Most families have foods they eat during the holidays that have become family traditions. When I was growing up my fraternal grandmother always made lutefisk on Christmas Eve. Thankfully we haven’t continued that tradition. But there is one that we have – lefse.

I love lefse, and luckily for me there’s always a plate of them at Thanksgiving and Christmas. When I was younger, not realizing it was a traditional Norwegian food, I figured it was something everyone ate during the holidays and was always surprised when I would rave about it and people had no idea what I was talking about. 

For those unaware, lefse is basically a very thin pancake made from riced potatoes. In my family, we top them with butter and sugar, roll them up, and enjoy. Some people only add butter, some use brown sugar. They’re wrong.

Years ago, my maternal grandma and her sisters got together in the fall to make lefse. Eventually it turned into my grandma and my mom making it, and after my grandma passed away my mom made it – by herself.

If you know anything about making lefse you know how much work it is. For years we’d been talking about getting my sister and I and our kids together so she could teach us how to make it. This year it finally happened.

When my parents came to our house for Thanksgiving my mom brought her electric griddle and potato ricer. Although a long wooden stick is traditionally used to flip the lefse over, we make smaller, single serving pieces so my mom prefers to use a large spatula. 

The first thing we learned was not to use overcooked potatoes. We hadn’t needed all the potatoes we’d cooked for our Thanksgiving mashed potatoes, so we figured we’d use the excess for the lefse. Bad decision. Because they were overcooked the dough turned out sticky. We made it work with extra flour, but it would have definitely gone smoother if we’d freshly boiled the potatoes.

I’ve had lefse other than ours, none have been as good as what I grew up with. I learned part of the secret is to use real cream and roll them out thin enough to see through. 

The lefse turned out delicious, and with six of us working together we got it done in an afternoon. We’ll be enjoying it at Christmas.