Photo courtesy of Boulder Creek Mary Mitzner and her mother Sue Mitzner hold a lefse baking demonstration this week at Boulder Creek. Lefse is a family tradition because of Swedish ancestry.

MARSHALL — Mary Mitzner learned how to make lefse from her family, and she plans to pass the tradition along to future generations.

Mitzner and her mother, Sue Mitzner of Balaton, gave a lefse baking demonstration Wednesday at Boulder Creek Assisted Living. She works at Boulder Creek as its director of nursing.

She said her mother and grandmother made lefse because of their Swedish ancestry. Lefse is popular in several Scandinavian countries.

“It’s a Scandinavian thing,” Mitzner said. “It’s often thought of as Norwegian, but Swedes make it and Danes do too.”

Her recipe calls for 10 pounds of peeled potatoes, a half cup butter, a third cup of heavy cream, a tablespoon of salt, a tablespoon of white sugar and two-and-a-half cups of all purpose flour.

The potatoes are boiled and then put through a ricer. The next step is to add the butter, cream, salt and sugar.

“It’s important to put in the sugar after the butter,” Mitzner said. “That gives it the sweet taste. Everything tastes better with butter.”

After the mixture cools to room temperature, flour is added to form a soft dough. The dough is then heated on a griddle. The edges often stick to the pan but can be scraped loose with a knife.

“It helps when there’s two people,” she said. “One person can roll the dough and the other can bake. If there’s three people, the third can taste.”

During the baking demonstration, she shared a memory of the first time she tried her grandmother’s lefse. She took an unusual approach.

“When I first tried it I rolled it up with peanut butter,” Mitzner said. “I think it made my grandmother mad. It wasn’t the traditional way.”

In the past month she enjoyed seeing her daughter try lefse for the first time and was pleased when she liked it.

“I needed to practice at home, so it was a good chance for her to sample it,” she said. “She ate it as fast as I could make it.”

Boulder Creek residents said they enjoyed the demonstration and the opportunity to taste lefse. Bea Wewetzer said she’s never made lefse since her family is German.

“I don’t make lefse, but I enjoy eating it,” Wewetzer said. “I like the taste. It’s a good Scandinavian treat.”

Karen Egly, whose family is Belgian, said she’s never made lefse but might someday like to try it.

“I’ve been looking forward to the lefse making,” Egly said. “It’s something I’ve never tried. I wanted to see how it’s done.”