Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Lefse Anyone???


One of my favorite Christmas traditions is baking for our families. I have always been proud of my Scandinavian heritage and make a point each year to carry on the traditions set forth by my Great Grandparents.



Yesterday my mom and I spent the day doing some of my favorite things. With an order needing to be picked up for Christmas dinner. We headed down to Ballard (a Scandinavian community in Seattle) early this year to try to avoid the rush. We picked up potatis korv (potato sausage), cardamom rolls, nokkelost cheese, skoleboller (school buns with vanilla custard), and sursild (pickled herring). Christmas would not be complete with out these delicacies!
After snacking on some of the goodies we picked up, it was time for us to get busy making our Hardanger Lefse. The recipe was passed down from my Great Auntie Anna. My daddy, remembers as a boy Auntie Anna stopping by the house with a large plate of Lefse for all to enjoy.
My mom mixed up the buttermilk, white Karo syrup, eggs, sugar, and flour. After kneading in a total of 9 cups of flour and separating out 30 small lemon sized pieces of dough, it was time to start rolling. Each piece of dough is rolled out super super thin and then placed onto a 500 degree Lefse iron to cook for a couple minutes on each side.
One of the fabulous things about Hardanger Lefse is how well it stores. The sheets can be stored for a year (it never lasts that long though!) stacked in an open brown paper bag. Before serving, it needs to be softened, then buttered with cinnamon and sugar, folded up, and cut into 1 inch pieces. It's a lot of work to make, but so worth the effort!!!!


1 comment:

Barbara Jacksier said...

I grew up in NYC and one of my neighbors always gave us a plate of her homemade Lefse. How I miss them...