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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Yummy! I grew up eating Hoe Cake and homemade plum jelly. You just can’t beat it.
Oh my goodness! This was soooo good! I would say that it tastes like a KFC biscuit but not as dense and SO much better!
Thanks so much!!!
Tina: I am so thrilled you liked it as much as I do and am even more thrilled that you made it! Definitely sideways….definitely! 😀
Mary Lu: Thank you so very much for commenting! I’m thrilled you found Southern Plate and hope I can keep making you happy and bringing you back for more! If you have any special requests just give me a holler!
I appreciate your kind words more than you know!!!!
Thank you!!
Christy
I grew up 60 or so miles west of Atlanta, Ga. on Ga/Alabama line and was raised on hoe cake and butter for breakfast.
So good right?! Hope you get to make it again soon 🙂 Thank you so much for rating this recipe!!
I must say, I love your blog!
I am an Idaho Yankee who married a man who was born in Tuscaloosa, AL and raised in Mississippi. He has a love for all things Southern cooked. I am so glad to be able to finally find a recipe for Hoe cake. After 21 years of marriage, he will be absolutely floored that I can finally make this southern treat for him.
I have perfected several things that he loves, but Hoe cake was the elusive recipe, you are right.
Thank you so much for your blog, you are among my bookmarded favorites now, what a treasure of recipes, keep up the good work!!
Christy I made your recipe just like i said i would. It was out of this world good. A new favorite in our house. Thank you so much for posting this wonderful recipe. Now I just need to make your biscuit recipe next. LOL I wish we lived closer we could do some great cooking together they would have to roll us out of the kitchen sideways after preparing and eating all this awesome food.
TINA!!
YAY! I hope you loved the hoe cake! I think I know that our food tastes are so much alike, you likely did!
It also makes good drop biscuits. Just use a baking sheet that has a bit of a side on it and pour a little oil on that to heat, then drop big old spoons of the batter onto it and bake. Makes these ugly lumpy mounds that taste out of this world.
Salisbury steak and gravy in the crock pot……yeah you better be posting that soon little missy!!!!
😀
Happy Thursday Christy. Tonight I am making homemade salsibury steak and gravy in the crockpot. I will be adding the recipe soon. Its just to darn hot to turn on that oven (104 degrees today). I needed a bread to go with my meal. I know i said i wouldnt turn on that oven but I am making this hoe cake with dinner tonight i cant help it. I have a cast iron skillet and a cake pan i will decide later on which to use. I am keeping to my cast iron skillet for my corn bread i just gotta stick to that. I will let you know how it goes. I am so excited. Carson is a biscuit mand so i am hoping he likes this.