Lefse!

Lefse is a Norweigian Flatbread made with potatoes.   

My husband made good lefse and even made his own lefse stick for turning them.  My daughter and I made them a few years ago and she decided she wanted to make them again so that's what we did this afternoon.  It's time consuming and tricky.  

Most people make them on electric griddles but I used an old fashioned cast iron skillet.  Worked fine, but did result in brown spots which WE like but purists would frown upon.

This is the recipe we used:

5 lbs potatoes, peeled, cooked and riced.  

The ricing is the hardest part as far as I'm concerned.  I had some old ladies try to tell me I could use potato flakes but I don't eat that stuff, why would I cook with it?

I made two batches - this makes 1 batch:

4 cups riced potatoes

1/4 Cup melted butter

1/2 Cup whipping cream

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 Cup flour

Mix and then form patties.  This is tricky because you don't want to work it too much or it will taste rubbery, but you do need to work it enough to make sure there are not cracks on the edge, so that it will roll out nice and round.

Pastry is not my thing.  I cannot roll.  
I can barely roll out sugar cookies.  Sarah was a very good roller.  You want these to be pretty thin.  A lefse roller has grooves in it to prevent air pockets.  Look how nicely she rolled that out!

Then you slip the stick underneath in the middle and roll it over into the pan.  This takes some practice.  This is why you rice 5 pounds of potatoes.  Some lefse will go into the trash.

It will bubble like this when it is time to turn it.  Again you use the stick to turn it.

And you use the stick to take it out of the pan.  Stack them up about ten at a time, and then fold them into fours.  

Ours are pretty small because we make them on cast iron skillets.  If you make them on a lefse griddle you can make them much larger.  Of course then rolling and handling the stick is even more challenging.

We have lefse sticks and we know how to use them!