The Recipe First
Greetings! This post is very overdue. In 2019 I got really ambitious and sold my homemade lefse in my very Norwegian hometown. I made gobs of lefse and gobs of money. I made some family members swoon with pleasure at the gifts I gave. It was fun, and I think it is safe to say, I perfected my method.
Lefse is a tortilla type of flatbread made out of potatoes, lard, and flour. My grandmother Anna, was born in Norway in the 1880’s and I like to think she brought this recipe with her. Her daughter, my aunt Cora gave me the recipe and method a hundred years after my Grandma was born, in the 1980’s. Cora was born in 1917, and she passed away in 2001. I didn’t start making lefse regularly until she was almost gone. I brought some to her in the nursing home. I was mighty proud of it!
This is my beautiful Aunt Cora when she was young. She had pretty red hair.
There are many different recipes and methods for making lefse and if you have an aunt or grandma that insists theirs is the best, don’t argue with them. Use their way. I am all for tradition. If you don’t know where to start, I’ll help you out.
For those of you who already know the difficult steps for making lefse, I will put the recipe up first, so you don’t have to slog through what is going to be a rather wordy post.
Heritage Lefse
3 cups mashed potatoes
1/2 cup melted lard
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 cup sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
If you know what to do next, copy down these simple ingredients and heat up your lefse iron.
If it looks so easy you think you can just go, well, I’ll see you later when you have a sticky mess.
If you want the authentic method my beloved auntie taught me, whose mother from Norway taught her, well then, fasten your seatbelts and hang on.
The Potatoes
My husband Martin and I just love potatoes. Any form will do! If I go for a week without a potato, especially a baked one with sour cream and butter, I feel so deprived. If we run out of potatoes, it is a serious crisis! (It would be like running out of coffee God forbid.) Is it any wonder we are so crazy about lefse.
When Cora was teaching me how to make lefse, I asked her about the potatoes. She only shrugged and said, “Use leftover mashed potatoes.”
First of all, in my house, leftover mashed potatoes would be like leftover wine. Leftover? Really? Certainly not three cups leftover.
Next, Martin and I have perfected the lovely rustic lumpy mashed potato with the masher. We like to add garlic, caramelized onions, sour cream and butter. Sometimes, if Martin wins the battle, they will be mashed with the skins on. Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper round it out. If we were to use leftover mashers like this, the lefse would be very different. Especially with the potato skins included. If you try it, let me know. I’m a bit of a snobby purist and like my way better.
My dear mother tried to make lefse in the 60’s. She struggled for a time, but then figured it out. Her mistake? Those 60’s moms just loved anything that made life easier, like food in cans and boxes. She tried to use instant potatoes.
I went to a craft show recently where lefse was being sold. The list of ingredients was alarmingly long, with stuff I couldn’t pronounce, but the first thing on the list was dehydrated potatoes. Perhaps instant potatoes have improved in the last fifty years. Still, I am a very old fashioned cook, and I like things old school, and the food as real as you can get it. So from scratch mashed potatoes are it!
You do not want to use the nice potato masher if you are going to make lefse. The lumps that are in the potatoes do not incorporate the lard and flour very well, and then your lefse has potato lumps in it. I think they are tasty, but it does stick while trying to roll it out, and it is just not a good quality lefse.
The potato ricer, and the food mill are the best way to treat your cooked potatoes if you are going to make lefse. In fact, I think all mashed potatoes should be this way. They might hold more gravy……
That year for my mass produced lefse, for the very first time, I actually used a recipe to make mashed potatoes.
MASHERS FOR LEFSE
2 pounds of russet potatoes
8 Tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted
1 Cup half and half, warmed
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
White pepper
Place the scrubbed potatoes in a large saucepan with cold water to cover by one inch. Cover, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork or thin knife. This will take 30 to 40 minutes depending on the size of the potatoes. Drain into a colander.
Set the food mill over the now empty hot kettle. Spear a potato with a dinner fork and peel back the skin with a paring knife. Repeat with the remaining potatoes. Working in batches, cut the peeled potatoes into chunks and drop into the hopper of the food mill. Process the potatoes into the hot pan.
Stir the melted butter into the potatoes with a wooden spoon until incorporated. Gently whisk in the half and half. Salt and pepper to taste.
My fingers are burning just looking at this picture. It’s tempting to think, what a pain in the ass, isn’t it? Every so often I want to say to hell with it, and just peel, and chunk them then boil them already. I’ve done it that way many times. But every brown spot left shows up like an ugly pimple. This method actually helps not getting those spots. There is more flavor in the potatoes this way, because the skin holds the flavor in. Come on, tough it out. This is worth it.
I think thick skinned russets have the best flavor and texture and are the easiest to peel. You can use a different potato, but the lefse will be different. Hmmmm. Someday I might try a yellow potato.
I bent my dainty ricer trying to process my potatoes. so the food mill works much better for me. I love the smooth texture that comes out. If you have a lump in your mashed potatoes, your lefse will have a lump. There’s no lumps with this gadget.
Melt that unsalted butter. Now why did I include a picture of melted butter in a pan? Oh, I have unhappy experiences to share of butter melting. What? This supposed expert cook had issues melting butter?
Oh yes. Issues. Melting butter.
I took a stick of cold unsalted butter and put it into a glass measuring cup and threw it into the microwave. On high. For….a while. I heard a loud pop and looked in the microwave to see a partially melted stick of butter, and the rest of it all over the microwave. I no longer had a measured amount, and a mess to boot.
I started over on the stove in a pan. I’m in a hurry now, so high heat because that will do it faster, right? BOOM! Same thing. The butter exploded all over the stove.
Why does unsalted butter explode? I have no idea–I’m a grandma not a chemist. So now, I melt the butter on low, and I don’t leave it to go do something else. My poor sister-in-law turned on the wrong burner on my stove one hectic holiday and exploded the butter. It was exciting.
Add the melted butter, and only the melted butter to the hopefully still warm potatoes. They will soak it in like a really thirsty potted plant. You shouldn’t see butter any more before the next step.
Add the half and half all at once. Doesn’t this look like a glorious mess? I did this step one Thanksgiving with a relative watching and she was certain it was now ruined. But magic happened. The recipe says use a whisk but I do just fine with a spoon or spatula.
Stay patient. Patient! After a shorter time than you think, it starts looking just like this. All that yummy half and half is now soaked up and you have perfect creamy mashed potatoes.
Now you need to add salt and pepper. I like to use finely ground white pepper because then it won’t show up in the lefse. Freshly ground is great, but it has to be very fine. I have used freshly ground black pepper and picked large pieces out of my lefse. Not the end of the world, but if you are making these for gifts someone might say something like what the hell is this anyway?
Taste the potatoes. They have to taste so good you want to suck out the whole works with a straw. Don’t skimp on the salt and pepper. I do measure the salt out per the recipe, but I do guess on the pepper. If they taste bland, add more pepper.
Measure out three cups. You might want to chill it down, so all those ingredients make really good friends with each other. Keep in mind, those thrifty Norwegian ladies used leftover potatoes to make lefse with. You probably could use them right away, but now you are tired. Rest a little. If you made extra, eat them for supper.
The Lefse
The next day, or the day after that at the most, you can now make lefse. Three day old (or more) mashed potatoes take on a funk and don’t use them. They might be a little watery, but that’s ok. Stir them up. Let them come a little to room temperature, about a half hour or so. In the meantime, collect your ingredients and equipment.
You will need a sifter, a pastry cloth, a special ribbed rolling pin, or a special stocking to put over your rolling pin, and a lefse iron.
Most irons come with lefse sticks, which are used to turn the lefse. Mom, with her instant potatoes, struggled with the too thick sticks, and Dad took an old yardstick and sanded it down. It is one of my greatest treasures. The stick that comes with your lefse iron is just fine, I’m sure. If you find it cumbersome, get the sandpaper out, and make it thinner.
This sifter is another one of my treasures. It was Mom’s. I rescued it from her kitchen when she passed away in 2014. You don’t have to have a fancy sifter like this. One of those mesh strainers will work just fine.
Put your mashed potatoes into a bowl, and add the 1/2 cup melted lard and one Tablespoon of sugar. Mix it in thoroughly.
Lard? As in from pigs? I’m very old fashioned and I would never use anything else. If you simply must use shortening, have at it. It will change the flavor some. Maybe that’s the way you prefer it. That’s why doing your own cooking is so fun. You can make those changes. It just has to be melted for this step.
Measure out the 1 1/2 cups flour. Sift it into a separate bowl. Don’t forget to include that bit that fell out onto the saucer. From that, measure it out again, carefully, with a light hand. Spoon it, don’t dip the measuring cup. It might not make sense, especially with the next steps, but just humor me. Sweep it off with a knife to level it out, and add it to the sifter. There will be flour left.
To the second measuring of flour add the 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and the 1 teaspoon salt. I don’t use kosher salt for this. Just plain iodized salt.
Sift this mixture, including what fell into the saucer, into the potato mixture. Gently stir it until you don’t see flour any more. Now it’s time to rest. Go sit down, have a glass of tea or wine, and let the ingredients fall in love with each other for about an hour. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out. If you are going to be more than an hour put it in the refrigerator.
Hey, didn’t I just put this picture on here? Yes. But now I am showing you that you must, must, MUST flour the pastry cloth. Dust the flour on with your sifter. Rub it into the cloth with your hands. Make a pile in the corner with the excess. Do have some excess. You will be using it.
I like to use a cookie scoop to portion the amount. It keeps it even. This one might measure out to a half cup. Just estimate. You need “some”. From now on, it’s a bit inexact.
I dust more flour from the sifter onto the ball of dough. Some.
Now it is kneaded. Not vigorously like you might bread, but the same concept. Fold it over onto itself. You want to be gentle, but you need a handleable dough. I think I counted ten times I folded it with extra flour. You don’t want it to be too sticky.
Your rolling pin, whether it’s the fancy ribbed kind like I have here, or with a cotton “stocking” you have to have gobs of flour on it. Then you start from the center working out, roll it our thin. Thin. Thin. Don’t press too hard.
It’s not the end of the world, WHEN you have boo boos. Just start over.
You will never make it perfectly round. If you do, you might be in the wrong business and you need to start doing this for a living. Just let it be rustic. I know, I stole that phrase..she won’t mind.
Now comes the hard part. Take your stick and slide it beneath all over. There should be no spots that are sticking to the cloth. You are going to pick up the lefse with the stick and move it to the pan. If you have done it right, it will stay in one piece.
Just like that!!!!
Roll it on the pan by turning the stick over and over. Whew! The hardest part is done! Let the drooling commence…..
Cook it until bubble start to form. When you get good at this, you can be rolling out your next piece while this cooks.
A word about lefse irons. You might be able to try this on a pancake griddle or on your stove top with a flat grill. But this lefse iron is set to 500 degrees! 500! I tried it on a cooler setting once. It doesn’t work as well. I turn the heat as high as it will go.
Turning the lefse is similar to carrying it to the grill. Go down the center, and flip it, putting half on at first, then the other half. You’ll figure it out.
The timing on the second half is dicy. You just have to guess. You can peek and see how browned it’s getting. If you cook it too long you will have burned spots and dried out edges.
Remove the cooked lefse the same way you put it on.
I like to cool it on a cookie rack. It cools quickly. It needs to be completely cooled before being stacked.
You will have a lot of loose flour on your griddle. Very carefully, with a dry paper towel, brush it off. Yes, yes, you’ll get it all over your counter. But it’s hot, and it will burn if you leave it.
I fold the lefse pieces into quarters, then put one batch into a gallon ziplock bag. They can be kept on the counter for one day. Refrigerated for about five days, and frozen about a month. Yes, they are fragile, perishable, fussy little pieces of confection. They taste like heaven itself.
I was at a convention once where these were served. Someone asked me how to you eat them? I said butter and sugar. They took the rolled up pieces and put butter on the outside. No no no you unroll them, and butter them. Salted, softened butter. Tub margarine is for lazy people and I suppose you could use it if I’m not looking. Sprinkle sugar over it. and roll it up.
My beloved husband took pulled pork and put that on his. Someone else I knew used mashed potatoes as a filling. Sacrilege! My grandmother is looking down from heaven saying “Nay, nay, nay, nay.” Another friend likes melted butter with brown sugar. Now I could totally try that and I know I would love it.
I know this post was lengthy, but I gave you the best directions that I possibly could. The only way to get it right is practice.
I did try this once with gluten free flour. It is very difficult. The dough has to chill completely before rolling out. Use new pastry cloths and rolling pin covers so you don’t get cross contamination. It doesn’t keep together very well, so small, small pieces. In fact, if I try it again, I may try it on a tortilla press, with plastic above and below, rather than rolling it out. Chilled, chilled chilled is the deal!
Good luck!