Olie bollen

Or, as my Grandmother spelled, Olli bulla. I found her recipe this weekend:

For those who might not be so familiar with Grandma’s writing, it says this (transcribed precisely):

“Olli Bulla”

4 c. buttermilk

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp soda

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

2 or 3 eggs

1/2 cup w. sugar

5 cup flour or whats needed to make (sic)

Have your lard in a fryer & drop a tbspoon

over

at a time. fry until nice & brown. Turn them unless they turn themselves.

Eat! Good

I know this is a cooking blog, but anyone who knew my grandmother will be able to see her personality, and her famous writing style shining through. But this is a cooking blog, so some notes on how I interpreted this to try and make the recipe for the first time ever.

I made a half-recipe and still was standing over the fryer for more than an hour. I used soured milk (milk with one tablespoon of lemon juice per cup) instead of buttermilk, because in England the buttermilk is not the same as in the US. Even halfing the recipe I used two small eggs, again because they are nothing like American jumbos. I have no idea how much flour I used to try and get a consistency that seemed to work, it is really a tricky one. Too much flour and you don’t get the right fluffy consistency, so I only added as much as I needed to get good doughnuts. I also added 3/4 c. currants and 1/2 c. raisins because, although she doesn’t say it on the recipe card, there were always fruit inside. I dropped the dough into the oil using a disher, and kept the oil in my fryer at a relatively low temperature (175C) to make sure they cooked through before getting too brown.

Interestingly enough, her recipe deviates quite a bit from a similar recipe online, which is yeast-leavened instead of baking powder leavened. As much as I love to bake bread, I’m quite happy with this version and would not try the yeasty alternative. And they are waiting for their icing sugar dusting until Thursday night, when I host my annual Christmas party. That was the excuse that led me to try the recipe for the first time myself. And I will not admit how many I ate fresh out of the fryer in the course of cooking them. Hey, they have fruit in them. Totally healthy treat. (And Mer, the Dutch purists online say don’t use milk, use beer. So you’re sorted.)

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