Lefse
Next up in the A-Z Potato series, I am visiting beautiful Norway to make Lefse, which is basically a Norwegian tortilla with a crepe like feel.
Lefse is made from potatoes (obvs), flour, double cream and butter. Seriously, that’s it. It is a go-to recipe during the holidays in Norway and can be served sweet or savoury. Simply butter it, roll it and generously coat in cinnamon sugar or lingonberry cream cheese for a tasty sweet snack or serve alongside lutefisk (salt-dried cod) for something a bit more traditional. I went for a safe dusting of sugar on mine. You could even use it as an alternative to bread or even as a hot dog holder if you roll it out a bit thicker. I mean who doesn’t love a flexible food? Whack what you want in it babs!
This is a great recipe to utilise any leftover mashed potato. If you’ve somehow got an abundance of spare mash, you should also make my chocolate covered potato macaroons. Sounds weird, but trust me, these truffle-like babies are delicious.
Please tag me in any of your Lefse creations so I can see what toppings/fillings you went for. I have a batch leftover and want some inspo.
Ingredients
- 500g mashed potato (I used Maris Pipers)
- 250g-300g plain flour - plus extra for dusting
- 70g butter, cubed
- 50ml double cream
- Sugar to sprinkle
Method
- Start by making your mashed potato. I peeled and boiled around 6 smaller Maris Piper potatoes. You can just weigh the potatoes prior to peeling and add one more potato so you know you have enough. Boil for around 10 minutes, then drain the potatoes and leave them to steam dry by placing a tea towel over them for a further 5 mins.
- Using a masher, ricer or sieve, mash your potatoes into a mixing bowl. Add the cubes of butter and leave to cool for 5 mins.
- Then, add the cream and mix well. Once fully combined, add in the flour and mix until a dough forms. It will be a soft dough but shouldn’t stick too much to your fingers.
- Grab a clean tea towel and place it on a flat surface, sprinkle a good amount of flour on the tea towel.
- Get a large frying pan onto a medium-high heat.
- Grab a plum-sized amount of dough and roll it into a ball on your floured tea towel. Then roll the dough out using plenty of extra flour. I also had to place a piece of cling film/plastic wrap on top of the dough to help roll it out. The dough has to be thin enough that you can see the pattern of your tea towel on the other side.
- Once the frying pan is hot and you are happy with the size of your Lefse, add a tiny knob of butter to the pan and carefully get the pancake into the pan.
- TIP** It’s tricky to do this so how I did it was to place my right hand on top of the cling filmed side and then flip it over using my left hand - peeling away the tea towel. Then, I placed my left hand on the open side of the pancake and peeled away the cling film with my right hand. I hope this helps as I did tear a few in the beginning but you soon get the hang of it!
- After a minute or so check that the pancake is browned on one side and then flip it. You can use a spatula but I found that flipping it in the pan was the easiest way to do this.
- Leave to cook for another minute or so until golden on both sides. Then repeat until all the dough is used up.
- Finally, sprinkle each pancake with granulated sugar and roll up and dig in!