Scandinavian Lefse

A few weeks ago, I mentioned in passing that my sisters and I get together every year before Christmas to make Christmas cookies and lefse together. I know I left you hanging on what lefse is, but here's the short definition: it's a Norwegian flatbread made of potatoes and flour. It's just as versatile as a tortilla or a pita pocket--you are limited on what you can put in it only by your own imagination--but since I grew up with it being served at Thanksgiving and Christmas, I usually associate it slathered with butter and rolled up with turkey. My husband likes to put cranberry sauce with his turkey and lefse. On a trip to the Epcot Center several years ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see it served with butter, cinnamon and sugar in the Norwegian section of the park. Whatever you pair it with, it's good and just as easy to make as a homemade tortilla.

You might be wondering how a Southern girl, born and mostly raised in Alabama, grew up with a Scandinavian dish like lefse, but the truth is it's always been a part of my life because of my maternal grandmother. I think I mentioned before that her mother was third-generation Norwegian-American and her father was a Danish immigrant; lefse was something that was always on the table in her childhood home. In fact, one of my favorite stories about my great-grandmother occurred shortly after she and Grandpa Pederson were married: as you'll see in a minute, lefse is another one of those dishes that is more easily cooked by a group of people than alone, and Grandma Pederson was struggling to make a batch for supper that night for her new husband, but the dough was NOT cooperating. Right at the point when she was the most frustrated, Grandpa appeared at the door and started laughing at her. Without a word, she picked up the whole batch of dough and threw it at him, hitting him squarely in the face! I never heard, but I think it was a safe bet they didn't have any lefse for supper that night!

Making lefse is fairly easy, but you do need a few special tools to make it. The most important, and indispensable, tool is the lefse roller, a special rolling pin with grooves cut across the face of it. A normal rolling pin won't do because the dough tends to stick so easily to a flat surface; the grooves on the lefse roller help prevent this from happening. They're not so easy to find in a store down here in the South (try downright impossible!), but you can buy very good ones online for about the same amount of money you'd spend on a regular rolling pin.

One also needs a handheld ricer to make lefse. These can be bought online or even found in thrift or flea markets--I think I found both of mine in a flea market. The ricer is essential for turning the mashed potatoes that are the base of lefse into something that can be easily mixed with flour, etc. to make the dough; just mashing them does not guarantee getting all the lumps out. Ricing the potatoes ensures that your dough will be smooth and easier to work with.

Another important tool for making lefse is the lefse turner, a long slender piece of wood with a decorated handle and a flattened and rounded "blade". But you don't have to have a genuine lefse turner to make lefse; any long, thin stick will do. I've seen my grandma use a yardstick when she couldn't find her lefse turner, and my husband made one for me out of a piece of lathe that he cut, smoothed and rounded on the end.

The last piece of equipment needed to make lefse is the lefse griddle. These griddles are round and very large--you usually roll the lefse out to a diameter of 12" and the griddle has to accommodate that. I've never tried making lefse on any other size or shape griddle, but I'm sure it would be possible--you might just have to roll the dough out smaller.

Normally, when you make lefse, you make the mashed potatoes, rice them and make the dough. Like some cookie doughs, lefse dough is best worked when cold, so you chill it until you're ready to use it and pull out a little bit at a time to roll and grill. This year, my sister had bought a mix that only required the addition of potato flakes to make the dough, so I do not have any pictures of riced potatoes or the patties you cut the dough into before you chill it; the dough she made was rolled into balls that turned out lefse about half the size we normally make, but it tasted just the same, at least to me. So if you want to try making lefse, but don't want to invest in a full-size lefse griddle to do so, the mix might be the way to go. You can find it (and other lefse-related products) at this website: www.lefsetime.com. You'll still need a lefse roller, though.😊

Once your dough is chilled and ready to cook, prepare a smooth, flat surface with flour. We use special boards my husband made that are round and covered in a lint-free cloth, but as long as your rolling surface is smooth, flat and clean, that's all that matters. Place a lefse patty (or ball)  in the center of the flour, and, after coating the lefse roller in flour, roll it out into as large and thin of a circle as possible. Be careful not to go too thin or the lefse will tear or get holes, and that doesn't make for good lefse. It's also important to rotate and flip the dough frequently while you're rolling so that it doesn't stick to your work surface or the roller. You have to work quickly because the warmer the dough gets, the less manageable it will become. That's probably where my great-grandma had problems and the reason it's easier to make lefse with several people than by yourself. When one person rolls the dough and another cooks it, the process goes quite quickly.

To better demonstrate, my sister took a video of me rolling the dough:

Once the dough is as thin and large as you can get it, place your lefse turner (or yardstick or whatever 😉) on one side of the lefse and blow lightly on the edge. This should flip the end of the lefse over the turner and you can then roll up the lefse on the turner to transfer to the griddle. The lefse is so thin by this point that if you were to pick it up any other way, it would tear and break from its own weight.

Butter your preheated griddle, and then carefully unroll the lefse so that it is centered in the middle of the griddle. It only takes about 30 seconds to cook the bottom, then you use the lefse turner to flip it and cook the other side for 30 seconds. You'll know it's done when it develops little brown spots (from the butter) and bubbles from air pockets.

Pick it up with the lefse turner and, folded in half, place it between two clean towels, sliding the lefse turner out and free. Covering it with the towels ensures it doesn't cool and dry out too quickly, improving its longevity. Now you're ready to do the next one!

(Notice how we stack the lefse back and forth on opposite sides as we work; this keeps your pile of lefse from getting too top-heavy and falling over 😊)

And here's another video (fascinating to watch!) of the lefse cooking, just in case you didn't follow that last step as I explained it. 

Once you've made all your lefse, fold each piece in half again (so it's quartered basically) and stack it in ziploc bags; it should keep up to a month in the fridge or even 3 months in the freezer. Just thaw it like you would any bread and you're ready to go! As I said before, it can be used like any other flat bread and I've yet to try it with something it wasn't good with. What makes it stand out from the tortillas we're all used to around here is that potato flavor--delicious! I even like to eat it by itself with nothing on it! I hope you'll try it sometime--you might like it too!