New Year's Eve or "The Feast of Frying"

Pineapple Fritters

First of all: Happy New Year! I hope you had a great New Year's Eve and that 2014 will be a fantastic year for you all. I spent most of New Year's Eve with my head above a frying pan, as is tradition here in the Netherlands. Well at least it is tradition for me, I reckon most people get their fried treats from a "kraam" (stand) to avoid the deep-fried fumes. This year I baked for three families, including my own, which meant I had to fry up a LOT of oliebollen (Dutch doughnuts), apple and pineapple fritters. Oliebollen are made with a yeasted dough, and eaten chiefly on New Year's Eve, when the combined population of the Netherlands (17 million people) eat over 50 million pieces of the fatty snack. They are also eaten in Belgium, but not in quite such large numbers. Oliebollen are also sold throughout the rest of the year as well, usually on fairs and markets. Every year, Dutch newspaper AD has an "oliebollentest" to determine which stand fries the best oliebollen. Winning the title means large crowds queuing up in front of the lucky stand to get their hands on the best "bollen". 

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