Just Roll With It

             This past Saturday I visited my sister-in-law Heather in Sioux Falls.  (The one that likes to bake as much as me... remember?)  I hadn't seen her, her husband Jon and their daughter Eve since Eve's birthday party in November.  It had been way too long.  Heather and I agreed to get together Saturday and bake.  She wanted to make lefsa and Wheaties rolls for Easter.  I was psyched.  I've never made lefsa.  I'm not Norwegian or Scandinavian so I don't have a clue how it's made.  I have eaten it and it's good.  (Although, I did have to ask how to eat it the first time!)  Heather has a lefsa pan which looks like this:

I had never seen one so I took a picture.  The dough has to rest 8 hours for lefsa so Heather had made the dough the night before while we talked on the phone.  The dough looked like this: 

However, the dough was stickier than Heather remembered it being.  I was no help.  I'm an Irish girl learning how to make lefsa... how could I be of any assistance?  Jon called his grandma and she solved the mystery with her first question: "Did she add the flour to the dough the night before?"  Heather had done exactly that and apparently that's wrong.  Sort of.  Grandma Y (Jon and Steve's grandma) said that their grandpa like lefsa to be crispier, to the point where it wouldn't bend.  We could achieve this by adding more flour.  Heather wasn't too thrilled at the suggestion.  We scrapped the plans to make lefsa.  I will have to learn another time.

              We did make Wheaties rolls.  This is another of Grandma Y's recipes.  Steve loves them.  Wheaties rolls are similar to cinnamon rolls in the consistency of the dough but you don't let them rise.  And the recipe really does call for Wheaties.  After letting the dough rest in the fridge for a few hours (and getting Eve's bike), we rolled out the dough and sprinkled some cinnamon on it.  Eve was a big girl and enjoyed helping.  We had to give her a little piece of dough to work with.  The dough was rolled up and cut.  The smell in the house as the rolls baked was divine.  The final touch: maple flavored frosting.  It's delicioso.  Powdered sugar, butter, milk and maple flavoring and you have a very yummy frosting.

      All in all, it was a great day.  (And I did bring home some rolls for Steve.)