My first lefse experience – apparently not as bad as i had thought :D

Someone told me that i am my own worst critic. I think she was right. No matter if what i do is good or bad, i always think that it’s bad, and i always will.

Some days ago (i wonder how i was able to not see it before) i stumbled upon this. Then i went here, and inevitably landed here.

Mmmh… Lefse. {They actually reminded me of our piadina romagnola.}

I was immediately interested in them, and started searching for “THE” recipe. Well it sounds easy if you put it that way.

The good and the bad about the internet is VARIETY. On the internet not only you can find EVERYTHING, but you can also find the ENDLESS VERSIONS OF THAT “EVERYTHING”. You following me?

I’m sure you have already experienced that. At least i have, for sure.

When i want to find the recipe for something, i cannot trust the first recipe i find. How can you be sure that that source is reliable? How can you be sure that someone has really tried that, and hasn’t just copied and pasted that recipe from somewhere else (only god know where from)?

So well my usual approach to recipe searching is: find as many recipes as you are able to find, and then compare them all.

It always takes me quite a lot of time, but pays off almost always eventually. {i’ll hark back to that soon, i’ll write a post only about this matter}

So well, after looking at 20 different recipes (at least), comparing them, thinking a lot, and so on, i chose the recipe.

Today the pictures really do suck, more than usual, i’d say :D i didn’t think i was going to post this, but after the kind, helpful, lovely Erica reassured me about the result i got, well now i’m posting the recipe+(horribile) photos of my very first Lefse, which wasn’t so bad after all then :D

 

Lefse – Norwegian flatbread {here to read more}

makes 8-10 9-inch round lefse (lefses? do you add the –s for the plural?)

 

adapted from here (with wonderful photos and explanations)

(my adaptations in brackets, as always)

 

1 {910 g} pound potatoes

1/2 {113 ml} cup whipping cream (omitted: my dough was already “too wet”)

1/2 stick {60g} butter

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups flour

 

Method:

peel, quarter and boil in salted water potatoes, until you can easily pierce them with a fork;

drain well;

rice the potatoes quickly, put them back into the pot where you boiled them, add bits of butter and allow to melt completely, stirring well;

allow to cool completely;

add the rest of the ingredients (cream, salt, sugar, flour);

mix at first with a spoon, then knead well by hand on the counter for 10 minutes;

portion out the dough, form it into rounded patties and allow these to set for 5 minutes before rolling them out, really thin, on a very well floured surface (i rolled the dough out and then cut the form of a round using a reverse flate plate, then i rolled the dough just a little bit to allow the rolled out dough to have an even surface and thickness);

cook on the preheated proper griddle or in a skillet (like i did), it has to be really hot when you start cooking your lefse;

cook on one side until bubbles form, and then flip and allow to cook on the other side too;

stuck cooked lefse on a clean towel and allow to cool.

 

{it takes you around 2 hours to have your lefse ready; it can also be folded – half or quarters – and frozen for up to 6 months}

my lefse was very easy pliable and foldable, which scared me. What went wrong????

Erica tells me it’s ok if lefse has a soft consistency (i’d define it “crepe-like”). {I had expected lefse to be… “crunchier” and “harder” (drier). But that’s not how it should be.}

 

see? they’re perfect for making wraps-like stuff, you should fill them, roll, and eat.

 

I read, among other things, that people in Norway are also used to eating it with butter, sugar and cinnamon for breakfast.

Here we ate it with ham, salami, soft cheese (mine was filled with a mix of oven baked vegetables – i’m almost a vegetarian). I actually wanted to stuff it with Nutella… but.. next time ;)

 

Too bad (too bad) i haven’t the proper stuff to make them :( like the right pin, that gives the texture to the dough, the stick, or the griddle :( maybe some day, if someone i know goes to Norway, i’ll ask them to bring me the lefse equipment ;)

 

to transfer the rounds from the counter to the skillet i used a wonderful knife with a long, narrow, flat blade (something like that) that happened to be perfect for carrying out this operation! lol

 

tip:

make sure you cut your fingernails before making lafse :D or you’ll risk piercing the rounds of rolled out dough!

(anyway, the dough was much more resistant than i expected! it almost never tore!)

 

of course any suggestion for improving my lefse-making skills is more than welcome! :)