My lefse classes have begun, and my first was with Jennifer Johnson and Helen Priestly, shown above. They were naturals from the get-go but appreciated some tips I offered, and each left with a bag of their own lefse. In the class we discussed what the pastry board cover can teach you, and here are two lessons:
Stop the Sticking
What’s the biggest problem with making lefse? Sticking. Your dough sticks to the surface on which you’re rolling, and once you have a sticking spot, that spot continues to be a problem to the point where it wrecks round after round. The solution is my Blue Pastry Board Cover, which fits only on big boards that are 23 to 24 inches in diameter.
In your rapture of rolling good lefse, you may not notice a developing sticky spot. This is especially true when your pastry board cover is white. The lack of white flour that defines a sticky spot is not readily apparent on a white pastry board cover. But it is on a Blue Pastry Board Cover, as you see in the photo below. That dark blue center of the board is a spot that needs flour or you’ll have sticking. So roll elsewhere on the big board or re-flour that spot. BTW, you save flour and reduce kitchen mess with the blue cover because you can apply flour only to the dark spots and not the entire board.
Roll It Read-Thru Thin
A question that always comes up in class is: “How thin do I roll my lefse?” When I was learning, the response was: “If you can read a newspaper beneath your round, you’re done.” Well, it’s cumbersome to slip a newspaper under each round, plus newspapers are getting harder and harder to find. But if you use the Blue Pastry Board Cover and start seeing blue coming through your round, you’ve got it thin enough. Or if you use the familiar Bethany white pastry board cover that fits Bethany’s 19-inch board only, you are in luck. Bethany marks the board in red lines and lettering, and you know your rounds are thin enough when you can read the red print under your round.
To sum it up, avoid sticking and minimize your flour mess by using the Blue Pastry Board Cover. And roll your rounds real thin by rolling until you can see the blue or read the red print through your beautiful round. Keep on rolling!