Lefse – Norwegian Flatbread

Friends of mine are involved in The Sons of Norway, and every year their lodge makes Lefse for the Nordic Festival in Tucson.  They were kind enough to share the recipe and let me photograph them at work.  They make 100 dozen, and one year, sold out in just over 15 minutes.

Thanks to Marge for sharing the recipe below, I think this may be a recipe that takes a lot of practice to get just the “right feel.”

Ingredients

5 pounds Russet potatoes, peeled & diced
butter, melted
half & half
sugar
salt
flour

Directions

First day:

• Boil potatoes until tender
• Drain
• Rice potatoes in ricer
• Place 4 cups of riced potatoes in a large bowl and add 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/2 cup half & half, 1 tablespoon sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt
• Beat with electric mixer until blended, about 1 minutes
• Repeat until you’ve mixed all of the potatoes
• Put mixture in a large bowl; cover with a dish towel
• Refrigerate

Second Day:

• Put 4 cups potato mixture in a large bowl; add 1 cup flour, mix with hands.  Add additional flour until mixture is no longer sticky or sticking to hands.

• Repeat until all of the potato mixture is mixed with flour.

• Shape into small balls about 1/3 cup in size.  Set balls on a cookie sheet covered with paper towels

• Lightly flour a cloth covered lefse board and lefse rolling pin with cloth sleeve.  Roll each ball the cloth covered boar into a 12 to 14 inch circle.
• Carefully loosen the dough with a lefse stick – using a sawing motion.

• Place the lefse dough on a griddle that has been heated to 450 to 475 degrees.  Turn the dough when it begins to brown
• Place the prepared lefse between 3 to 4 large dish towels, stack additional lefse on top to keep the lefse moist.  Always keep lefse covered.

• Before bagging the lefse, place 4 to 6 lefse on a towel.  Let set about 1 minute.  Fold into half and then in half again.  Place in zip-lock bag; refrigerate or freeze.

I had to ask Marge where they got the fabric sleeves for the rolling pins and lefse sticks, etc. Depending on where you live, you might find these items in a specialty kitchen shop.  Since we’re in the desert SW, she orders from a catalog.  They’re also available from Amazon.