Grandpa Levy’s Pancakes
Submitted by: Robyn Levy / Cow Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada
Who passed this recipe down to you? Andrew Levy (my dad, who adapted it from his dad, Grandpa Levy)
Recipe origin: Southampton, Ontario, Canada
How old is this recipe? 35-40 years old
The story behind the recipe:
These aren’t just any pancakes. These are PAN-KAH-KAYS. My grandpa had a desire to make normal, everyday things sound fancy. Hot dogs were Viennese sausages, porridge was POR-EEE-GAY, etc. To further confuse you, this recipe doesn’t make a pancake in the traditional sense. Levy Pancakes are more akin to crêpes. This recipe started with my grandpa, Kurt Levy, but was further refined by my dad, Andrew Levy. As he would, my dad characterizes his recipe as “an improved version”. In fact, every generation alters the recipe slightly.
It all started with grandpa. Grandpa would make this pancake recipe for all the grandchildren at the family cottage in Southampton on Lake Huron. In any given summer, there were 6 – 9 grandchildren running around, hungry. As Grandpa cooked the PAN-KAH-KAYS, we’d line up in the kitchen with our plates at the ready. Sometimes we’d arrange ourselves oldest to youngest, or vice versa. Always there was an argument. Many of us grandchildren still make this recipe, but all of us make it slightly different. My cousins in Arlington, VA make it closer to Grandpa’s original recipe which contained some white sugar and was cooked in the pan with plenty of butter (originally grandpa used margarine) so the edges were crispy! My family makes this version that you see here, refined by my dad. We eat it to this day, whenever the family gathers for holidays or events.
My niece Bea eats these pancakes regularly. My sister has further adapted the recipe to jam more protein into it for Bea (more eggs) and she has even switched to red fife flour. You can eat these with any toppings rolled inside you like, but Bea’s strong preference is peanut butter and jam. Although he can’t quite remember, dad figures his family originally put jam inside of these, as maple syrup wasn’t something they had around regularly, like households might today.
These pancakes were a ritual at the cottage, and the disagreement over how to make them is a family tradition I cherish.
Ingredients:
2 eggs
1.5 cups milk (1%, 2% or 3.5%)
Some vegetable oil (canola, vegetable, safflower, etc.)
1 cup all-purpose flour
Fillings and syrups of choice
How to make it:
Whisk eggs and milk together in a bowl (preferably a bowl with a spout, for easy pouring). Add a splash of oil (or melted butter) and whisk to combine. Add the flour and whisk until well incorporated. You can also blend all of this in a blender or with an immersion blender, if you have one. Heat a non-stick or cast-iron frying pan over medium to medium-high heat (we make this in pans ranging from 8” to 12”). Once pan is preheated you are ready to start. The amount of batter you pour into the pan is dependent on the size of pan. You want to pour the batter in the middle and then pick up the pan and swirl it around until the batter is evenly spread along the bottom and a little up the sides. These do not take long to cook, especially once that pan has been going for a while. Typically, the first pancake never browns the same as the subsequent ones! You are looking for some browning to indicate when to flip. Flip with a spatula and cook for another minute or two.
Serve with fillings (e.g., berries) and syrup of choice.
Serves 2
