Lefse on the Plate! (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025 Week 48 Theme: "Family Recipe")

Norwegian lefse (in North America sometimes spelled with an "a" as lefsa to indicate its pronunciation) is a soft flatbread made with mashed or riced potatoes, butter, cream and flour. It is generally spread with more butter before eating, then sprinkled with sugar (and sometimes cinnamon) and rolled up, or, in my family, more often spread simply with butter and rolled up to be eaten as a bread. It can also be used in savory snacks or lunches by rolling it up with meat, cheese or other fillings as you might with pita, naan or tortillas. It is a staple at Christmas and Thanksgiving in my Canadian family. 

My earliest recollection of lefse-making in my family was at home on the farm when my Grandma Bardahl came to visit. My parents had taken over my grandparents' Saskatchewan homestead in an area populated primarily by people of Norwegian heritage. My paternal grandparents were both 100% Norwegian Americans who had moved across the border to Canada. My maternal grandfather was entirely of Swedish and Norwegian background, but because my maternal grandmother was not Scandinavian at all, my mother Elinor (Anderson) Bardahl did not grow up with lefse (or any other Norwegian treats, for that matter).

That left it up to my Grandma Bardahl to show my mother how it was done. Grandma's old ridged rolling pin and her heavy grill to put on the wood stove were brought out, as was the turning stick (called a lefsepinne or snustikke in Norwegian --  but we just called it the turning stick or poking stick). This long narrow stick normally resided safely at the bottom of the living room pull-down blind and could be pulled out when called into service.

Here is the family recipe for Lefsa in my mother's handwriting:

Bardahl, Elinor, Recipes from Grandma's Kitchen, 2nd edition, privately printed 2013, page 9 (with my notation to refrigerate the potato mixture 1-2 days where the recipe says "cool"; this is the recommendation of my brother Craig and his wife Melanie)

Although the recipe does not indicate this as part of the method, for children most of the fun comes from helping by using the lefsa lifter to poke the bubbles that form when the first side cooks on the grill. Hence, our name of "poking stick".)

My mother became so adept at making lefse that she sold it for many years at the Swift Current Farmers' Market. The following newspaper article featured her lefse-making skills:

The Southwest Booster, Swift Current, Saskatchewan, November 18, 1991 

(I had forgotten my father's comment regarding their specialized car license plate that read "LEFSA" saying he had obtained it so he would always have lefsa on his plate! Groan!)

In the same way that Elinor's mother-in-law had taught her, Elinor in turn got her daughter-in-law Melanie started in the lefsa-making business. Melanie's husband Craig is equally involved and the couple have run a successful business selling their fine product throughout western Canada. They have tweaked the family recipe to make it work very well on a much larger scale. It remains delicious and of consistently excellent quality, making it exceedingly popular. It keeps them very busy for much of the year, particularly ahead of holiday seasons.