Interesting. Here's my Aunt Ethel's recipe (which was probably my
grandma's recipe). Ethel just died last week at the age of 102.
3 cups mashed potatoes (2 quart-size kettles almost full) (my mom used russets)
1 c flour
Salt to taste
Add a little cream or milk when mashing the potatoes
Ethel started cooking the potatoes as she cooked an evening meal,
mashed them before eating, let them cool, then did the dishes before
starting on the lefse prep. It will get sticky if the potatoes aren't
cooled before adding the flour. When rolling out the dough, add just
enough flour to the pastry cloth to keep it from sticking. Roll out
into a round shape. Thickness or thinness is a personal preference.
Some people pride themselves on how thin they can roll the lefse. I
like them a bit thick ... 1/8" or a little more.
My mother used a sharpened window shade slat to pick up the lefse for
transfer to the iron (I've used frying pans on the oven top with
equal success.)
I can't tell you a temperature. You do want brown spots on the lefse,
but not burned. Just experiment, but I think it needs to be pretty
hot. You flip it over like a pancake and cook both sides.
We ate them two ways ... At Christmas with lutefisk, I layer lefse,
mashed potatoes, lutefisk and lots of melted butter. My uncle used to
roll that mixture up like a burrito, but I think that's too messy.
This also requires a nice thick piece of lefse that won't rip easily.
The second way is as a treat instead of or with cookies .. Butter the
lefse and sprinkle sugar (brown or white) on it, then roll it up or
fold it over several times. It's sold in Norway in chilled cases this way.
Either way, real butter makes it yummiest.