my dad was a viking. his grandfather came to america from norway (i even found his name on the ellis island website) and settled in chicago. i am 1/4 norwegian and am very proud of that heritage but i'm not nearly as much of a viking as my dad was. he loved his boat, being out on the water & fishing. he didn't do any raping & pillaging but when he was sick & we talked about his "final arrangements" he told me that he thought it would be cool to be put on a boat & set on fire like a traditional viking funeral.  my dad had a weird/great sense of humor.

so when i saw the weekend breakfast blog challenge over at glenna's blog, i thought i'd make something from my scandinavian heritage. while searching online, i found a post by a norwegian woman saying that traditional breakfast would be bread with jams, cheese or meat but i thought that just going to better cheddar & getting the norwegian cheese i always sample but never buy would be boring & bordering on cheating. i remember my dad telling me about the elder women in his family making lefse and i haven't had it since i can't remember when. it's not specifically just a breakfast dish but i like it for breakfast & think it fits so that's what i decided to make.

lefse is sort of like a tortilla & sort of like a crepe (although traditional norwegian krumkake is even more so) & a bit like a flat bread which really fits with viking culture. with all of their travel & conquering, the vikings incorporated a lot of what they found (and stole) in other lands into their own lives. for example, a lot of scandinavian artwork has a celtic look to it. influences as far away as the infamous roman empire can be seen. kind of like when the vikings discovered north america but then left, they didn't conquer & take over countries. they liked to kick a country's ass, take what they wanted & then go back home. so, i'm not positive that lefse is a stolen idea & i have no historical proof... but it makes sense.

i like lefse best with a thin layer of butter & then sugar sprinkled on it (i do this with flour tortillas sometimes for a snack too). it would also be good with jelly or peanut butter or rolled up with fruit or any number of other toppings. i'm thinking it would be great with savory ingredients inside too. i started with a recipe i found on allrecipes.com (found here) but made some modifications. the lefse turned out exactly like i remember it. it was perfect. so here's the recipe as i did it.

lefse

about 4 pounds of potatoes (i used about 5 red & 5 gold because that's what i had)
1/4 cup butter
3 tbs heavy cream
1 tbs salt
1 tbs sugar
2 cups flour

boil the potatoes until tender then use a potato ricer (which i happened to have because of a potato foccacia recipe i made years ago from a martha stewart magazine that i wish i still had!) or mash VERY well. any lumps would be bad. you want to end up with 4 1/2 cups of potato.  mix in the butter, cream, salt & sugar while the potatoes are still warm then let it cool until room temperature. mix in the flour.  here's what the dough looks like (after about 3/4 of it has been fried).

the recipe i started from says to use a "pastry towel" which i have no idea what that is, much less do i have one. so i just liberally floured my counter & rolling pin & it worked out fine. it just takes a LOT of flouring of the counter & rolling pin. take a chunk of dough about the size of a small lime & roll out as thin as possible, maybe 1/8 of an inch thick at the most. i wish i had a griddle to do these on but i used a large non-stick skillet heated to medium high heat. each lefse takes a very short time to fry. it will start to bubble & that's when you know to turn it over. as i took them off the pan, i put a paper towel between them so they wouldn't stick together when they cool. but, if you leave them in a stack, it will take forever for them all to cool. so, after i was done, i set the towels out on the counter so they could all cool off.

they came out about 8-10 inches across and not even close to perfectly round.  they are best warm but tasty cold as well.  as i'm sitting here writing, my cat got up on the desk and actually took a bite of what i have left of my plate.  if a cat is eating something made primarily of potato, you know it's got to be good!

this was my first time making lefse myself & i'm quite proud about how they turned out. i had one that was still warm (so it melted the butter) and it was so yummy, i did a little happy dance while mumbling "yummmm". lefse is pretty easy to make & made enough that i have plenty left for breakfast tomorrow. actually, i think i'll go have another piece right now!

thats a lovely entry candy. thanks:)

Candy--GREAT entry! I really love it. I'm going to have to make this. I'm Norwegian (and Swedish) too so I'm very intrested in northern European food, especially since my family didn't really pass down any cultural favorites. Thanks so much for participating.

This is so interesting. I am definitely going to try making it.

Saw one of your comments at Susie's and decided to stop by . . .

My college roommate grew up near St. Louis. Her family is Norwegian, and her mom had some church ladies over to make lefse when their house was on the market. Well, all the lefse makers blew a fuse, and wouldn't you know it? That's when the Realtor stopped by to show the house to an Indian couple. They weren't quite sure what to think of all the aproned women standing around chatting and laughing in the dark with those big long sticks! So no, they didn't sell the house that day. :)

Those pancakes/ breads look so appetizing! I have to try this sometime...but I might indianize it by making it savory :o

As a one-time lefse maker, I don't think you maybe realize how ambitious you are, making lefse with some recipe from the Internet and without instruction (or a griddle). Good for you - they look great!!

I'm so glad to see someone else eats Lefse. This is a tradition in my family also. Thanks for showcasing this on the weekend breakfast blogging!