Oly koeks

Last December, Ellen, who runs our local yoga center, gave me a lovely gift of five small cookbooks published in 1927 by Woman's World Magazine Co. of Chicago. This recipe is from Cakes and Desserts: Being a collection of 150 tested recipes for home cookery, arranged by months. Olykoeks (usually seen as one word, though in the cookbook it's two words), meaning "oily cakes", are a Dutch creation, the precursor of our modern doughnut. Here's the original recipe; the notations in brackets are mine.

2 cups milk
1 compressed yeast cake [or 1 package dry active yeast]
2/3 cup shortening
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
About 7 cups flour [all-purpose flour]
1 tsp salt
Raisins
Frying fat [grapeseed, canola, or rice bran oil]
Brown sugar
[Confectioner's sugar for rolling the baked oly koeks]

Scald the milk and cool it until lukewarm. Dissolve the yeast in a half cup of the milk, add a Tbsp of flour, and set aside in a warm place for 20 minutes. Meanwhile cream the shortening and sugar until light, add the eggs, well beaten, then the dissolved yeast the remaining milk (lukewarm) alternatively with the flour and salt sifted together. Knead to a light dough and set aside to rise for about four hours, or until doubled in bulk. Turn onto a well-floured board, roll out one-third inch thick, cut into rounds with a large cutter and put one or two raisins and a teaspoon of brown sugar into the center of each round. Wet the edges and gather the dough up round the filling, being careful to pinch the edges firmly together. Cover and set aside to rise until light —about three-quarters of an hour, then cook until golden brown in frying fat hot enough to brown a piece of bread in one minute, or if using a frying thermometer this should register 350 degrees. When cold, roll each Oly Koek in confectioner's sugar.