Lefse

Today in the Catholic Church is the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord or in other countries, such as France and Mexico: Candlemas.  Even though I’ve been Catholic since birth, I’ve never heard of this feast called Candlemas, so I was in for an education for today’s Sunday Funday Candlemas theme!

In places that celebrate Candlemas, it is typically celebrated by blessing candles and by preparing festive foods.  In Mexico, they serve tamales and atole, and in France they serve crepes or pancakes since the round shape is a representation of the sun (as Jesus is the Son and the Light of the World).

Sunday Funday specified the French tradition of pancakes/crepes for this theme, but I wasn’t really feeling highlighting France with a religious holiday after the blasphemous display at the 2024 summer olympics opening ceremony.

So I decided to make a different festive (though not Candlemas specific) pancake/flatbread: Norwegian Lefse!

I shared a recipe once before, but at that time I was missing all  of the equipment to make lefse the traditional way and this time I have a potato ricer!  The ricer truly does make a huge difference in the recipe, allowing for a much higher potato to flour ratio in the dough and it’s fantastic.

The lefse was so popular, that my family was buttering and eating the lefse as fast as I could get them off the skillet!  It was great!

Sunday Funday

Candlemas

• Food Lust People Love: Brown Butter Sourdough Waffles 
• Amy's Cooking Adventures: Lefse 
• Our Good Life: Pancake Puffs 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Roasted Vegetable Crepes 
• Karen's Kitchen Stories: Sourdough Pancakes 
• Culinary Cam: Strawberry Japanese Soufflé Pancakes

Lefse

Recipe from Minnesota Uncorked

Potatoes

2 ½ pounds potatoes

¼ cup butter, melted

Dough

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

½ cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Wash potatoes and cut away any visible bad spots.  Pierce a few times with a knife then place in the oven to bake until soft enough to easily pierced with a fork, about 30-40 minutes.  

Remove from oven and set aside until cool enough to handle, but still warm.  Peel the still warm potatoes, discarding skins and any dark spots.  Roughly dice the potatoes, then press through a potato ricer into a large bowl.  Pour the melted butter over the riced potatoes and stir to mix.  Refrigerate, uncovered, for 2 hours or until fully chilled.

Place the chilled potatoes in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook.  Add the flour, salt, sugar, and cream.  Mix until the potatoes are fully combined and the dough sticks together.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat.  Liberally dust a work surface and rolling pin with flour.  Divide the dough into 2-ounce portions.  Roll into a ball, then roll thin on the work surface, redusting with flour, as needed.

Tap off the excess flour, then place in the skillet.  Cook for about a minute or until bubbles appear and the bottom is browning, then flip and cook for another 30-45 seconds or until the bottom is browned.  Stack on a towel lined plate to cool.

Butter the lefse to serve, adding sugar or cinnamon sugar as desired.  Store any leftover lefse in and airtight container in the refrigerator.