Gluten Free Oliebollens

As with all of us Americans, my family line originated somewhere else. Shocker. I'm a mutt just like the rest of the country.

Although I have some some Native American royalty, a lot of German, and whatever else mixed in there, half of my DNA comes directly (as directly as directly can go) from the Netherlands.

My dad immigrated here to California with his parents and siblings when he was five or six years old, and they have been here ever since.

I'm a Dutch girl, guys. Thats why I'm so freakishly tall. Possibly why my skin is so incredibly white, or is that some Irish mixed in there?

Because my father and grandparents are immigrants, they continued to celebrate many of their European traditions after they came here to America.

Mostly by way of food.

And by food, I mean potatoes, chocolate and cookies.

That is apparently all they eat over there. Is everyone eight hundred pounds?

There are several seasonal treats that we enjoy over the holiday season, like stoopwafles, speculaas cookies, pepernoten (I have never enjoyed pepernoten, ever) and as any human being would eat chocoladehagel (chocolate sprinkles).

Non of these things I can eat anymore. None, nada.

So obviously I have to make them myself!

And because its New Years, and because I'm Dutch, and because eating these little balls of happiness is just the right things to do.....

I present to you the Dutch Oliebollen, gluten free as it were.

The oliebollen is a treat we would make every New Years growing up, adding in raisins and apples, and sneaking the treats as my mom stood over the fryer. In my recollection, this had to have been the only food ever fried in our home, and it was kind of a big deal.

Oliebollen literally translates to oil ball, which if that doesn't sound appetizing to you....

Basically it is just a large doughnut hole, but a little less sweet.

I have wanted to make these gluten fee for a long time, but for some reason felt that they would be really difficult and time consuming. Wrong and wrong. They were easy to make, and if you count the rising time and the time it takes to fry them all, it takes a little time-but hand on time is limited.

My mother proclaimed them even better then the boxed mixes we used before, my father put his Dutchman stamp of approval ("they taste like olliebolls") and I did a happy dance every time I took a bite, or looked at them, or thought about them. Because they are just so stink in good.

I might need to make some more.... I have until midnight to eat my junk before the new year, right?

*as with most gluten free baked goods, oliebollens do not keep well. So eat them all at once ;) But if you do have any left over the next day, warm up before eating.

Enjoy!xoxoxo