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Papua New GuineaFlavors · the Netherlands
Fried yeasted dough balls, with or without raisins and apple, dusted with confectioners’ sugar. They are the New Year’s Eve treat in the Netherlands, sold at stalls that appear in towns at the end of the year.
Traditional sweet from the Netherlands
Also known as: oliebol, oliekoek
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Oliebollen — the Netherlands
Oliebollen — literally “oil balls” — are yeasted dough balls fried in hot oil and dusted with confectioners’ sugar. The dough contains flour, yeast, milk and egg, and many versions include raisins and pieces of apple. They are larger and heavier than a “sonho,” with no filling and no topping other than the sugar.
The pastry is old in the Netherlands. Dutch press links the tradition to fried festival sweets from the Christian calendar. Over time, the oliebol became fixed at the end of December and turned into the treat of Oudejaarsavond, New Year’s Eve.
At that time oliebol stalls (oliebollenkramen) appear in squares and on street corners across the country. Every family has a preferred stall, and newspapers and magazines publish annual tests comparing them. Many families also fry the dough balls at home on the last day of the year.
Dutch New Year’s Eve typically pairs oliebollen with other fried pastries, such as the appelflap and appelbeignets, made with apple.
Oliebollen are sold in paper bags, still hot, with the sugar on top. Outside the year-end period they show up at fairs and amusement parks, but the main season is December.
the Netherlands
New Year’s Eve sweet throughout the country.
Wheat flour, yeast, milk, egg, salt; often raisins and chopped apple; oil for frying and confectioners’ sugar.
Hot, eaten by hand, sprinkled with confectioners’ sugar, usually taken from a paper bag.
Late December and New Year’s Eve (Oudejaarsavond); also at fairs and amusement parks.
Your questions
Yeasted dough balls fried in oil, dusted with sugar, sometimes with dried fruit in the dough.
At the end of December, especially on New Year’s Eve; rare the rest of the year.
At stalls that appear in squares and on street corners in Dutch towns at year’s end, and at bakeries.
Flavors of the Netherlands
Thick split pea soup with vegetables and smoked sausage that in winter can become so thick a spoon can stand upright. The preparation of erwtensoep, also called snert, was recognized as intangible heritage of the Netherlands in July 2018.
Young, fatty seasonal herring, cleaned, salted and matured by the traditional method and eaten raw with chopped onion. It is a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed of the European Union, and the arrival of the new season is celebrated throughout the country.
Rustic mashed potatoes mixed with a vegetable, such as kale, sauerkraut or carrots with onion, served with a smoked sausage and gravy. It’s the winter home-cooking dish of the Netherlands, with variants that have their own names.
Small white bread filled with well-seasoned pork, the worstenbroodje is the savory of North Brabant and was recognized as Dutch intangible heritage in 2016.
White yeast bread with large chunks of sugar mixed into the dough and cinnamon, which caramelize in the oven. It is the sweet bread most associated with Friesland, and local tradition links it to visits to the parents after a baby is born.
Two thin crisp waffle wafers glued together with a caramel-cinnamon syrup filling. It originated in Gouda bakeries around 1800, and the method of making it by hand is on the national inventory of intangible heritage.
A boiled egg wrapped in a creamy, spiced ragù, breaded and fried: the eierbal is the snack bar treat of Groningen. It was added in 2017 to the national inventory of intangible heritage, following an initiative by a society created to protect it.
Round tart made from a thin fermented dough and generously filled with fruit, rice pudding or custard, sometimes topped with a lattice or streusel. Since 2024 it has a Protected Geographical Indication from the European Union, shared by Dutch and Belgian Limburg.
Tray of French fries topped with shoarma, melted cheese, salad, garlic sauce and sambal. Created in 2003 at a snack bar in Rotterdam for hairdresser Nataniël Gomes, it took the name of his salon and spread across the Netherlands.
Cereal distillate flavored with juniper, the predecessor of gin, which made Schiedam the city of jenever: at its peak, hundreds of distilleries operated along the canals, and giant windmills ground the grain. Jenever has a European geographical indication shared by the Netherlands, Belgium and neighbouring areas.
Large choux pastry ball filled with whipped cream and covered in dark chocolate, the sweet of 's-Hertogenbosch. A local pastry shop advertised chocolate balls as early as 1903 and began filling them with whipped cream in 1924.
A small leavened roll twisted into a spiral with light brown sugar and cinnamon that caramelizes in the oven, leaving it sticky inside and out. It is the best-known sweet of Zeeland and its origin is attributed to the Sephardic Jews who settled in Middelburg at the end of the 16th century.
