in the Netherlands, both date the first known recipe for oliekoecken, oil cakes, to the 1667 cookbook De verstandige kock.
What do Belgians call oliebollen? Wikipedia says smoutebollen in Flanders, often cooked in animal fat and usually unfilled, and croustillons in Wallonia and northern France.
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Roam first. Shop later.