Lefse: A Family Tradition

Families have their own special food traditions. Some of these traditions are captured in those famous church cookbooks (aside from having good recipes, these cookbooks reveal much about the nature of a certain time and place and the personalities of the contributors…) But how many of these traditions are simply forgotten?

Lefse, a Norwegian tortilla made from potatoes, is our family tradition. My Grandma Carrie has always made lefse for us, especially for the holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Lefse, according to Linda’s Culinary Dictionary, is “to any "good" Norwegian the same as the tortilla is to the Mexican and the crepes are to the French. A Scandinavian tradition for decades, lefse is a pastry made from potatoes, flour, butter, and cream. It is widely prized as a delicious delicacy, whether served plain or with butter and sugar.”

Grandma Carrie tells me that she didn’t learn how to make lefse until after her mother passed away. She also tells me that my Grandma Tena used to make and sell her lefse. According to http://www.foodtimeline.org/, "Lefse is not yet a lost art. But it is dwindling...” I don’t want this dwindling art to be forgotten in our family. So I’ve been making lefse with Grandma Carrie. Here is Grandma’s lefse recipe and the technique for making it.

 Grandma Carrie’s Lefse

Ingredients

• 3.5 pounds of russet potatoes (In my Grandma’s words, 2/3 of a 5 pound bag of potatoes or enough to fill s small 2 QT sauce pan)
• ½ stick of butter
• ½ C condensed milk or heavy cream
• 2 T salt
• 1 T sugar
• 2 C unsifted flour

Equipment
I've included the Amazon widget here so you can see what the pastry board, corrugated rolling pin, and lefse stick look like.

• Pastry board and cloth (optional)
• Lefse stick
• Lefse grill / 'Heritage Grill' or a pancake griddle
• Corrugated wood rolling pin
• Cloth rolling pin covers
• Potato ricer (optional)
• Flour sifter

Directions
Preparing the Dough

• Peel the potatoes
• Boil the potatoes in a 2 QT sauce pan
• Rice or mash the potatoes. Place the potatoes in a large bowl and chill overnight
• Using the microwave, melt the butter in the condensed milk and stir
• Add salt to the butter-milk mixture and stir
• Add sugar to the salt-butter-milk mixture and stir




The lefse dough


• Add the liquid to the potatoes and mix with your hands
• Sift the flour into the potato mixture and knead with your hands until the flour disappears. If the dough is still sticky, add a little more flour.
  
  Grandma tells me that a "natural leavening process" occurs with the potatoes, so it’s important to use your hands rather than an automatic mixer, which could over-develop the gluten and cause the dough to rise.

Rolling Out the Dough





Starts as a small round dough ball!


• Spread a thin layer of flour on the pastry board (Grandma uses a circular Bethany pastry board, which is covered in fabric to help prevent the dough from sticking)
• Fill 1/3 C with the dough to roll out
• Place the dough on the pastry board and shape it into a circle
• Lightly flour each side of the circular dough ball with the flour sifter
• Using a covered corrugated rolling pin, roll the dough into a thin, circular shape, flipping and flouring the dough as needed to prevent the dough from sticking




Rolled out lefse dough


• Continue to flip, flour, and roll until the dough is about 12 inches wide and very thin
• Transfer the lefse to the ungreased griddle using the lefse stick
• Cook the lefse on high heat on each side until it is lightly browned
• Flip the lefse as needed using the lefse stick



Flipping the lefse with the lefse stick

Let the lefse cool on wire baking racks. This recipe makes about 14 pieces of lefse.

To prepare, spread the lefse with butter and/or sugar and roll it up and serve. Some even use the lefse as a bread, serving sandwich fixings or meats rolled up inside the lefse.



The final product: about 14 pieces of lefse