Lefse-Making, Attempt #1.
Monday, June 14, 2010Lefse. A round flatbread of Norwegian origin, traditionally made of potato-based dough and baked on a griddle. Lefse. A delicious treat that many Minnesotans love to eat. Lefse. An absolute favorite food of my dear husbands (he has some Scandinavian heritage, which he has embraced fully!). Lefse. Seemingly easy to make, but hard to master :)
I started my lefse-making yesterday. See, my brother is coming home tomorrow, after being gone for six months. He has been traveling with an awesome group (who I traveled with three years ago!) called Up with People - a global education program that combines community service, global education, travel, a musical show, host families and lots of different cultures together. And he is coming home tomorrow, after a full semester on the road. AND, he is bringing his girlfriend home with him for a few days (hope we don't scare her off!!!)! So my parents and I decided that a little shindig was necessary while she was here - nothing fancy, just family and friends - an opportunity to hang out, talk and eat good grub! And I thought hey! Since the girlfriend is from Norway, why don't we have some lefse! And then I thought, hey! I'll MAKE the lefse! Ha! Fantastic idea. So I did my first trial run yesterday.
You would think that with an ingredient list of boiled, mashed potatoes, sweet cream, salt, butter and flour, that it wouldn't be hard to make this fantastic creation. Wrong. There are many variables and many places for mistakes to be made. Here is my first solo experience in photos:
All of my ingredients: potatoes, salt, flour, butter and cream (I used half&half - my first mistake???)
Peeling the potatoes to prep them for boiling.
Boiling the potatoes. Maybe not long enough - my second mistake????
The cooked, softened potatoes, just screaming to be mashed.
Mashing the potatoes and adding some butter. Next came the adding of salt and half&half. I definitely don't think I mashed my potatoes enough - my third mistake????
My mashed potato/salt/butter/half&half mixture, ready for some flour.
Mixed the flour into the potato mixture. It is hard to get the exact ratio right, but I followed my Scandinavian CookBook recipe to a T!
Next, I rolled out the dough into a long log shape and scored it to be about golfball size. I think I could have made each little piece a bit smaller - making it easier to work with.
Ready to roll. Fourth mistake - not enough flour on the rolling surface??? I used a flat rolling pin (which is fine), but they make special lefse rolling pins, which grooves in the entire thing. Maybe if I had one of those, it would have worked better?! Ha, definitely not!
The lefse-maker is supposed to roll out the doughball as thinly as possible. Well, because I didn't mash the potatoes (way back in the beginning!) fine enough, there were potato chunks and therefore, I couldn't roll them out thinly enough. AND, because I hadn't used a well-floured work surface (you need like cups of flour here, folks!), the dough ended up sticking to the counter - highly frustrating, let me tell you!!!!
These holes are not supposed to happen. And you can clearly see my huge potato chunks. Bad news bears. Fifth mistake???? And I had a terrible time transferring the dough from the rolling surface to the griddle. "Real" lefse-makers use this long, thin stick thing that helps to lift it over. Max got my mom one a few years ago, but I find it hard to use. Probably because I am not a "real" lefse-maker :)
After finally getting my not-thin enough lefse over the to griddle, I start to let it heat up, turning it frequently to ensure it doesn't burn. This was not a hard step for me!
A few pieces of lefse at the end. Overall, it was hard work and I think I should seek a little bit of advice on what to do next. However, although I made multiple mistakes, I learned many a lesson about lefse-making. And I am determined to try again this week before the party. So I shall seek to remedy some of my mistakes and take some advice from others who have made successful lefse, so that hopefully I can make more authentic lefse the next time! Overall, in spite of my frustration at not getting it right the first time, I learned a lot and am looking forward to trying again! Because lefse is an essential food staple for me to know how to make (since I am married to a man who loves it and will want it desperately when we move far away from Minnesota land!).
1 comments
awww I hate it when that happens! I love trying new recipes and when they don't turn out right I get so bummed! :( Hopefully next time you try they will be amazing! Good luck girl!
ReplyDeletexoxo