Norwegian Lefse Recipes

LEFSE

Steps:

• Lefse (LEF-suh) is a potato flatbread. For Hardware you'll need: a large pot, a large frying pan or griddle of some sort (at least 9 inch bottom diameter), a mixer or a potato masher, a bowl and plastic wrap or tupperware, a flat surface big enough to knead on, a rolling pin, a spatula. First, peel your potatoes. The fresher they are, the easier this is to do and the less nasty they will be. If your potato has things growing out of it and you absolutely can't get a new one, cut them out and don't eat them for the love of god. Cut out all remaining black spots and cut them in half or until they're about evenly sized. This is so they all cook at the same speed. Now put them into a big pot and fill it with water to cover them. Put some salt in, around a teaspoon or so. Now cover the pot, and go do something else for a while. When they're done, take them out and drain the water. We'll be using milk and butter for these potatoes, not the potato water. You can tell when they're done when the middle isn't hard and raw-potatoey anymore. Go ahead and cut one in half if you can't tell by looking. Now, if you're lazy like me, you'll use a stand mixer to mash the potatoes. If not, you can go at them with a potato masher or a fork, whatever. Get them nice and mashed, then measure out two cups of potato and set whatever you have left over aside. You can add garlic and eat it by itself or make lazy noodles or shepherd's pie or something. There is no such thing as too much mashed potatoes. Add the tablespoon of milk, tablespoon of salt, and two tablespoons of butter to it and then mash them again until it's all blended. Then put it into some sort of container - I used that mixing bowl with plastic wrap over it (make sure the plastic wrap is down inside the bowl touching the potatoes if you do this) but a Tupperware would be fine too. Stick it in the fridge until it's cold. Usually about two hours works, although when I'm lazy I leave it in there for a day or so. That should have taken about two hours. Now pull the potatoes out and make sure that they're cold. Not room temperature, but cold, and slightly stiff. Get your flour out and flour up your flat surface. This is to keep the lefse dough from sticking to the counter, which it will probably do anyway a few times. Put the chunk of mashed potatoes down into the middle of the floured area and spread about half a cup of flour over the top of it. Now knead it for about ten minutes, gradually incorporating another half cup of flour besides the amount of flour you'll have to add to replace the stuff it picks up from your counter. After it has a whole cup of flour in it, it will feel much doughier and nothing like mashed potatoes anymore. Now you need to divide it into eight pieces and ball it up. But whatever floats your boat, so long as you get eight equally sized little balls of dough out of it. Spread more flour out onto your surface - no, more. Lefse loves getting stuck when you roll it out, it's infuriating. The best way to avoid it is to flip the dough over every time you take a roll on the rolling pin, flick a little more flour under it, and then roll the other side. Always keep your rolling pin well floured, too. You want really thin pieces here, absolutely no thicker than your average flour tortilla, otherwise they won't cook all the way through and will taste a little doughy. They should work out to be about nine inches diameter. Once you have all pieces rolled out, heat up your frying pan or griddle or whatever and grease it slightly if it isn't non-stick. Non-stick is great for this purpose, though. Flip one of the uncooked lefse into the pan and quickly unfold any creases that might have happened with the spatula. You only turn lefse once, and you do it when you see air bubbles forming under the lefse. It won't need to cook for as long on the other side, but it will do the bubble trick again (harder to see this time, careful not to leave it on too long and burn it!) or you can just pick it up with the spatula and check underneath. When it's done, put it on a plate and repeat. When you've done all lefse, you will have the a plate of goodness. You can now do just about anything with it. Use it as bread in sandwiches, wrap it around meatballs, eat it plain, or my favorite, dessert lefse - smeared with butter and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.

BASIC LEFSE: NORWEGIAN POTATO FLATBREAD

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Preheat the oven to 175 F. Peel the potatoes, making sure that no peels or eyes remain. Coarsely chop them into 1-inch pieces.
• In a stockpot, bring water to a boil and add the potatoes. Boil them until they are fork-tender, about 15 to 20 minutes.
• Drain the boiled potatoes well. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bring them into the hot oven for 15 minutes to dry them further.
• Remove the potatoes from the oven and pass them through a ricer . You need them to be finely riced, so twice through the ricer might give you a better texture. You should have at least 4 cups of riced potatoes.
• Mix in the heavy cream, butter, sugar, and salt.
• Mix well and place the potato dough in the refrigerator, covered, to chill overnight.
• Preheat a lefse griddle or your skillet of choice to 425 F. You need a very hot surface to properly cook the lefse. Use a pastry blender to cut the flour into the chilled potatoes, or vigorously knead the flour in until you have a smooth dough.
• With the help of an ice cream scoop, divide the dough into 16 to 20 biscuit-sized balls.
• Generously flour a pastry cloth or board and a rolling pin. Roll out each piece of dough into a 12-inch circle, dusting with more flour as needed.
• Carefully lift the circle with a lefse stick or the handle of a flat wooden spatula. Transfer it quickly to the griddle.
• Cook the lefse on the griddle until brown spots begin to appear.
• Flip and cook the other side.
• Remove the cooked lefse to a plate lined with a damp clean cloth to cool. Cover with another damp cloth. Continue to cook the remaining dough balls until you've used all of the dough.
• Serve the lefse smeared with butter to taste and a sprinkle or two of sugar.
• Enjoy.

NORWEGIAN LEFSE

Steps:

• Cover potatoes with water and cook until tender. Run hot potatoes through a potato ricer. Place into a large bowl. Beat butter, cream, salt, and sugar into the hot riced potatoes. Let cool to room temperature.
• Stir flour into the potato mixture. Pull off pieces of the dough and form into walnut size balls. Lightly flour a pastry cloth and roll out lefse balls to 1/8 inch thickness.
• Cook on a hot (400 degree F/200 C) griddle until bubbles form and each side has browned. Place on a damp towel to cool slightly and then cover with damp towel until ready to serve.

NORWEGIAN POTATO LEFSA

Steps:

• Peel potatoes and place them in a large pot with a large amount of water. Bring water to a boil, and let the potatoes boil until soft. Drain and mash well.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine 8 cups mashed potatoes, cream, butter, salt, and sugar. Cover potatoes and refrigerate over night.
• Mix flour into the mashed potatoes and roll the mixture into balls about the size of tennis balls, or smaller depending on preference. Keep balls of dough on plate in the refrigerator.
• Taking one ball out of the refrigerator at a time, roll dough balls out on a floured board. To keep the dough from sticking while rolling it out, it helps to have a rolling pin with a cotton rolling pin covers.
• Fry the lefsa in a grill or in an iron skillet at very high heat. If lefsa brown too much, turn the heat down. After cooking each piece of lefsa place on a dishtowel. Fold towel over lefsa to keep warm. Stack lefsa on top of each other and keep covered to keep from drying out.

LEFSE

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Cook potatoes until tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain well.
• Rice potatoes into a large bowl, continuing until you have 8 cups. Add oil, evaporated milk, sugar and salt, and mix well. Let cool, then cover and refrigerate for a few hours, or overnight.
• When ready to make lefse, add 2 1/2 cups flour and mix well. Divide dough into two logs if you have a lefse grill, and four if you do not. Dough should be sticky and hold together, but not so sticky it's impossible to work with; if necessary, add remaining 1/2 cup flour. Cut each log into 9 or 10 pieces, shape into small balls and place on plates in refrigerator.
• If you have a lefse grill, heat it to 400 degrees. If you don't have a lefse grill, set a wide, low-lipped nonstick pan over medium-high heat.
• Generously dust work space with flour and flour a rolling pin. Roll one dough ball in flour, then use the heel of your hand to press it into a thick disk. If you have a lefse grill, gently roll dough into a large, thin circle (if you are using a regular pan, roll into a thin circle just smaller than the size of your pan), lifting and flipping frequently so it doesn't stick; use more flour as needed. Brush excess flour from dough. Use a lefse stick to carefully transfer to grill (use a thin spatula if cooking in a pan). Cook for 1 minute, or until lefse is steaming and small bubbles appear on uncooked side. Using lefse stick or spatula, flip lefse and cook for 45 seconds or so. Place lefse on a clean dish towel and cover with another. Repeat, stacking lefse atop one another between the dish towels.

NORWEGIAN LEFSE

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl mix potatoes, milk, butter, salt and 3/4 cup of flour.
• Kneed briefly on lightly floured board, adding flour to make the
• dough non-sticky.
• Divide dough into 12 equal balls; roll each on lightly floured
• board into a circle paper thin.
• Lightly oil a heavy skillet or crepe pan; set over medium heat.
• Cook one at a time, until lightly browned, about one minute on
• each side.
• Stack on a plate with a paper towel in between each one.
• Freeze leftovers, and thaw throughout the year and enjoy a favorite anytime.

LEFSE- NORWEGIAN FLAT BREAD

Steps:

• Peel and cut potatoes. Boil in well salted water until soft. Use more salt than you normally would. You do not want to add salt once they are cooked as it will not dissolve as well.
• Drain well and return to pot. Steam for a few minutes to ensure all water has been evaporated.
• Measure out 4 cups of potatoes, packed well. Rice potatoes now while potatoes are still hot. You may have potatoes left over.
• Place riced potatoes in a plastic bowl with a good sealing lid. Add butter and milk and mash with a HAND masher. Do NOT use an electric mixer as it will get sticky.
• Allow to cool on the counter until potatoes are at room temperature then place several paper towels on top, seal tightly with the lid and place in the refrigerator overnight.
• Next day: Much easier to work with. Mix in flour and sugar and form into small balls. Now roll them out thin and flat using a rolling pin, preferably one with grooves and covered with a sock. You can just cut an old CLEAN sock and slide it over the rolling pin.
• Using a lefse stick or a long flat stick or long thin spatula roll the raw lefse around the stick and then unroll onto a HOT griddle (450 degrees) Flip once the first side starts to form bubbles and is lightly browned or freckled. Cook other side just until lightly browned.
• Using stick again remove lefse from griddle to a towel and place a towel on top to keep them warm and pliable.
• Eat warm or store in the refrigerator in a well sealed container lined with more paper towels. Can also be frozen with waxed paper between each lefse.