Lokše

Ingredients

Dough

• 1 kgfloury potatoes, boiled the day before
• about 250 g plain flour
• 1 tspsalt

Savoury

• goose or duck fat, melted
• roast goose or duck
• sauerkraut

Sweet

• 150 gground poppy seeds
• 100 gicing sugar
• melted butter

Equipment

• a dry heavy griddle or pan

Directions

1. Boil the potatoes in their skins the day before and refrigerate them overnight.
2. Cold day-old potato takes far less flour, and every extra spoonful of flour makes the lokše tougher and more like a chapati.
3. Peel and rice the cold potatoes.
4. Work in the flour and salt only until it just holds together as a dough.
5. Add flour sparingly and stop early. The dough should feel barely workable, and adding enough to make it comfortable means adding too much.
6. Divide into pieces and roll each out very thin on a floured surface, to about 20 cm across and 2 mm thick.
7. Roll them thin. Lokše should be pliable enough to fold and wrap, and thickness gives you a potato pancake instead.
8. Heat a heavy griddle or pan and cook them completely dry, with no fat at all.
9. A dry pan without exception. The fat goes on afterwards, and cooking them in fat gives a fried disc rather than the soft dry flatbread they are meant to be.
10. Cook each for about 1 minute a side, until dark spots appear and the surface looks dry.
11. Stack them under a cloth as you go, which keeps them soft and pliable.
12. For the savoury version, brush each hot lokša generously with melted goose fat.
13. Goose fat is the traditional dressing and it is the point of the dish in autumn, when the geese are killed and lokše are served alongside the roast.
14. Serve them with roast goose or duck and sauerkraut, either folded alongside or wrapped around the meat.
15. For the sweet version, brush with melted butter and scatter heavily with ground poppy seed and icing sugar, then roll or fold.
16. Ground poppy seed, not whole. Whole seeds taste of very little and simply get in the teeth.
17. Serve immediately, because they stiffen as they cool.
18. They are autumn and St Martin’s Day food in Slovakia and western Hungary, and Slovak Christmas markets sell almost nothing else alongside them.

Technique

• They are made without eggs or fat in the dough, which is why they are so dependent on cold potato.
• The Hungarian and Austrian border regions make nearly identical versions.
• They reheat briefly on a dry pan and go tough in the oven.

Substitutions

• Duck fat or butter in place of goose fat.
• Walnut and sugar in place of poppy seed.

Variations

• Sweet, with poppy seed and sugar.
• With duck liver or crackling folded in.
• Made thicker, closer to a potato pancake.

History

Thin potato flatbread cooked on a dry plate and brushed with goose fat, central to the autumn goose feasts at Slovenský Grob.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lokše?

Lokše is a bread & pastry from Slovakia: thin potato flatbreads brushed with goose fat, or sweetened. Thin potato flatbread cooked on a dry plate and brushed with goose fat, central to the autumn goose feasts at Slovenský Grob.

How long does Lokše take to make?

Lokše takes 30 min of preparation and 25 min of cooking. The recipe makes about 10. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Lokše?

Yes, within limits. Duck fat or butter in place of goose fat. Walnut and sugar in place of poppy seed.

What is the most important thing to get right in Lokše?

A dry pan without exception. The fat goes on afterwards, and cooking them in fat gives a fried disc rather than the soft dry flatbread they are meant to be.