Traditional Norwegian Lefse - Made with my grandmas old recipe
A traditional soft, sweet and buttery Norwegian cuisine that is now a staple Christmas cake in many homes.
Ingredients
Lefse
- 250 gram butter
- 500 gram sugar
- 1 500 gram all purpose flour
- 1 liter kefir
- 2 tsp sodium bicarbonate
- 2 tsp baking soda
Filling
- 500 gram butter
- 400 gram sugar
- 2 tbsp cinnamon
We were so lucky to have a family that lived on a farm in a tiny place called Brunkeberg in Telemark. This place was heaven on earth as a vacation spot as a kid. A wonderful farm with animals, nature and a different lifestyle from home. The food was also fantastic! The original recipe I got from my grandma was very unprissise with directions like “Add a decent amount of flour”. So through trial and error I have finally been able to get the recipe down. The final results are amazing and brings back so many childhood memories.
Step 1
Start with melting butter in a saucepan. When its completely melted, add kefir and mix it together.
Step 2
Weight your dry ingredients and mix them together.
Step 3
In the old recipe they stated that the ingredients shouldnt be mixed too well together. Combine butter and kefir mix with the dry ingredients. Here I knead the ingredients by hand instead of using a stand mixer. The dough should turn out sticky and soft. Place the dough in a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. Then you place it in the fridge for 1-2 hours. This will make the dough easier to work with later.
Step 4
Make the filling while the dough is resting in the fridge. Mix room tempered butter with sugar and cinnamon. The filling is not supposed to be airy, but mix them well with a whisk.
Step 5
Get a scale and take the dough out of the fridge. Split the dough into 200 gram pieces and form them into a ball. Place one at a time on your kitchen counter with a little bit of flour and squeeze it flat before you roll it out. It should have the same shape as your frying pan.
Step 6
Warm up the frying pan to medium + heat. Brush off the flour that's left on our dough and place it in the frying pan. Fry for 1-2 minutes on each side. The time will vary, but make sure it's a golden brown color on each side.
Step 7
When done frying, stack them on top of each other in between towels.
Step 8
Wait till they cool down before applying the filling. Make sure that the whole lefse is covered with filling. Place another lefse on top and cut them into “pizza slices”.
Step 9
Now your lefse is finished! These are incredible and i'm sure grandma would be proud that i'm sharing her recipe for you to enjoy. Good luck :-)
