The best Norwegian lefse/lefsa recipe

Quantity disclaimer!
The Norwegian lefse recipe below for 5 lbs of potatoes makes about 40 sheets of lefse and takes about 2 hours to roll and cook.

Day 1: Potato Prep

• 5 lbs potatoes (Russet work well due to their high starch, and low moisture content.)
• 1 stick of butter
• Because you need the potatoes to be really dry and cool for lefse, cook ’em up a day ahead of time.

Start a large pot on the stove and heat to boiling while you:

• Wash and peel 5lbs potatoes.
• Use a paring knife and be sure to remove any eyes or tough/dark spots from the potatoes that the peeler missed — tough spots won’t rice evenly and will make a sticky mess out of your whole operation when you get to cooking.
• Dice the potatoes for even cooking — plus, it makes them easier to rice.

Next add those potatoes to the large pot

• Boil until they are soft when tested with a fork.
• Drain the potatoes.
• Rice the potatoes while they are still hot.
• Mix 1 stick of melted butter into the hot, riced potatoes.
• Last, pat the warm, buttery riced potatoes into a 9×13 pan and let cool uncovered on the counter for an hour to steam off any extra moisture. Remember how I said dry potatoes are the best?
• Put the pan in the fridge overnight – I leave it uncovered.

Day 2: roll and cook!

Because my mixer is not big enough to take on all 5lbs of potatoes at a time, I break it down into 4 cup increments — 5lbs of riced potatoes should net about 10 cups, lightly packed.

Per every 4 cups of lightly packed, riced potatoes as prepared on day 1, add:

1.5 C flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
½ C heavy cream

Preparing to bake lefse

1. Mix the lefse dough: Blend the riced potatoes, sugar, flour, salt, and heavy cream until well integrated.
2. Prep your dough into patties: This is a time-saver once the rush of rolling and grilling lefse begins. Roll the dough into balls slightly larger than a golf ball and press gently between your palms.  Place back into the 9×13 pan, and put the pan back in the fridge so the dough stays cold.
3. Pre-heat your cooking surface to 400: You may be able to go a touch hotter if you have a fast approach. My husband and I usually tag-team: one rolling and one flipping and can crank it up to 450.
4. Prepare your rolling surface: Sprinkle the rolling pin cover and pastry board generously with flour and rub it in well.

How to roll and grill lefse

1. I only pull out a couple of patties of dough from the fridge at a time so the dough stays nice and cold.
   Put another generous sprinkle of flour on the pastry board. Then, drop your patty on the board, and put another generous sprinkle of flour on top of it.
2. Roll it out until you can see the print from the pastry board peeking through.
3. Grab your lefse stick and gently slide it under the sheet.
4. Slide the lefse stick gently back and forth the entire width of the sheet, making sure the sheet is completely free from the pastry board, or it will tear when you try to lift it.
5. With the lefse stick in the center of the sheet, gently lift it off the board and transfer to the griddle: place one edge on the griddle and roll the stick beneath the sheet toward the opposite end, until the entire sheet is on the griddle.
6. After about 45 seconds, or when the lefse has some light brown marks, flip it over and grill it for another 30-45 seconds.

Lastly, let each sheet cool thoroughly before stacking, or the delicate sheets will collect moisture in-between and stick.

This recipe was taken from Minnesota Uncorked website