Dutch Donuts (Oliebollen)

A traditional Holland New Year and Christmas delicacy – lush donuts (oliebollen), sprinkled with powdered sugar. The enticing aroma of muffins, zest, and spices, as well as dried fruits and candied fruits – amazingly delicious ruddy donuts!

Summary

Ingredients

• Flour – 500 g
• Milk – 500 ml
• Egg – 1 pc.
• Dry yeast – 12 g
• Sugar – 1 teaspoon
• Ground cinnamon – 0.5-1 teaspoon
• Salt – 0.5-1 teaspoon
• Vanilla sugar (optional) – 5-10 g
• Lemon zest – 1 tbsp
• Dark raisins – 50 g
• Light raisins – 100 g
• Candied fruits – 50 g
• Vegetable oil (for deep fat) – 500 ml
• Powdered sugar (for serving) – to taste

Instructions

1. Sprinkle one tablespoon of flour to roll raisins, candied fruits, and zest, put it aside for a while.
2. In a spacious container, we mix flour, salt, sugar, dry yeast, and ground cinnamon. Add vanilla sugar as desired.
3. Shake the egg (room temperature) in a bowl and add to the flour mixture.
4. We mix.
5. Gradually pouring in milk (slightly warm or at room temperature), begin to knead the dough with a mixer with spiral attachments.
6. Knead the donut dough for about 10 minutes. The dough should be sticky.
7. We tighten the bowl with the dough with cling film and put it in a warm place for proofing for 1 hour.
8. An hour later, the risen dough literally breaks through the film.
9. For the filling, combine raisins, candied fruits, zest, and set flour.
10. We mix. The flour will help the additives to distribute evenly in the dough, not to stick together and not settle in a lump.
11. Pour the additives into the dough.
12. We mix. Let the dough stand for another 15-20 minutes.
13. Then we move on to deep-frying donuts. In a deep container, heat the vegetable oil to a temperature of 175 degrees. We take a metal spoon for ice cream. Dip a clean spoon in heated oil for a few seconds. Then we collect the dough with an already oiled spoon. (You can safely replace the ice cream spoon with a regular table spoon, tea, or other spoons, but keep in mind that the frying time depends on the size of the balls.)
14. We spread the dough in hot (175 degrees) deep fat. Donuts pop up and swell quickly. We fry the donuts in batches, without cooling the oil.
15. Fry donuts with raisins and candied fruits until golden brown, 2.5 minutes on each side.
16. Gently catch the ruddy donuts from the seething deep fat.
17. We transfer donuts to parchment paper or a towel, remove excess oil. Then sprinkle the donuts with powdered sugar.
18. Donut crumb is airy and porous.

Bon Appetit!