Lefse!

[Raamo]

So I'm 7/8 Swedish, and grew up around a lot of American Scandinavians (most came over mid 1800s).  So one thing I had fond memories of growing up was Lefse.

 

Anyway a long time ago now - my wife and I decided we'd make lefse, got the griddle at a Swedish store in a small town in MN, the sticks and rolling pin too.

 

So a few times a winter we cook up the potatoes (since we got the steam oven we just fill the plan and let that do the work), rice them, add butter and milk/cream.  And the next day she kneads the potatoes with flour, rolls them out and I cook them on the griddle.

We don't really have a recipe - started with some but now we just wing it.

 

Anyone else?  They sell this in the supermarkets in MN, but it's pretty expensive.

My wife's hands kneading the "dough"  Sticks for flipping, and tongs w/ paper towel to remove the burnt flour.

 

Now rolling, first with normal roller, then with special roller.

 

The stack!

Edited December 12, 2017 by Raamo
not flower... (log)

[FeChef]

11 minutes ago, Raamo said:

So I'm 7/8 Swedish, and grew up around a lot of American Scandinavians (most came over mid 1800s).  So one thing I had fond memories of growing up was Lefse.

 

Anyway a long time ago now - my wife and I decided we'd make lefse, got the griddle at a Swedish store in a small town in MN, the sticks and rolling pin too.

 

So a few times a winter we cook up the potatoes (since we got the steam oven we just fill the plan and let that do the work), rice them, add butter and milk/cream.  And the next day she kneads the potatoes with flower, rolls them out and I cook them on the griddle.

We don't really have a recipe - started with some but now we just wing it.

 

Anyone else?  They sell this in the supermarkets in MN, but it's pretty expensive.

My wife's hands kneading the "dough"  Sticks for flipping, and tongs w/ paper towel to remove the burnt flour.

 

Now rolling, first with normal roller, then with special roller.

 

The stack!

What kind of flower do you use? 

[Raamo]

1 hour ago, FeChef said:

What kind of flower do you use? 

 

 

Just AP flour.

[FeChef]

3 hours ago, Raamo said:

 

 

Just AP flour.

Oh flour, i thought you meant flower since you mentioned it was expensive to buy. I cant imagine mashed potatoes and flour being expensive. 

[quiet1]

I feel like my family recipe has an egg in it, but I don’t have it handy to check.

 

They’re pretty fiddly to make because the dough is generally not what one might call well-behaved. It can be sticky, and is also delicate and prone to tearing, and it should be rolled out quite thin. Our family experience is some people seem to just have the knack and others not so much, regardless of cooking experience.

 

That said, you don’t NEED a fancy rolling pin or griddle or lefse flipping stick, so it’s pretty easy to experiment if you want to give it a try.

[Raamo]

9 hours ago, FeChef said:

Oh flour, i thought you meant flower since you mentioned it was expensive to buy. I cant imagine mashed potatoes and flour being expensive. 

 

I think it's just lots of time to make in small batches - so the price goes up.

 

The only time I've had lefse I HATED was when it was made with instant potatoes - don't EVER do that.

[Smithy]

Bumping this up because I'm just back from a nearby Julebyen (Christmas market / festival) where I had lefse for the first time in about 33 years. I don't remember being especially impressed with it back then, but either I was clueless or my neighbor's lefse wasn't all that good! This was a revelation!

 

Demonstration photos taken with permission. I don't have exact proportions of the ingredients (potato, flour, cream) and don't have any photos of the initial dough balls. They looked like they were 2" balls, maybe slightly smaller. 

 

Each dough ball was flattened slightly on a very heavily floured disk, I think a cloth-covered board (but forgot to ask), and then rolled until it's very, very thin. Delicately thin. This woman is picking up a disk with the special lefse stick, getting it ready to go onto the griddle. Unfortunately it tore and she had to start over. 

 

 

The rolled disk then went onto a special lefse griddle. (We may be looking at one of those pastry disks in the background of this photo, now that I look carefully.) 

 

 

I asked whether the griddle was required equipment, and was told that the very even heat is important -- but one of the women does her lefse at home on a cast iron griddle.

 

Cook the lefse until it's starting to brown on one side, then flip it to finish cooking. They had an assembly line going, so you can see one flipped and one that hasn't been flipped yet.

 

 

Use the special lefse stick to lift the finished lefse. In this case, each was being put into a cardboard serving tray, but I think at home it would be a platter. Then, brush it liberally with melted butter...

 

 

...sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon...

 

 

...roll, and serve.

 

 

I walked away, took a couple of bites, and stopped stock-still. How delicate! What wonderful flavors! This practically melted in my mouth.

 

 

I went back with my compliments: "This is like tasting the most delicious, beautiful cloud I can imagine!"

 

You should have seen them beam.

[Shelby]

Wow, thanks for sharing this.  I've never tried it but it looks delicious.

[AlaMoi]

some of the absolute most spectacular "treats" I have ever had were at Christmas markets & Fisch Fests . . . 

 

small time vendors with heirloom secrets , , ,

[jedovaty]

These are like a hybrid potato pancake and a crepe?!  Oh my.

[Smithy]

Last weekend a friend of Swedish descent mentioned that she and the extended family were getting ready for their traditional Swedish Christmas feast. I don't remember all the dishes included, but she mentioned lefse. I learned that the duty of making lefse for the family gathering has descended to her. "Oh, really?" I asked. I told her about the Julebyen and how much I'd enjoyed the lefse there. In a later text exchange, I suggested that maybe she could give me some lefse lessons sometime. I repeat here her reply:

 

Quote

Lefsa is very time intensive and hard labor rolling it. I was gifted a grill and special rolling pin that has been at my parents' home for 40 years. My grandmother and aunt made great lefsa until my uncle said his back couldn't take it any more. Have I discouraged you??? I recommend you focus on hand made tortillas and buy lefsa at Nordic locations like Ingebretsen's. I'll take you there. 😼

 

The tortilla business cracked me up. She knew I'd just come from picking up this book by Hank Shaw and am hoping to learn tortilla making. "Focus on the easier stuff", she's saying!

 

Still, I went by our own local hardware store that carries the equipment. They have the specialized griddle -- it looks a lot like an electric skillet, but with a flat surface. Around $170. I could probably use it for cooking tortillas also, but I don't know where I'd put it. They also sell the accessories: pastry cloth cleverly stretched over a large (18"?) disk and fastened with at the back with elastic -- now, that would be very useful for other purposes, including tortillas and pastry dough! -- the special sticks, the special rolling pin. $60? $70? I've forgotten, but this starter kit from Bethany Housewares has all the equipment I just described. 

 

I'll leave it all be, in favor of tortillas -- in fact, I think I'll get more use out of learning to make tortillas than lefse, because I'm on a burrito kick and my sweet tooth is really muted these days -- but I confess, that griddle and stretched pastry cloth are calling my name.

[TdeV]

@Smithy, I admire your ability to nobly resist. 😇

[rotuts]

@Smithy

 

do you have a tortilla press ?

 

that and a cuisinart to make the dough is all you need.

 

for tortillas

 

[blue_dolphin]

3 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@Smithy

 

do you have a tortilla press ?

 

that and a cuisinart to make the dough is all you need.

 

for tortillas

 

I’ve only mixed tortilla dough by hand so I can’t speak to the Cuisinart but I was wondering if a tortilla press could get thin enough for lefse…or if the rolling process was key.

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

@Smithy

 

do you have a tortilla press ?

 

that and a cuisinart to make the dough is all you need.

 

for tortillas

 

 

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

I’ve only mixed tortilla dough by hand so I can’t speak to the Cuisinart but I was wondering if a tortilla press could get thin enough for lefse…or if the rolling process was key.

 

No tortilla press in the house, but I've gotten the idea from listening and watching that rolling is a crucial part of the lefse-making process.

[rotuts]

for tortillas => T.P.

 

lefse => finess