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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My grandma used this recipe but instead of pouring it all in a pan,put drops on a cookie sheet and baked. We called them drop biscuits. Also, the same batter can be fried in a skillet,like pancakes, these we called flitters! 🙂 I sure do miss the good ol’ days and my granny too! Thanks Christy for reminding me of these wonderful memories!
I grew up eating this, but never knew how to make it untl now, thank you so much! We didn’t call it hoe cake, as a matter of fact, we didn’t have a name for it. I remember eating it with homemade apple butter, too. And tomato preserves. Has anyone out there ever heard of tomato preserves?
I LOVE tomato preserves. First tasted them at my Grandmothers. Haven’t found the perfect recipe yet but hoe cake and tomato preserves YUMMY!
My 12 year old made these for us tonight. EXCELLENT. We already have a hoe cake recipe, so we chose a different garden tool. Gonna call them RAKE CAKE!!
Just made this hoecake for the first time ever. Never had it before, as my family always either made cornbread or biscuits, nothing like this (yes and I’m a Georgia native… mom’s family is from AL). I loved it!! The kids loved it too. My hubby kept expecting it to be cornbread so he was a bit disappointed. I’ll convert him yet, though!
This brings back so many childhood memories..My Dad was a waterman and this is the way they made bread when they were in the bay working with clams, oysters,etc. and they called it “Down the Bay” bread. And yes, they cooked it on top of the little boat stove in an iron frying pan. My brother and I would always be begging Daddy to make us “Down the Bay” bread.. I have heard of hoe cakes, but never knew it was the same bread that Daddy made. As Bob Hope would say..Thanks for the memory.
My Mother-in-law makes Hoe cakes – didn’t know what they were called, until now.
what is wrong with cast iron skillets?
How about all that teflon stuff (or whatever it is now) they put in the new pots and pans . I’m not so sure it is good for you.
My husband also told me about the hoe cakes his mom cooked on the old wood stove in the cast iron pans.
Hey Irene. Welcome to the SouthernPlate family!
This is a post from when I first started. You can read my comments for further insight on cast iron.
Hope to see you often!
Gratefully
Christy
Hi Christy. My mom made hoecake from corn meal, water, salt and lard (or bacon drippings) in a cast iron skillet on top of the stove. I don’t have the recipe though, so do you by chance have anything similar? Mom has dementia now, and doesn’t remember those good old recipes that were in her head. I miss her good cookin’ — she was known county-wide for her food!