Grandma Cook's Lefse

Grandma used to make the best lefse. Since 2018 we have been having an annual "Cook'n Up Lefse" party with aunts, cousins, kids where we can all enjoy Grandma's tradition together. It has been a blast each year. And when you get that many Norwegians together...chaos is just around the corner.

Source: Vonnie Cook

Ingredients:

7 C water

2 C half and half

10-12 Tbsp butter

5 tsp salt

4 tsp sugar

8 C potato buds (Betty Crocker brand)

4.5 C flour

Directions:

1. Bring water, half and half, butter, salt and sugar together to a boil in a large stock pot

2. Add potato buds, mix, and let cool

3. Once cooled, add flour. Roll into small balls and refrigerate 30 minutes before rolling. *Grandma always rolls the day before and refrigerates overnight

4. Cover rolling board with pastry cloth. Dust thoroughly with flour so that the red words and lines in the cloth are no longer visible. Thoroughly coat rolling pin cover with flour. You cannot use too much flour with a lefse dough.

5. Place ball on rolling board and gently flatten with your palm. Roll from the middle outwards to ensure that the middle and edges are of equal thickness. You want to avoid having too thin of edges or they will burn and become crispier than the rest of your lefse

6. Use a flipping stick to transfer the rolled dough to griddle and heat until bubbly, or, brown spots appear on one side. Flip and cook until the other side is also done

7. Transfer to a plate or warmer and brush edges with melted butter (both sides) to maintain moisture of the lefse

8. Remove excess flour from the griddle with a soft griddle brush or towel between each piece of dough

Yield: 44 ice cream scoops for large rounds, 80 small balls for smaller rounds

Notes:

- Grandma adds flour the next day after refrigerating overnight just before rolling. I added after potato mixture was cooled, prior to portioning and refrigerating

- 2018 we trialed freezing 1 pan of the rolled dough. Take out the evening before you are going to make. Roll fresh in the morning to serve at the holiday

- Supplies we typically use each year for our lefse making party:

* 1 large bag all purpose flour

* 12-16 sticks butter

* ziplock bags, for dividing up lefse for everyone to take home

meal prep containers for everyone to take leftovers home (we have a pot luck style party)