Best wishes for the new year, for both our long-eared and our short-eared folks

So happy that my oliebollen turned out so well, the dough raised very well and they were very nice and fluffy after baking. That’s quite special for gluten-free stuff, I’m happy that I finally found a recipe which works. Although…we had so many oliebollen that we didn’t even finish the first bowl. Ah well, I sent the guests home with a goodie bag ^_^

We had a bunny New Year celebration: I invited a friend of mine, but she didn’t want to leave her bun alone during his (first?) New Year’s eve. I suggested to bring him over too, so we could all celebrate together, 4 humans & 2 buns. We made a pen in the part of the living room where Breintje can’t go, and Willie had a great time. He wanted cuddles, chewed all the toys to bits and flopped in between his destructive rampages. I think my 5-veg bunny salad will get a great review too

It’s quite clear that Willie was separated from his mum way too early in life. He was found on the street abandoned at only a couple of weeks old, luckily he was brought to a shelter. Willie grew up to be an enormous Flemish giant, his ears are nearly as large as Breintje himself is. Because of his past he doesn’t speak rabbit at all, and Breintje was a bit confused by this lack of etiquette. Breintje sat at some distance checking out this stranger, and Willie bounced over to the fence to say hi. He was a bit too enthousiastic for Breintjes taste, and Breintje hopped off. He behaved quite normally for the rest of the evening, except for a major bout of jealousy.

I sat down to give Willie a couple of pets too, and Breintje had a thumping hissyfit. When I wanted to give him attention he refused to come to the couch. I had to lay down on the floor, and he presented his butt for several minutes. It took a lot of pettings and raisins to fix his mood, I think I’m going to have a very cuddly bun on my hands tomorrow. Breintje does NOT share attention: “MY human!” Oh my, if we ever have to bond him it’s going to be a difficult process with this little diva…

Hoppy New Year!!!

I’m sadly away from my buns tonight (which is hard, because we lost Moose last year on NY day…), but just got an update from our sitter that the buns are happily lounging.

And OMG I love those resolutions! Finally one that I might actually keep!

Happy Belated New Year, Binky Bunners! I hope we start seeing the regulars around more, it’s been so quiet! And welcome some new bun-crazed folks.
@DanaNM, anniversaries are hard, especially when they fall on a celebration day.

@Ellie, Those look amazing and I am so impressed that they are GF. Is it the high heat and quick baking that helps make them so fluffy, do you think?

Im a crap, crap bunny slave who didn’t really acknowlege TimTim’s Birthday!

I nominated the 1st as his BD since he was about 1 month old when I met him and that day was the Chinese New Year in Feb. So his bd was estimated as 1/1/11. I happened to give him a lot of kisses on his head on Tues morning but didnt really think of his bd until the day after.

@Dana: that must be rather weird to have a memorial day and a celebration day all at once. Happy to hear that the buns were quite relaxed with the sitter.
@JG: Luckily for us buns can’t read calendars. Their internal clock though… let’s say they make sure that dinner is never late

Thank you, GF baking is so tricky! Oliebollen are always baked on a high heat in an oil which can handle high temperatures (185 C), they have to form a crispy skin so they don’t soak up oil. They’ll end up very heavy and greasy if it goes wrong. Bakers usually use peanut oil, home bakers often use sunflower seed oil.
These oliebollen are made with GF white bread mix and you can improve the consistency by adding a generous amount of Fiberhusk (Psylium fibre). Fiberhusk is a gelling agent which prevents the dreaded crumbly texture of GF bread etc. A little brown sugar makes the outside darker and crispier, and a GF beer adds extra flavour.

Oliebollen are only eaten once a year, so I experiment with the recipe each year. This year the experiment was all about yeast starting. The raisins and currants have to soak overnight, and I collected some of the water they had been soaking in. I heated it with milk until lukewarm and added a bit of brown sugar as a yeast starter. The yeast reacted really well, and the dough started to rise before I was even done mixing, it already smelled like alcohol before I added the beer. I used only 2/3 of the amounts in the recipe, but because the dough raised so spectacularly we ended up with 50 oliebollen for 4 people. Woops! Nobody complained about it though ^_^

Hoppy new year! Sorry about being late, still sick and busy with other stuff plus power went out one day, no fun, lol

Dana – I lost mine a year ago on New Year’s day as well & was away in another state when I got the call, I guess we went through a similar situation, so sorry for the loss of yours

I did a little photo shoot with my buns! This photo shoot was a little tiring exhausting haha

Beautiful Mimzy! I can imagine there are lots of “blooper” photos too!