New Year's Eve? We call it"Old Year's Evening" since it's the last evening of the year. Does it come with good memories? I would love to say yes but my mother made it hard for anyone to be happy no matter how hard we tried.
New Year's Eve was usually celebrated at my grandparent's house. My grandmother baked the treats: oliebollen and apple beignets. Bowls, buckets and basins filled with them. As we arrived I always ran into grandpa's office to have a look afraid there won't be enough. The house never smelled after fried oil, a bakery which means she started baking days before we arrived. For sure she didn't bake them outside. How many basins of dough did she make? How many apples she used? How many litres of oil? How many did she bake?
On December 31, 2021, I baked 50 oliebollen and 25 apple beignets and it took me about half a day. My youngest offered to do the apples which saved me time.
For the oliebollen, I bought a different and cheaper mix than last year plus I used the deep fryer outside instead of a pan oil on the stove in the kitchen.
The deep fryer is small. Only 3 oliebollen or 2 apple beignets at a time.
Making the dough isn't difficult. The shop I bought the mix posted the recipe online. My grandmother never shared hers but they were the best homemade I ever had. At least in my memory.
Recipe oliebollen:
300 grams of wheat flour
2 tablespoons sugar
7 grams (dry) yeast
300 ml of (fat) milk
If you like you can add raisins (150-250 grams) to it. These oliebollen we call 'krentenbollen' (we have rolls with the same name but these small pieces of bread are baked in an oven).
If you are familiar with bread you know this recipe has a lot in common with bread dough. I used a mix and only added water to it. It was enough for 25 oliebollen.
The first 25 oliebollen were eaten before I could start baking the next 25. I had only one bowl big enough to let the dough rest for 40 minutes till an hour.
I used tablespoons to drop the dough into the oil.
My grandmother's apple beignets were the best. Slices of apple with a hole in the middle sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon next covered with dough and fried in oil for about 3 minutes.
Recipe 30 apple beignets
8 peeled apples cut into 4-5 slices.
Carefully remove the core from the middle.
mix sugar with cinnamon powder to sprinkle on both sides of the slices
350 grams of wheat flour
baking powder (teaspoon)
2 eggs (medium)
300 dl of milk
a bit salt
Mix it and start baking.
Use a big pan filled with sunflower oil to bake (or a deep fryer). Temp: 190°C.
Tip: if the oil smoulders a little, it's the right temp.
Special thoughts about food in December I don't have except for the goose on December 25th.
Once older the habit of eating a meat-potato, egg-potato or salmon-potato salad on New Year's Eve was introduced by me by inlaws. Today many eat it with or without soup in between of oliebollen. Those salads can be homemade or bought at any supermarket (the entire year) and even be ordered via lunchrooms, snack bars and the butcher and fish shop.
Oliebollen and apple beignets can be saved for several days and easily warmed up in the oven, air fryer or microwave if you don't like to eat them cold.
Sprinkled with powder sugar is how most of us eat them. The leftovers are for the next day(s). Before or after the new Year's dive in the sea
This year the organization of the New Year's dive in Scheveningen was cancelled by the organization/sponsor Unox. Indeed this is the brand that makes the soup I ate in my childhood on Saturdays. On January 1st, 2022 hundreds of people jumped into the sea at different places. It was the warmest January 1st (13°C) we can remember and a warm oliebol is the best treat one can have after flushing the bad spirits away. This custom started over 60 years ago.