Grandpa (top, middle center....isn't he handsome??) comes from a family that loved to cook and bake. To this day (he is 87 now) he does most of the Christmas baking that Grandma used to do. It slowly evolved from her doing it all to him helping her, and then finally to him doing pretty much all of the baking but one or two items. But, the one thing I always remember being on the cookie platter when we came over on Christmas Eve was lefse.
When I was first introduced to lefse, I'll admit that I wasn't impressed. It was only because I wasn't a fan of cinnamon back then. If it wasn't straight sugar or mostly chocolate, I wasn't interested in it when I was 8. Over time, thankfully, my tastes diversified and my palate became more refined. Now, when I am blessed enough to actually be in town for Christmas Eve at Grandma & Grandpa's house, the first thing I look for on the tray is the lefse.
Lefse, for those that have never heard of it, is simply a sort of flat bread, not totally unlike a French crepe. But lefse is thicker, and its base is flour. You make the dough, roll it out and cook it on a flat surface. Grandpa's mom used to scrub her kitchen stove top clean, roll out her lefse, and cook it right on the top.
But these days there are all sorts of gadgets to make lefse. A lefse turner, lefse cozy, lefse griddle... When I asked Grandpa about those things he chuckled a little bit and said, they never used any of that stuff. I figured as much. So...I'm not going to use any of those specific things either. Normal folk won't have those things in their house, but they can still make a darn good lefse! So...what you will need to make this recipe is a griddle and a stick...you could use a wooden chopstick if you want to or a large flat frying pan if you don't have a griddle. I happen to have a crepe turner in my house, so I am using that along with the counter top griddle someone gave us for a wedding gift 8 years ago.
One thing that would be very nice to have but isn't required is what you see in the above picture with my little wooden crepe turner. That my friends, is a potato ricer. It certainly isn't needed, but it sure does make a quick job out of mashing the potatoes into a VERY fine texture. Sure, you could possibly accomplish the same thing with the electric hand mixer, but I don't recall the potatoes ever turning out quite as well with that compared to the ricer.
A little history on the lefse before we start... The first lefse in Norway wasn't made with potatoes, it was made from flour and cream or milk . Women would travel from house to house and village to village to make lefse to last the winter months. The flour lefse would cook up like a cracker and be able to last through the cold season. Many households stored their lefse in wooden boxes covered in cloth or just stacked on shelves. When you were ready to enjoy some lefse it was dipped in water and soaked between damp cloth til softened. Like today, back it was enjoyed with butter and maybe some sugar.
Then came the introduction of potatoes, abundant and easy to grow. The potato was incorporated into many Norwegian foods, even lefse. Potetlefse!! Like Ireland, Norway suffered from the effects of the potato famine in the mid-1800′s, which is about the time that many Norwegians came to the United States. They brought their knowledge and their rolling pins. The result is a Norwegian potato bread delicacy that’s part of a special tradition replicated in many Norwegian-American homes for more than 150 years. And I can't wait for you to try it! This is a recipe that you could get from ANYone in Minnesota and they'll tell you it was their mother's or their grandmother's secret recipe. To be frank, I've never seen a recipe that wasn't these amounts of these ingredients unless it was this recipe doubled or tripled.
It is quite the treat and it always gets my heart thinking that Christmas has finally arrived. En riktig god jul til deg og dine!
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The
first lefse in Norway didn’t contain potatoes, it was made from flour.
Women would travel from house to house, village to village to make lefse
to last the winter months. The flour lefse would cook up like a cracker
and be able to last through the season. Many households stored their
lefse is wooden boxes covered in cloth or just stacked on shelves. When
you were ready to enjoy some lefse it was dipped in water and soaked
between damp cloth til softened. Like today it was enjoyed with butter
and maybe some sugar.
Then the introduction of potatoes, abundant and easy to grow. The potato was incorporated into many Norwegian foods, even lefse! Like Ireland, Norway suffered from the effects of the potato famine in the mid-1800′s, which is about the time that many Norwegians came to the United States. They brought their knowledge and rolling pins. The result is a Norwegian potato bread delicacy that’s part of a special tradition replicated in many Norwegian-American homes for more than 150 years. A tradition that you can be part of once again.
- See more at: http://www.lefsetime.com/lefse-history/#sthash.2vyHOkSJ.dpuf
Then the introduction of potatoes, abundant and easy to grow. The potato was incorporated into many Norwegian foods, even lefse! Like Ireland, Norway suffered from the effects of the potato famine in the mid-1800′s, which is about the time that many Norwegians came to the United States. They brought their knowledge and rolling pins. The result is a Norwegian potato bread delicacy that’s part of a special tradition replicated in many Norwegian-American homes for more than 150 years. A tradition that you can be part of once again.
- See more at: http://www.lefsetime.com/lefse-history/#sthash.2vyHOkSJ.dpuf
The
first lefse in Norway didn’t contain potatoes, it was made from flour.
Women would travel from house to house, village to village to make lefse
to last the winter months. The flour lefse would cook up like a cracker
and be able to last through the season. Many households stored their
lefse is wooden boxes covered in cloth or just stacked on shelves. When
you were ready to enjoy some lefse it was dipped in water and soaked
between damp cloth til softened. Like today it was enjoyed with butter
and maybe some sugar.
Then the introduction of potatoes, abundant and easy to grow. The potato was incorporated into many Norwegian foods, even lefse! Like Ireland, Norway suffered from the effects of the potato famine in the mid-1800′s, which is about the time that many Norwegians came to the United States. They brought their knowledge and rolling pins. The result is a Norwegian potato bread delicacy that’s part of a special tradition replicated in many Norwegian-American homes for more than 150 years. A tradition that you can be part of once again.
- See more at: http://www.lefsetime.com/lefse-history/#sthash.2vyHOkSJ.dpuf
Then the introduction of potatoes, abundant and easy to grow. The potato was incorporated into many Norwegian foods, even lefse! Like Ireland, Norway suffered from the effects of the potato famine in the mid-1800′s, which is about the time that many Norwegians came to the United States. They brought their knowledge and rolling pins. The result is a Norwegian potato bread delicacy that’s part of a special tradition replicated in many Norwegian-American homes for more than 150 years. A tradition that you can be part of once again.
- See more at: http://www.lefsetime.com/lefse-history/#sthash.2vyHOkSJ.dpuf
**The U.S. measurements appear first followed by the European weights in parenthesis, unless only U.S. measurements were given. I weighed the amounts out first, then measured them with U.S. measuring cups and spoons. You can thank me later.
Potetlefse
4 c. of riced or mashed potatoes
1/4 c. of unsalted butter
1/2 c. heavy cream
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. flour
Peel 2 to 2 ½ lbs of russet
potatoes. Rinse and cut potatoes in half and then quarters. It’s important that
your potato pieces are of similar size so they are all cooked through at the
same time. Place potatoes into a large pot of salted water and boil until fork
tender. (You should be able to pierce potatoes with a fork easily.)Note: This
will yield 4 cups of riced potatoes equaling 12 lefse rounds, you can easily
double this recipe for a larger batch.
When the potatoes are done boiling drain into a large colander. Drain well and then rice. Don't waste a lot of time, your potatoes need to be warm to melt the butter. To keep your potatoes warm, rice them into the pot you used to cook them in. Rice all of the potatoes and then measure out 4 cups (lightly packed) into another large bowl. To make the ricing a bit easier, only fill the ricer basket about half or 2/3 of the way full and take it slow.
Your potatoes will literally look like grains of rice when they come out. Fabulously fluffy and very pliable!
Add 1/4 c. butter, in 1 T. pats, to the riced potatoes. Stir a few times to make sure the butter is evenly disbursed throughout the potatoes. If you aren't planning on making the lefse right away, cover with plastic wrap and stick them in the fridge until you're ready to use them.
After the potatoes have cooled, transfer them to a larger mixing bowl and add the cream, salt, sugar, and flour. Stir until most of the flour is worked in and then knead the dough like you would regular bread dough about 10-15 times. You should feel and see it start to come together as a smooth dough.
Using a 1/3 c. measurer, scoop out 12-14 portions onto a wax paper covered cookie sheet. Then shape each round of dough like you would a meat patty. It is important that the edge are smooth and have no cracks. Set the patties aside to rest while the grill heats up. It needs to be 500 degrees.
Roll each of your lefse rounds out on a clean, flat counter with plenty of flour on the counter and the rolling pin, unless you have a pastry cloth you can roll it out on. It would be wonderful if you made these perfectly round, but quite frankly...once they are cooked you butter them, sprinkle with sugar and/or cinnamon, and then cut the rolled up lefse into two or three bite chunks...so "perfectly round" won't matter one iota in the end. Just roll the sucker out.
Once you have rolled out all of the balls of dough and you're ready to cook them on the griddle, take your lefse turner....whatever you're using to do that (silicone covered tongs, a wooden chopstick, a crepe turner, etc.) use it to transfer each lefse sheet onto the griddle. If you're using tongs, that won't take much explanation, just move it onto the griddle with the tongs. If you're using a stick like the Norwegians do, place the stick in the middle of the lefse sheet and fold one edge over to the other (either right to left or top to bottom or vice versa) and transfer it to the griddle that way. Cook only one lefse sheet at a time.
Roll each of your lefse rounds out on a clean, flat counter with plenty of flour on the counter and the rolling pin, unless you have a pastry cloth you can roll it out on. It would be wonderful if you made these perfectly round, but quite frankly...once they are cooked you butter them, sprinkle with sugar and/or cinnamon, and then cut the rolled up lefse into two or three bite chunks...so "perfectly round" won't matter one iota in the end. Just roll the sucker out.
Once you have rolled out all of the balls of dough and you're ready to cook them on the griddle, take your lefse turner....whatever you're using to do that (silicone covered tongs, a wooden chopstick, a crepe turner, etc.) use it to transfer each lefse sheet onto the griddle. If you're using tongs, that won't take much explanation, just move it onto the griddle with the tongs. If you're using a stick like the Norwegians do, place the stick in the middle of the lefse sheet and fold one edge over to the other (either right to left or top to bottom or vice versa) and transfer it to the griddle that way. Cook only one lefse sheet at a time.
Cook the first side for only 30 seconds, the cues to watch for on the side that is against the griddle is when you peek under the edge there should be light golden brown spots. If they are there it is time to turn the lefse. The second side cooks more quickly than the first, so keep a close watch on it to know when it is time to take it off and put the next lefse sheet on.
From start to finish, cooking the lefse sheets should take no more than 20 minutes if you are able to get the hang of transferring and turning with the stick or tongs. As you remove them from the griddle have a plate with a kitchen towel on it or a "lefse cozy" waiting to put them in. Once you put it on the plate, cover the lefse with a towel. Put each addition of lefse sheets on the plate, covering with the towel when you go to cook the next one. Keeping them warm is a good idea unless you plan on freezing them or aren't using them right away.
If you are serving them right away, just fold in half and then half again and serve them on a platter with unsalted butter, sugar, and cinnamon available for your guests to make up their lefse as they'd like to.
If you don't eat them right away, fold them in half, then half again and store them in a freezer quality ziploc type of bag. You can either keep them in the fridge or freeze them for 6 months and up to 1 year. Sturdy, tasty dough. Doesn't freezer burn easily. You can thank the potatoes for that later.
After you thaw them out, butter each lefse round with unsalted butter, sprinkle with a moderate amount of sugar and a small amount of cinnamon, tightly roll each round and slice them either in half or in thirds and arrange them on a serving tray.
So many warm memories and feelings of happiness are connected to this Christmastime dessert, it is impossible for me to eat it without getting homesick and picking up the phone and calling Grandpa. When I called him today I asked him if he wanted me to send him some of my lefse he chuckled a bit and said "Give it a try..." I told him if I send it frozen through 2 day priority mail it will get to him after only a one day thaw. But, then of course he should eat it right away. I know I am a silly, silly woman but it would have been fun to think we were possibly noshing on a roll of lefse together...even if we were a over a thousand miles from one another.
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