DIRECTIONS

• Cooking the Potatoes
• Put the potatoes in a medium saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring the water to a boil and cook the potatoes until they are fork-tender but not mushy, 10 to 13 minutes; you should be able to pierce the potatoes easily with a skewer. Drain the potatoes and turn them out onto a large platter, spreading them out in a single layer and allowing them to air-dry for a minute or two before you continue with the recipe.
• Using a potato ricer (an old-fashioned, inexpensive, and effective utensil), press the potatoes into a large bowl. With a sturdy rubber spatula, mix the potatoes with the butter, cream, sugar, and salt, stirring them until they are very smooth.
• Chilling the Potatoes
• The potatoes now need to be chilled for at least 8 hours, or overnight. Do not cover the potatoes-you want them to dry out further in the refrigerator.
• When you're ready to make the lefses, prepare your work space. You need a good rolling surface that can be kept well floured. If you have a canvas-covered rolling round or board, set it up and flour it. If not, you can tack or tape a muslin or linen cloth to your counter or wrap a large cutting board with a cloth. Pull the cloth very taut and rub it well with flour. Rub flour over a grooved lefse rolling pin or a standard rolling pin (cover your standard pin with a wellfloured pastry sock, if you have one).
• Mixing the Dough
• Remove the potatoes from the refrigerator and break them up with a rubber spatula. Add 1 cup of the flour and mix it in with your hands. Add about another 1/4 to 1/2 cup flour, a heaping tbsp at a time, and mix that in with your hands. Your goal is to have a real dough-not stiff mashed potatoes-and to achieve it, you might have to add a bit more flour. When you can pinch a piece of the dough between your fingers without having it stick, you're there.
• Preheat an ungreased electric griddle to between 475°F and 500°F, or place a griddle over medium-high heat on your stove. Clear a place near the griddle and lay out a terry-cloth towel to be used to stack the baked lefses under plastic wrap.
• Shaping the Dough
• Divide the dough into quarters and the quarters into thirds. Working with one piece of dough at a time and keeping the remaining dough under a towel, form the dough into a ball with your hands. Put the dough on the well-floured rolling surface and pat it out into a round, just to get the shaping started. Now, using light pressure, work with the rolling pin to roll the dough into a large round that is as thin as you can possibly roll it. Keep everything well floured at all times, lifting the lefse and flouring under it a few times, flouring the top of the dough, and flouring the pin.
• Baking the Lefse
• Carefully slide a lefse stick, paint stirrer, or dowel under the round, wrapping it around the stick just enough to lift it off the rolling board and onto the hot griddle; unroll it onto the hot dry griddle. Bake the lefse until the top bubbles and the underside is speckled with brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Slide the stick under the lefse and flip it over. As with a pancake, the second side will bake faster than the first. As soon as the lefse is baked, take it off the griddle, place it on the terry-cloth towel near the griddle, and cover with plastic. Roll out the next lefse. Brush the griddle with a pastry brush to rid it of any flour before baking the lefse.
• This is a great job for two people - one to roll and one to bake. If you're working solo, you might try to roll the next lefse while the last one is baking--or not; everything will wait.
• Serve the lefses warm, spread with butter and sugar or cinnamon sugar and rolled up. If you want to roll the lefses around hot dogs, brush with butter and mustard and change their name - served with franks, they're called lumpa.
• Storing
• When the lefses have cooled completely, they can be stacked between sheets of waxed paper, wrapped airtight, and frozen for 2 weeks. Thaw the lefses in their wrappers and reheat them in a microwave oven or a hot conventional oven.