It’s a Norwegian Thing

Hubs is Norwegian as far back as he can trace his roots on both of his parents’ sides.

One of their typical pre-Christmas activities is to make lefse, a Norwegian flatbread made with mashed potatoes and flour.

My mother-in-law made beautifully thin and soft lefse. In their family, good lefse is defined in comparison to their mom’s. She taught me how to make it, and I passed the skills on to our daughter, who will, in turn, teach both of our grandchildren.

I hadn’t made lefse since we started coming to Texas, but decided it was time, so purchased all of the equipment and yesterday, made a big batch (192 rounds), along with my sister in law, Lori. Hubs’ brother is also wintering in our park now and he loves lefse too. Lori had never made it before so wanted to learn and practice every step.

This was our Christmas gift to our guys.

It’s not an easy task and took us 8.5 hours of rolling and frying to make the amount we did. My feature photo is one stack of many we made yesterday. This amount used a 10 lb (4.5 kg) bag of potatoes.

One Christmas, many years ago, my mother in law famously made lefse from 100 lbs (40.5 kg) of potatoes!

The two- day process involves:

Comments

19 responses to “It’s a Norwegian Thing”

  1. Forestwood Avatar

    I will have to make it and post the recipe. The heat of summer tends to zap my energy and I am not so motivated.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Terry Avatar

      That would be great, Amanda!

      Like

  2. Forestwood Avatar

    Communal baking is so much fun. I am Norwegian way back too, just a little-but the lefse I make is dry fried- a Vestland recipe- no potatoes. Then I sandwich two together with a butter cream and cinnamon filling.
    It takes a while but not as long as your effort. Well done.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Terry Avatar

      Thank you! We enjoyed every second of the process. We’ve never heard of your variety of lefse, Amanda. Ours is dry fried too (no oil on the griddle).

      Liked by 1 person

  3. annemariedemyen Avatar

    It looks like you had too much fun. 😁 My mother had a potato ricer. I remember her using it but I have no idea what she was ricing potatoes for.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Terry Avatar

      Some people rice potatoes before mashing them to be sure there are no lumps, so maybe that’s what your mother was doing, Anne. Have a great evening!

      Liked by 1 person

  4. Edward Ortiz Avatar

    Amazing! Cooking for that many hours reminded me of when we roasted pigs in Puerto Rico. That was a whole day affair, taking turns turning the pig over the fire.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Terry Avatar

      I’ve never tasted pork from a pig roasted over a spit, but have heard it’s delicious. Sometimes, at home in Canada, there would be a pig roast for an event, but the pig was buried in a pit with hot charcoals.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Edward Ortiz Avatar

        I think buried tastes better. I tried it in Hawaii, and it was delicious.

        Liked by 1 person

  5. The Mindful Migraine Blog Avatar

    mash potato bread – wow! who knew!

    💚🌟❤️

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Terry Avatar

      It’s pretty good for sure! Have a great day!

      Like

  6. Phil Strawn Avatar

    That looks yummy.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Terry Avatar

      It’s similar to soft tortillas, Phil – but has mashed potatoes in the dough, is much thinner and is very tender.

      Liked by 1 person

  7. explorenewness Avatar

    Goodness! What an undertaking…192! How ambitious. I have never heard of lefse. Thanks for introducing me to something NEW! My hubs has a Norwegian line a few generations back. What do you typically serve with them?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Terry Avatar

      See my comments to Betty, Lenore. 192 is actually a small batch in the scheme of things in hubs’ family.

      Liked by 1 person

  8. Lana Avatar

    What an amazing achievement! Hats off to you undertaking this wonderful sounding recipe. A bonding tradition too. I only ever knew one Norwegian – a beautiful model I used to get paired up with in Karate class years back. She was very much into living a healthy lifestyle and said her family was too. Maybe they too made this special bread 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Terry Avatar

      I have a friend who met a Norwegian fellow online. He came to Canada at Christmas to see her. I took some lefse for her to share with him and he loved it. He said that because it’s so time consuming, you seldom see the homemade lefse in Norway anymore (and that was several years ago). Have a fab day, Lana!

      Liked by 1 person

  9. Betty Avatar

    This seems like a perfect gift for the guys! A labor of love! It looks like you had fun making it. I have never heard of lefse. How is it eaten? Plain or with other foods? Thanks for your post!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Terry Avatar

      Lefse can be eaten with a meal instead of bread or rolls, or it can be eaten alone. There are more ways that people like it than you can imagine, Betty. Some spread it just with butter, roll it up and eat it. Hubs prefers his with a cheese spread on it and rolled up. Some spread with butter and then sprinkle with either white or brown sugar and roll up. Rolled up is the only constant, lol. Have a great day, Betty!

      Liked by 1 person

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