A Tradition Lives On
Santa’s surprising gift of a coveted, beautiful Dutch oven has spawned another real treat: cooking lessons from H’s mom. M shared her family recipes for oliebollen and appelbeignets, two traditional New Year’s specialties in Holland.
An oliebol (a fat ball – the term definitely loses something in the translation) is a mix of flour, eggs, milk, lemon juice, raisins, currants, and chopped apples. The batter is dropped by the spoonful into hot oil until a golden doughnut-like ball emerges. It’s topped off with a generous sprinkle of powdered sugar. Appelbeignets are similar, but with a slice of apple dipped in a combination of flour, milk, sugar and cinnamon, and of course deep-fried. Heavenly!
As we cooked, she entertained me with tales of years past. It’s been a delightful beginning to the new year.
OLIEBOLLEN
APPELBEIGNETS
Tree Fishing 
Yummy! What a fun picture and all looks fabulous! Great picture of you and Oma!! Happy New Year!
I love oliebollen! My Oma used to make them every New Years Eve. Unfortunately she passed away last year and I haven’t had them since. I’m glad though that you’ve been able to keep the tradition alive.
Hi Victoria,
We had the best time making them together… she was really in her element! I’m not a great cook if I have to wing it without a recipe, so I really had to pay close attention to what the consistency of the mix looked like. A year is a long time before I get to try them out again. 🙂
O my, this was such fun! I’d love to have some of these right now. We have a similar thing to your oliebollen but without the apples. And I’m sure there is lemon peel in them instead of juice and they are called “miške” which means mouses 🙂
Hi Nini,
“Mouses” — that’s pretty fun sounding. I bet they are delish! What language is “miske”?
It’s in Slovene.
I’d love to try these recipes you talk about out *blink blink* 😀
Lovely to come across this here – I saw you were tagged in your MIL’s photos on FB, but I couldn’t comment there 🙂 Oh yes, oliebollen 🙂 You know, I think we sort of forget what it literally means because once we hear the word, our Dutch mouths start to water 😉 I think it’s lovely you made these together – lovely that you hang on to and repeat traditions like that!
Over here, there are so many temporary, mobile stalls where you can buy them in December, that many people don’t bother to make them at home anymore – although they’re SO much better that way! I can’t remember when I had my last home-made oliebol anymore… Hope you enjoyed them!
Oh yum, these look really delicious! Thank you for sharing! What fun! xo
How yum doe these look! Wow, Food from the heart!