Let'se make Lefse

I had never really heard of Lefse until we moved up here - I think I may have read about it in one of Rolvaag's books - but I didn't know what it was. Well, what it is - is a really thin potato flatbread.

This is Juanita's recipe - Juanita passed away years ago - but we still use her recipe for the Church Bazaar Lefse:

4 cups potatoes
1 1/2 cup flour
1 T sugar
1 t salt
1 t baking powder

That's pretty simple and it's Vegan - YAY!

This is my freshly polished Lefse griddle...

You'll need some sort of protector for your countertop - as the Lefse griddle gets very hot and you don't want an ugly brown spot on your counter...
This is my pastry board covered with a pastry cloth - note that it even says it's for Lefse...
Your rolling pin must be covered with cloth as well - I cut up a tube sock and tied it on so it doesn't move around and spoil my lefse...
This is the dough being cut and formed into little rounds for rolling...
These are the little rounds - they go into the fridge to await being rolled...
Put some flour on your board - not too much...
and start rolling - lightly - it's pretty time consuming - it takes about 4 - 5 minutes to roll out a piece of lefse...
You have to roll it until it's very thin - you should be able to read the letters on your pastry cover easily... and your lefse should be as round as possible - purely aesthetic - I've rolled ones that looked like the state of Texas...
Then you lift it with your lefse stick and gently put it on a griddle...
wait until there are some brown spots and turn it over and count to ten and your done...
Then put it in a stack to cool and soften...
Cover this stack with some towels with a sheet of plastic in between - so they sort of steam...

That's it - a very time consuming process - I'm not really that fond of lefse and it seems to me like an awful lot of trouble - people mostly make it here for the holidays - and it sells for $1 per sheet at the bazaar - they'll make over $1000.00 for all the lefse we made over the 4 days - they usually eat it with butter and sugar - I would prefer just a little Earth Balance as it's more of a potato pancake to me...