Literally translated, the word “oliebollen” means “oil balls”. Pretty accurate, as they are balls of dough deep-fried in oil. We eat them topped with powdered sugar, and you can either get plain oliebollen or oliebollen with raisins in them.
If you are ever visiting the Netherlands in the wintertime be sure to try them! They are often sold on the street in the winter months. Or just make them yourself using my recipe 😉
This recipe was updated with new photos in december 2025, the recipe itself was not changed.
How to make gluten-free oliebollen
To make gluten-free oliebollen batter, it’s important not to use a gluten-free flour blend that’s meant for cakes and cookies (like Schär Mix C), but instead a gluten-free bread mix.
I personally like using Schär Mix B Brot*. This one works really well for oliebollen and gives them a nice, light texture. You can also make your own flour blend using different types of flour, that recipe is included below.
*FODMAP note: this mix contains a small amount of lentil flour. Lentils are low FODMAP in small portions, so I expect lentil flour to be the same. It’s a good idea to test your own tolerance. Since only a small amount is used, it should generally be well tolerated.
Homemade gluten-free flour mix
I also made a homemade flour mix that resembled my favourite bread mix that got discontinued. For this, I used the following:
- 100 g (3/4 cup) brown rice flour
- 50 g (1/3 cup) teff flour
- 20 g (2 1/2 tbsp) corn starch
- 70 g (1/2 cup) tapioca starch
- 1 tsp (4 g) xanthan gum
- 7 g (1 3/4 tsp) baking powder
This is one of my favorite batters for gluten-free oliebollen. They are soft, fluffy, and still taste good the next day.
Storing gluten-free oliebollen
One downside of gluten-free baked goods is that they tend to get dry more quickly. Regular oliebollen also get a bit stale after about two days, but with gluten-free ones, this usually happens even sooner.
So they’re best enjoyed fresh! If you do want to store them, keep them in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
Before eating, I recommend warming them briefly in the microwave or oven, that way they’ll become nice and soft again.
Oliebollen with or without raisins
I personally love oliebollen with raisins, so I add 50 grams of raisins to this recipe. Prefer them plain? You can simply leave the raisins out.
You can also add other mix-ins if you like, such as some chopped nuts or an apple cut into very small pieces with 1 tsp cinnamon, for apple cinnamon oliebollen.
FODMAP note:
Raisins are low FODMAP up to 4 grams per serving, so only in very small amounts. If you’re still in the elimination phase of the FODMAP diet, I recommend using no more than 40 grams of raisins in this recipe. That way, one oliebol remains low FODMAP.
Apple is also low FODMAP in limited amounts, up to 25 grams per serving. If you use one medium apple in the recipe, one oliebol will still be low FODMAP.
Enjoy!
Gluten-free Dutch Doughnuts (low FODMAP, lactose-free)
- Yield: 10 1x
Description
Delicious low FODMAP and gluten-free Dutch doughnuts. Just as good as the original variant with gluten. New Years Eve as it should be! Also lactose-free.
Ingredients
- 250 g (2 cups) gluten-free flour*
- 220 ml (scant 1 cup) warm lactose-free milk**
- 180 ml (3/4 cup) warm water
- 25 g (2 tbsp) sugar
- 7 g (2 1/4 tsp) dried yeast
- A pinch of salt
- Optional: 50 g (1/3 cup) raisins***
- 2 litres (8 1/2 cups) sunflower oil
- Powdered sugar for serving
- Kitchen thermometer
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 50°C (122°F) (this is for rising the batter).
- Heat the milk in a pan or in the microwave.
- Put the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast together in a bowl. Stir.
- Pour in the water and the milk. Mix together with a mixer or whisk.
- Put the bowl into the oven for 30 minutes or another warm place to rise. After half an hour, it usually has risen quite a lot. Otherwise, you can leave the batter in the warm oven for a little longer. If there is a hard layer on top of the batter after the rising, you can remove it with a spoon.
- Put the raisins into warm water for about 15 minutes. Drain and dry them well after that.
- Heat the sunflower oil in a heatproof pan to 175°C (347°F). Be very careful because the oil will get extremely hot.
- Carefully fold the raisins into the batter.
- Take an ice cream spoon or two spoons and drop balls of dough into the oil carefully. Fry the oliebollen for about 4-6 minutes until they have browned on all sides. Note that the doughnuts will become quite darker if you use the homemade flour mix, as the flours you use are a bit darker. If you take the first doughnut out of the oil, cut it open to see if it is fully cooked. If it is not, you can fry the next doughnut a bit longer.
- Take them out with a heatproof spatula and leave them to drain well.
- Serve the oliebollen with powdered sugar.
Notes
*See the text above the recipe for the flour mixes that I like to use for this recipe.
**Use plant-based milk to make the doughnuts vegan.
***Raisins are low FODMAP up to 4 grams per serving, so only in very small amounts. If you’re still in the elimination phase of the FODMAP diet, I recommend using no more than 40 grams of raisins in this recipe. That way, one oliebol remains low FODMAP.
19 Comments
How are these lactose free when they have milk?
That’s a mistake, thank you for noticing. It should say lactose-free milk. I will change it 🙂
Well, that was tricky to make GF olieballen!
I see what you mean about pancakes!
In the end I managed to make about 6 very funny shapes but they’ll do! I had to hold them together with spoons to keep their shape. The sultanas perhaps weighed them down too much.
In Australia I could not find those combos of GF bread flour and subsititued 50 gms of buckwheat…
Not sure I’ll try again but the smell and taste was good.
Have you made GF apelflappen?
Hi Leni, yes the right flour mixture is quite difficult to find for oliebollen. I didn’t try to make appelflappen because unfortunately I am intolerant to apples. But making them should be quite simple, by using gluten-free puff pastry.
what kind of gluten free flour do u use?
thanks!
Shira (themustanggirl)
hi
what kind of glutenfree flour do you use?
thanks
Shira
I use gluten-free flour for bread
yes i know but what is in that flour?
could i perhaps use pamelas bread flour mix? it containes: sorghum flour, tapioca starch, white rice flour, sweet rice flour, brown rice flour, inulin, sugar, millet flour, sea salt and xanthan gum.
Can you tell me how I can make this without the gf pre mixed flour, I make my own gf flour mixes.
I made this recipe in Australia a few days ago, and they were amazing! Thanks so much for sharing the combination of flours in addition to the pre-made mixes that you had tried. I used the home-made flour blend and they tasted so good! Even the next day they were still quite soft and delicious when quickly reheated in the microwave. My non-coeliac husband liked them too!
So happy to hear that 🙂
Hi Karlijn. I used the base of your oliebollen recipe. But instead of the gf flour, I used a packet of Simply Wize Gluten Free Crusty Bread Mix. Packet was 330g so I increased the other ingredients accordingly:
285ml lactose free milk
235ml water
32g sugar
Yeast sachet in bread mix packet.
Fluked it … they were a huge success!!! Have frozen a few, will let you know how they go.
Thank you x
Happy to hear that! 🙂
I tried to make these today and the dough was like soup. My non GF ones dough is so much thicker. is it supposed to be so runny?? I threw it out!
That’s not how it is supposed to be! What kind of flour mix did yo use?
I grew up with my mom making Oliebollen every New Year as well. I was just diagnosed with celiac and one of my first thoughts was of Oliebollen! thank you for doing the experimenting for the rest of us! Going to give this a try!
You’re welcome! I hope you will enjoy them 🙂
what can I use if I cannot find teff flour and cannot eat corn starch?
You could try using rice flour instead of teff flour (so increase the amount of rice flour that you use) and instead of corn starch you could use tapioca starch if you can have that.