Lefse Food

NORWEGIAN LEFSE RECIPE

Steps:

• Boil the potatoes for 15-20 minutes, until tender.
• Take a large bowl and rice the potatoes
• Add butter, sugar, cream, and salt
• Mix well and let it cool for a few hours

LEFSE

Steps:

• Peel and cook potatoes until well done. Then, mash cooked potatoes while still hot, and add lard, butter, salt, and cream. Mix ingredients together until smooth. After potato mix has cooled down, add flour and mix with hands (if dough feels too soft, add flour or if dough feels too hard add cream.) Form dough into a long roll or a round ball about the size of a tennis ball. Place into the refrigerator.
• Heat griddle to 450 degrees F or more.
• Remove dough from refrigerator, and roll onto well-floured cutting board until thin. Use a lefse stick or a long spatula to move the dough to the griddle. Watch closely, and when the sheet is bubbly all over, flip over and cook the other side. You may turn more then once to get the correct browning. Place the cooked lefse on a cloth and cover with another cloth. Add lefse in stacks of 6 and turn over after 6th one has been placed on top. When finished let cool before packaging.
• Serve with brown or regular sugar or butter. Add a thin slice of meat instead of sugar or butter for something different.

LEFSE

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Cook potatoes until tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain well.
• Rice potatoes into a large bowl, continuing until you have 8 cups. Add oil, evaporated milk, sugar and salt, and mix well. Let cool, then cover and refrigerate for a few hours, or overnight.
• When ready to make lefse, add 2 1/2 cups flour and mix well. Divide dough into two logs if you have a lefse grill, and four if you do not. Dough should be sticky and hold together, but not so sticky it's impossible to work with; if necessary, add remaining 1/2 cup flour. Cut each log into 9 or 10 pieces, shape into small balls and place on plates in refrigerator.
• If you have a lefse grill, heat it to 400 degrees. If you don't have a lefse grill, set a wide, low-lipped nonstick pan over medium-high heat.
• Generously dust work space with flour and flour a rolling pin. Roll one dough ball in flour, then use the heel of your hand to press it into a thick disk. If you have a lefse grill, gently roll dough into a large, thin circle (if you are using a regular pan, roll into a thin circle just smaller than the size of your pan), lifting and flipping frequently so it doesn't stick; use more flour as needed. Brush excess flour from dough. Use a lefse stick to carefully transfer to grill (use a thin spatula if cooking in a pan). Cook for 1 minute, or until lefse is steaming and small bubbles appear on uncooked side. Using lefse stick or spatula, flip lefse and cook for 45 seconds or so. Place lefse on a clean dish towel and cover with another. Repeat, stacking lefse atop one another between the dish towels.

LEFSE

Steps:

• peel, wash, and dry the potatoes.
• grate them using a hand grater or a food processor.
• add the milk, salt, flour and mix well.
• cover with a damp towel and let sit overnight.
• the next day: on a flour covered board, roll out dough very thin.
• Cut it into 6" round circles.
• transfer to heated non-stick griddle or skillet one at a time and lightly cook on each side until it gets little brown spots.
• wrap in warm towel until ready to serve.

NORWEGIAN POTATO LEFSA

Steps:

• Peel potatoes and place them in a large pot with a large amount of water. Bring water to a boil, and let the potatoes boil until soft. Drain and mash well.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine 8 cups mashed potatoes, cream, butter, salt, and sugar. Cover potatoes and refrigerate over night.
• Mix flour into the mashed potatoes and roll the mixture into balls about the size of tennis balls, or smaller depending on preference. Keep balls of dough on plate in the refrigerator.
• Taking one ball out of the refrigerator at a time, roll dough balls out on a floured board. To keep the dough from sticking while rolling it out, it helps to have a rolling pin with a cotton rolling pin covers.
• Fry the lefsa in a grill or in an iron skillet at very high heat. If lefsa brown too much, turn the heat down. After cooking each piece of lefsa place on a dishtowel. Fold towel over lefsa to keep warm. Stack lefsa on top of each other and keep covered to keep from drying out.

LEFSE

Steps:

• Place potatoes in a large saucepan; add water to cover. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, until tender, 10-12 minutes. Drain. Press through a potato ricer or strainer into a large bowl. Stir in cream, shortening, sugar and salt. Cool completely. , Preheat griddle over medium-high heat. Stir flour into potato mixture. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead 6-8 times or until smooth and combined. Divide into 12 portions. Roll each portion between 2 sheets of waxed paper into an 8-in. circle., Place on griddle; cook until lightly browned, 2-3 minutes on each side. Remove to a platter; cover loosely with a kitchen towel. Repeat with remaining portions. When cool, stack lefse between pieces of waxed paper or paper towels and store in an airtight container.

NORWEGIAN LEFSE

Steps:

• Cover potatoes with water and cook until tender. Run hot potatoes through a potato ricer. Place into a large bowl. Beat butter, cream, salt, and sugar into the hot riced potatoes. Let cool to room temperature.
• Stir flour into the potato mixture. Pull off pieces of the dough and form into walnut size balls. Lightly flour a pastry cloth and roll out lefse balls to 1/8 inch thickness.
• Cook on a hot (400 degree F/200 C) griddle until bubbles form and each side has browned. Place on a damp towel to cool slightly and then cover with damp towel until ready to serve.

NORWEGIAN LEFSE

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl mix potatoes, milk, butter, salt and 3/4 cup of flour.
• Kneed briefly on lightly floured board, adding flour to make the
• dough non-sticky.
• Divide dough into 12 equal balls; roll each on lightly floured
• board into a circle paper thin.
• Lightly oil a heavy skillet or crepe pan; set over medium heat.
• Cook one at a time, until lightly browned, about one minute on
• each side.
• Stack on a plate with a paper towel in between each one.
• Freeze leftovers, and thaw throughout the year and enjoy a favorite anytime.

LEFSE

Steps:

• Wearing surgical gloves, steam red and white potatoes with skin still on them, until tender. Remove from steamer and cool. After steamed potatoes cool down, remove the skins and mash really well. Rinse 5 cups of the potatoes and mix with dried potatoes, flour, salt, powdered sugar, butter, and margarine with a pastry blender and knead well.
• Preheat an electric, teflon-coated griddle to 500 degrees F. You can also use a large, nonstick pan heated over high heat. Shape dough into golf ball size balls and roll in flour. Cover, and refrigerate for 3 hours, or overnight. Remove balls and slam on well-floured board. Use a notched rolling pin with a cloth cover to flatten and shape balls into very thin circles. The thinner you roll the circles out, the better. Use fresh flour on both cutting board and rolling pin after each ball has been flattened.
• Cook flattened balls on the griddle for 8 to 10 seconds on each side. Brush excess flour from lefse after baking and lay between 2 layers of dishtowels. Brush remaining flour off of grill each time. Package in zip lock bags and freeze or refrigerate immediately.

BASIC LEFSE: NORWEGIAN POTATO FLATBREAD

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Preheat the oven to 175 F. Peel the potatoes, making sure that no peels or eyes remain. Coarsely chop them into 1-inch pieces.
• In a stockpot, bring water to a boil and add the potatoes. Boil them until they are fork-tender, about 15 to 20 minutes.
• Drain the boiled potatoes well. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bring them into the hot oven for 15 minutes to dry them further.
• Remove the potatoes from the oven and pass them through a ricer . You need them to be finely riced, so twice through the ricer might give you a better texture. You should have at least 4 cups of riced potatoes.
• Mix in the heavy cream, butter, sugar, and salt.
• Mix well and place the potato dough in the refrigerator, covered, to chill overnight.
• Preheat a lefse griddle or your skillet of choice to 425 F. You need a very hot surface to properly cook the lefse. Use a pastry blender to cut the flour into the chilled potatoes, or vigorously knead the flour in until you have a smooth dough.
• With the help of an ice cream scoop, divide the dough into 16 to 20 biscuit-sized balls.
• Generously flour a pastry cloth or board and a rolling pin. Roll out each piece of dough into a 12-inch circle, dusting with more flour as needed.
• Carefully lift the circle with a lefse stick or the handle of a flat wooden spatula. Transfer it quickly to the griddle.
• Cook the lefse on the griddle until brown spots begin to appear.
• Flip and cook the other side.
• Remove the cooked lefse to a plate lined with a damp clean cloth to cool. Cover with another damp cloth. Continue to cook the remaining dough balls until you've used all of the dough.
• Serve the lefse smeared with butter to taste and a sprinkle or two of sugar.
• Enjoy.