LEFSE for the holidays E

By Renae Ronquist The Woman Today

"What is lefse?” asked some of my Indiana friends.

I was flabbergasted!

“How do you NOT know what lefse is?” I asked. “It’s only the best thing you’ll ever eat!”

As part Norwegian, I grew up eating lefse every winter holiday and, thanks to commercial businesses, throughout the year too. We always bought it at the grocery store growing up in Minnesota, but it wasn’t until my husband and our family moved to Indiana that I decided to try making it myself, since it wasn’t available locally. The first attempt was a bit daunting since I didn’t have all the special tools and grill. It took some trial and error but eventually I was able to make some pretty decent lefse to satiate my craving. I just had to make the rounds smaller to fit the skillet. So if you don’t have all the tools just yet, it is still possible to make it.

Last year during Covid I finally broke down and bought all the tools. The grill, rolling board, rolling pin, lefse stick and even a T-shirt that says, “Lefse makes the world go round.” I was all in! (The stick makes for a fun decoration hanging on my kitchen wall.)

I bought a 20-pound bag of potatoes and got to rolling — I rolled out so many I got blisters! I will say, having the lefse grill and the special tools does make the process easier. And I was finally able to make bigger rounds.

Ingredients

8 cups russet potatoes, riced* (about 10 to 12 potatoes)

1 cup whipping cream

4 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoon sugar

½ cup butter

2 cups flour, plus extra for rolling out dough

Tools Ricer

Lefse rolling pin with lefse pin sock, or regular rolling pin with lefse pin sock

Plywood rolling board covered with a linen pastry cloth

Lefse stick or large spatula

Lefse grill or large frying skillet

Cloth dish towels

Directions

1. Wash, peel and cut potatoes into 1- to 2-inch pieces. Put in a large pot and cover with salted water. Bring to a boil and cook until you can easily poke the potatoes with a fork. Drain and cool enough to work with.

2. Use a potato masher to mash the potatoes smooth. Once the potatoes are all smashed, fill your ricer one spoonful at a time and rice all the potatoes for very smooth potatoes. Ricing your potatoes is not required, but it does make the lefse dough smoother and easier to work with. I like to rice my potatoes twice.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine potatoes, whipping cream, salt, sugar and butter. Add flour one cup at a time until thoroughly combined.

4. Roll the mixture into approximately 2 inch balls (this size will make about a 10-inch round of lefse), placing them on cookie sheets and set in the refrigerator, taking out a few at a time to roll out and cook.

5. Preheat the lefse grill to 475 degrees. Before purchasing the lefse grill, I used a large frying skillet and made the rounds smaller.

6. Generously flour your lefsa board and rolling pin. Flatten the ball out a bit, and roll in different directions until the lefse ball is 10 inches. I usually flip the flattened ball about half way through.

7. Place the round on the grill. Use a large spatula or lefsa flipping stick to flip the round after about 2 minutes. Cook on the second side for about another 2 minutes or until each side has light brown spots on each side. It may bubble up while frying, but will flatten out.

8. Remove from the grill and place in a single layer on cloth dish towels until cool.

My favorite way to eat lefse is warm right from the grill with butter and sugar, rolled up, which I discovered is called “lefse-klining.” Nothing beats warm, comforting lefse! Other ways people like to eat lefse is with cinnamon sugar, jam or jelly, or my husband's favorite, with just butter. D

*I have substituted instant potatoes if you're short on time.

Note: Lefse may be frozen in zipper bags. Just make sure the rounds are completely cooled.