Flatbrød or flatbread, a crispy, cracker-like bread, is a Norwegian staple.

Flatbrød is often simply topped with a layer of butter, but can also be used with peppered mackerel, a soft cheese such as Ekte Geitost Goat Cheese or other cheese spread, or Kalles Cod Roe Kaviar Spread. Norsland has a wide variety of cheese and fish that work great with flatbread.

While you can purchase an assortment of flatbreads commercially made at Norsland Lefse, it’s also fun to make your own from readily available supplies.

As a kid, I often ate commercially produced flatbread with lots of butter on it as an after school snack. This isn’t surprising since I had quite a fondness for butter! In fact, once as a little kid, I’d rode along to the creamery as my father delivered the milk cans full of milk from our farm for processing. He had picked up our order of butter and left it in the cab with me while he unloaded the milk cans and chatted with the neighboring farmers. I understand that I managed to eat about a fourth of a pound before he returned! Even that experience has not daunted my passion for butter.

When I received my lefse grill as a newlywed, I decided I needed to try out the flatbread recipe that accompanied my grill. After all, why just save the grill for an occasional lefse making day?

Apparently, I didn’t think the amount of dough I’d made was enough—I was comparing it to the amount of lefse dough from an earlier baking day. Regardless, I must have tripled or quadrupled the recipe! I ended up baking flatbread on three different days before I finished that batch of dough! Once I had that finished, I swore off making flatbread for many years!

Finally, I decided to try it again, but I’ve never made more than one batch at a time since! I’d learned that since you use a small ball each time, it takes longer to use up the dough!

The resulting flatbread has a dry and dusty appearance. At first glance, a person unfamiliar with flatbread might pass it by, but after that first taste, most people will be fans for life!

While flatbread can be made in a regular oven, I prefer to use my lefse grill for a more authentic feel. My lefse grill also gets used for pancakes, grilled cheese sandwiches, and the like. I’m still using my original Bethany Lefse grill that I got over fifty years ago! I prefer to use a regular rolling pin over my lefse rolling pin.

Flatbread differs from lefse in that the finished product is supposed to be dry and crispy rather than soft. As a result, you can use more flour to help you as you roll the dough. I need to use less pressure rolling flatbread compared to rolling lefse. The recipe I prefer includes maple syrup which adds just a touch of sweetness. Here’s my recipe:

Norwegian Flatbrød (Flatbread) Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup white flour

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 cup buttermilk (or use regular milk and add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice)

¼ cup melted and cooled butter

½ cup maple syrup

Directions:

Step 1: Preheat a lefse grill to 350 degrees.

Step 2:Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Step 3: Add in the wet ingredients to make a dough.

Step 4: Using a small ball of dough, roll out until thin on a lightly floured surface. I found that the dough was quite wet and worked in some more white flour to make the dough ball before rolling the flatbread.

Step 5: Place the dough on the lefse grill and bake until it starts to brown; flip and brown the other side as well. remove excess flour from the grill by dusting with a dry dish towel.

Step 6: Place the flatbread pieces on a baking sheet as you remove them from the grill. Dry in a 170 degree oven for about 2 hours to crisp the flatbread further.

Step 7: You can store flatbread for long periods of time in an airtight plastic food container.

Check out the step-by-step pictures for making Norwegian Flatbrød (Flatbread) below!

1. Flatbread dough ball ready to roll out.

2. Flatbread rolled and ready to bake.

3. Flatbread baking on the lefse grill

4. Flatbread all baked and ready to dry in the low heat oven for a couple hours.

5. Flatbread stack served with peppered mackerel, garlic chive cheese spread, and soft goat cheese made with carmelized whey.

Added bonus: Flatbread goes well with Kalles smoked fish roe served in Siljans croustades crispy shells from Norsland Lefse.

It’s so fun to experiment with using other fish, cheeses and butters on the flatbread. Just put out a stack of flatbread, add cheeses and fish and let guests explore the variety!

We’ve found that we enjoy the peppered mackerel and the Kalles Cod Roe Kaviar Spread with a bit of cream cheese spread on the flatbread first. The Ekte Geitost Goat Cheese with its caramelized whey is pure heaven! Think of this food spread as sort of a Norwegian charcuterie!