Lefse

One of our favorite holiday treats is the traditional Norwegian food, lefse. Growing up, I remember my mom making lefse every Christmas Eve. We all would take turns helping in some way to make the lefse, but mostly we all wanted to eat it. Since moving away from my family, I have had to make lefse on my own for Christmas or Thanksgiving. The first year we lived here, Morgan and I made it. She is a great at flipping the lefse. Her grandma taught her how to turn lefse at about the age of 4. It has been her job ever since. This year, Lance decided to help out by rolling the lefse. He is great at it because he is such a perfectionist - always working towards the thinnest and most round lefse he can create. Here is how lefse is made:

Potatoes are the main ingredient - you start by peeling and slicing them

Then you boil the potatoes

Next use a potato ricer to rice the potatoes - twice to make sure there are no lumps

Mix 3 cups of riced potatoes with 1/4 cup shortening, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp of sugar - form into a ball and then place covered in the refrigerator overnight. I used 8 large Costco baking potatoes and I was able to make 8 balls. When you are ready to make the lefse, you take one large ball out of the refrigerator. You mix it with 1 1/4 cups of flour. Then you break off small balls to roll out into individual lefse.

Lance rolling the lefse on the lefse board (a round wooden board with a flour sack cover). You want to roll the lefse as thin as possible.

Once the lefse is rolled out you place it on a lefse griddle to cook

The lefse cooks on each side until light brown spots appear. To turn the lefse, you use a special lefse turner. Morgan is using her special lefse turner that her grandma gave her a few years ago. When the lefse comes off the griddle, it is placed between two towels to cool.

Then the lefse is ready to eat- YUMMY! In our house, we all eat lefse with butter and sugar. I have one brother who likes it with brown sugar and some family members who only eat it with butter. No matter how you eat it, we all love it and look forward to having it each year.

The final product ready to be eaten :P