This morning Hillary invited over for lefsebaking and Kristin was excited about the chance to finally learn the secrets of this old Norwegian pastry tradition. Our Canadian neighbour says there are no secrets. Just a few special tools, such as lefsekjevle and lefsepinner and a few free hours on your hands. And she's right! Here’s the recipe, but make sure you have the above-mentioned tools before you start, as well as a proper working surface (such as a wooden plate), a baking brush, a large-diameter "takke" and someone who can show you how.Johannas kvitlefse
1 litre skimmed soured milk (Kefir)
2 tablespoons of caster sugar
250 grams of melted butter
2 tablespoons of Hjortetakksalt (raising agent)
About 1 kilo of wheat flour (but have 2 kilos available)
Pour the milk into a blender and pour in the melted butter while the blender is on. Mix the dry ingredients and blend into the milk/butter. Knead into a loose but elastic and workable dough and cut it into bun-sized pieces. Roll the pieces as if making buns and pat them into the shape of small, thick pancakes. Use the kjelve to roll out each pancake to a thin lefse, turning a few times and using lots of flour to keep it easy to lift from the surface. Roll the thin lefse onto the lefsepinne, and brush off surplus flour with a baking brush. Unroll from the lefsepinne onto the takke and fry gently on one side only. The lefse turns fairly crispy straight away. Moist by putting the lefse between layers of wet kitchen towels when you want to fill them. Put between wet towels straight from the takke if you want to do the whole procedure in one go.
Filling: Half a kilo of butter and 400 grams of caster sugar is blended to a white paste. Mix in two tablespoons of cinnamon and 3 dl of sour cream. Grated ”brunost” makes the filling even tastier. Smear a thin layer of filling onto each lefse and fold in a few centimetres from four sides, so that the lefse attains a rectangular shape. Then fold the whole lefse like closing a book. Put between layers of "matpapir" and then in plastic to deepfreeze.
Happy Easter!
