Some days you never know who will be on the other end of the phone. Today I got a phone call from a member of the local knitting club who asked me if I was interested in having a “wool quilt”. “Yes” was my answer. I needed to go pick it up at St Olaf’s Lutheran church which is only a few blocks from my studio. She told me to ask for a certain person and tell her who sent me. She also mentioned there would be a group of ladies making lefse (a Scandinavian flatbread). NOW my interest was piqued! There is a section with all the lefse making tools at the local Co-op and I’ve been intrigued by it most of the time I’ve lived here. I’ve also eaten lefse at potlucks etc. I took my camera just in case I could take some pics of lefse making happening. The group was just finishing their “lunch” before starting.
First of all, I found the person I was supposed to contact about the quilt. She gave it to me (more about this in another post) and showed me the quilting room the Lutheran ladies use. (again – I will do another post on this).
It all starts with riced potatoes! I didn’t realize that. Other ingredients (in this recipe) are flour, salt, cream, butter, and ??? – no wonder they taste so good!
riced potatoes for lefse
One person is designated as the dough mixer.
mixing the lefse dough
After the dough is mixed it gets passed to the next person who kneads it a few times.
kneading the lefse dough
Then the dough is cut in consistent size pieces and weighed to so that the lefse will be a consistent size.
making the lefse portions
weighing lefse dough
After the dough is weighed it is formed into disks of a consistent size to make it easier to roll out to form the lefse.
making the lefse portions
Once the dough is prepared, it is taken to the various work stations set up around the kitchen. Each part of the process has a person doing it. The work stations have 2-3 persons doing the tasks. Often a less experienced person works with a more experienced person to learn how it’s done.
a lefse cooking work area
Once they have dough, the ladies start rolling the lefse out on a circular board covered with fabric and marked with various diameters.
lefse rolling surface
The rolling pins are also covered with a “sock” to prevent the dough from sticking. It’s important to have enough flour on the rolling surface and rolling pin but not too much.
rolling out the lefse
After the lefse is rolled out evenly and thinly it is “picked up” and transferred to the griddle with a stick (I didn’t get the name for it). Everyone seems to have their preference on narrow or wide sticks
picking up the lefse to transfer to griddle
It’s important to roll the lefse out evenly and quite thinly so it will cook quickly and thoroughly on the griddle.
lefse on the griddle
As the lefse cooks on the griddle, bubbles form on the dough and are pricked with a fork to release the air.
Once one side is browned, the lefse is turned using the stick and the other side is cooked
cooking the second side while pricking bubbles
When the lefse is cooked it is placed on a clean towel to cool before being moved to a larger cooking surface.
a completely cooked lefse
cooked lefse cooling
Another person transfers the cooked lefse to a large table covered with cloths for the lefse to finish cooling before they are packaged
lefse cooling on the tables
When the lefse are cooled they are moved to another cloth covered table for packaging. Four lefse are stacked together and cut into 4 pieces (16 pieces of lefse) and placed into a plastic bag
Lefse being cut for packaging
finished packages of Lefse
It was wonderful to see all the folks involved in the lefse making working together. In a previous 3 hour session, they made 54 packages of lefse (that’s over 200 individual lefse!) .
many hands make light work
There were at least 6 separate work areas set up and each had at least 2-3 persons working together to make the lefse. Some had never done it before and were learning the process. Others had been making lefse probably most of their life. It was a joy to see the care and attention put into the making and creating community with others at the same time.
I did manage to get a taste of a nice fresh lefse but there were few “culls” to taste.
The lefse are being made (and frozen for now) to be sold at the St Olaf’s Cookie and Lefse Walk on Saturday morning, Nov 26 at St Olaf’s. The bags of 16 lefse pieces sell for $10. I hear you have to be there pretty early to get some before they’re sold out!
I want to thank the ladies of St. Olaf’s for welcoming me and letting me take photos of them working. I promised not to put “faces” on my blog, but I did take some photos of the groups working for them (with their smiling faces) to have. I think it’s only fair.
Tags: fund raising, lefse, St Olaf's Lutheran Church, Swift Current
