Rare Southern Hoe Cake Recipe
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If you like biscuits, you’re guaranteed to love this rare but delectable recipe for southern hoe cake.
Hoe cake (also known as a Johnny cake) seems to be a rather elusive recipe, even among southerners. Apart from my own, I have only one friend whose family still makes it. Even among us though, the variations are vast. His family makes their cornmeal hoe cakes using cornmeal and buttermilk, as seems to be the custom among recipes found on the web. While this style of generally resembles a , a is typically fluffier and doesn’t include . Meanwhile, my family’s version uses flour and produces a bread that looks like buttermilk biscuits, but with a lighter and fluffier texture and crispy coating.
Either way you look at it, hoe cake is revered by those who know of it. I am sure its origin sprang forth much like the rest of our classic southern dishes – too little time and too few ingredients. While it is a simple food to make, it will easily take over the starring role at your dinner table.
I can honestly say that this is a rare recipe for Southern hoe cakes, having searched and not found it anywhere online. I do hope you will try it and guarantee that if you like biscuits, you’ll love our southern hoe cake recipe. Serve your hoe cake as a side dish with maple syrup, apple butter, or butter with a drizzle of honey or sprinkle of sugar. It tastes best accompanying your favorite Southern-style main meal. I recommend fried chicken, chicken and gravy (use the hoe cake to soak up the gravy, yum), North Alabama-style pulled BBQ chicken, or pork chops.
Recipe ingredients
Recipe ingredients- Self-rising flour. If you don’t have self rising flour where you are, go here for the formula of how to make your own.
- Vegetable shortening
- Whole milk
Helpful Kitchen Tools
Combine two cups of self-rising flour and 1/2 cup of shortening in a .
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Pour a thin layer of vegetable oil into the bottom of a cake pan.
This is where the old folks use a cast iron skillet like you would make cornbread. However, at the time of this tutorial, Mama had yet to hand down a cast iron skillet to me so I figured a cake pan with a wee bit of wear on it is just as good. Either way, you’re going to add enough oil to cover the bottom of your cake pan and then stick it in the oven while it preheats.
Add one cup of milk to your and stir with a spoon until all wet.
It should look like this.
You can add about a quarter of a cup more of milk if need be, but what we are aiming for here is soupy biscuit batter.
All that brown is the crispy bread. This is SO GOOD!
Cut it any way you choose, add some apple butter and dig in!
Recipe Notes
- If you want to make this southern hoe cake a savory side dish like , you can easily add in jalapenos, grated cheese, or chopped fried bacon with a drop of .
Storage
- If you have leftovers, store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days.
- Otherwise, you can freeze hoe cake in a sealed container or bag for up to three months.
- When you need to reheat the hoe cake, it’s best to place the slices on a baking sheet in a 350-degree oven for five to 10 minutes.
Recipe FAQs
What do you serve with hoe cake?
Serve your hoe cake as a side dish with maple syrup, apple butter, or butter with a drizzle of honey or sprinkle of sugar. It tastes best accompanying your favorite Southern-style main meal. I recommend fried chicken, chicken and gravy (use the hoe cake to soak up the gravy, yum), North Alabama-style pulled BBQ chicken, or pork chops.
Where does the name hoe cake come from?
Just like there are a few variations of hoe cake recipes, there are some variations in the explanation of how it got its name. It appears to have first been recognized in print in 1745, according to the Oxford Dictionary. But others have pointed out that the term hoe was used for cooking and it was similar to a griddle. And that my friends seems to be where the term hoe cake (or should it be ?) got its name.
Can you make hoe cake gluten-free?
Yes, you can easily make this southern hoe cake recipe gluten-free. Just simply use gluten-free self-rising flour instead and follow the below instructions.
Ingredients
- 2 cups self-rising flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425. Pour a thin layer of oil to cover the bottom of an eight-inch round cake pan and place it in the oven to heat.
- Cut shortening into the flour well. Pour milk in and stir until wet.
- Pour into the well-heated pan and bake for fifteen to twenty minutes or until browned.
- Invert onto plate.
Nutrition
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When I was growing up, I often spent weekends with my Grandaddy at our one room cabin. Many days, we would put a pot of dried pinto beans on the wood stove to cook before going out to hike the better part of the day. Granddaddy would always make a hoe cake to have along with the beans. I thought that was the best food on earth! And if we had any of the hoe cake left over, we would have it with some black strap molasses for “dessert”. Yum! Good stuff!
This looks delish!
Would you recommend using butter instead of oil? Or have you tried it with butter? I was thinking it would add a little flavor to it.
thanks for a great site!
I use bacon grease. but I think butter would be good too.
I made these with butter and it was heaven. The taste of biscuits in the shape of cornbread!
The link to the formula for making self-rising flour is not working. HELLLLP!!
Hi Jean B., in her book Christy says to add 1.5 teaspoons baking powder and 1 teaspoon salt for every 1 cup of flour to make self-rising flour. 🙂
i have had and have made hoe cake all my life , i make mine on top of the stove but am sure going to try the oven , that way i will not have to stay with it so much. thanks, i will probably make it more often now
This brings back fond memories of my Mom!
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe. I felt like making hoe cake for dinner tonight, but forgot my Mom’s recipe.
My mother’s passed away 16 yrs ago. She grew up in New Jersey, but her family roots are in Georgia and Alabama. As a single mother of six, she was always on a tight budget. As long as she had some flower, shortening, milk and baking powder, she could whip up a meal. Hoe cake was a staple. She used to make it on its own or out of left over homemade biscuit batter. We would fight over who got the Hoe cake. 🙂 She also loved to can preserve fruits (mason jars). She would serve the hoe cake with warm peach, apple or strawberry preserves. She would also sometimes make her own homemade syrup.
My mother made something that she called “hoecake,” except she fried it in a hot, greased cast-iron skillet on top of the stove. These hoecakes were only about 3/4 of an inch thick, light brown outside and softer inside. We ate them either with butter and syrup, or with smothered potatoes and onions. I have been searching forever for the recipe since Mama died without me getting it! I’m thinking that Mama’s were more flour, water, baking soda based. (When asked why they were called “hoecakes,” Mama said slaves and sharecroppers often cooked them by placing them on a hoe blade held over a fire!) Thank you for this recipe & I will be trying it!
My grandfather made hoe cakes for me as a child also. He cooked them in a cast iron skillet and would flip them over. What a wonderful story you posted, I did not know where the name hoe cake came from. I am headed to the kitchen.
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