Oliebol

An oliebol is a Dutch beignet, doughnut or fried dough that is traditionally eaten on New Year's Eve. People often eat it with raisins baked inside and with powdered sugar on top. Another variation is made with apple inside instead of raisins. There are similar foods all around the world, for example Samoan Panikeke, eaten mostly with jam or butter on top. They are called oliebollen (literally: oil balls) or smoutballen (literally: lard balls) in the Netherlands, smoutebollen (literally: lard spheres) in Flanders and croustillons (loosely: crispies) in Wallonia, Schmalzkugeln (same meaning as in Belgian Dutch smoutebollen) in Eastern Belgium German. In France, with croustillons they are also commonly called beignets rapides (literally: fast beignets) and croustillons hollandais (loosely: Dutch crispies). In out-of-Belgium German, they are called Ölkugel (same meaning as in Dutch oliebollen), Püpperchen (informal for puppets or babies) and Pupperle (same meaning, especially used in Alsace for these ones), Silvesterfutschen (loosely: messed up Saint Sylvesters) in Northern Germany, and Gebackene Mäuse (loosely: fried mice or baked mice) in Austrian German. In English they are more commonly known as Dutch doughnuts or dutchies. In Italy, they are called in many different ways and it depends on the Region: bombolini fritti, ficattole, bignoli, frittoli (or fritole/fritule), sgabei, bignet, panzanelle, coccoli, zonzelle, donzelle and so on. In the region of Istria, which is shared by the countries of Italy, Croatia and Slovenia, a variation of this dish is called fritole, fritule and blinci. In Serbia they are called krofne. In Portugal they are called sonhos (dreams). In Indonesia, they are known locally as roti goreng. Also, in Ghana, West Africa, they are known locally as bofrot or bofflot, and in the south of Benin, in the Fon language as yovodocon, i.e. "white man's dumplings". In Nigeria, they are known as 'puff puff'. In Iceland they're known as Ástarpungar (love balls). Oliebollen are a variety of dumpling made by using an ice cream scoop or two spoons to scoop a certain amount of dough and dropping the dough into a deep fryer filled with hot oil (or once with hot lard, thus some traditional local names). In this way, a sphere-shaped oliebol emerges. Oliebollen are traditionally eaten on New Year's Eve and at funfairs. In wintertime, they are also sold in the street at mobile stalls.

Source: Wikipedia