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 mama still makes Hoe cake, and taught me how to make it for my family. She uses Dukes Mayo instead of shortening. It is soo good!! I love all your recipes and posts!!
How much mayo does she use, i would like to make this
Hey Christy, would swapping out buttermilk for the milk portion change much to the recipe other than giving it a buttermilk flavor? I am a waste not want not with a family of five all boys. I make everything stretch and have enough buttermilk to use for this recipe. Just wondered if it changed anything or if I should just stick with milk? Thanks!
I think it would only improve it Katheryn!! In my opinion buttermilk is always better!!
Thank you! Will let you know how it turns out! We are TN so they were always called Johnny Cakes here. Never knew what it was! So feeling frisky tonight with that tad bit of buttermilk and we will see! Thanks for all you do!
My grandmother always said she’d make me hoecake one day, but never did, as she wanted to cook it over a campfire! She said hoecake just didn’t taste right without a wood-burning stove! We gobbled ours up before church yesterday, yummy! I have a dear friend at church who makes hoecake for her grandkids with chocolate sauce/syrup. She said her grands don’t consider it trip to Granny’s house with hoecake for breakfast!
Whatever we call them they are the best things to eat. Some call fried corn bread johnny cakes some call hoe-cakes johnny cakes, who cares I think it just depends on if cornbread or flour was available. Being from South Ga some cooking is a lost art along with things like tatting. But things like Hoe-cakes and rutabagars make watching your grandmother cook glad that you paid attention..lol
I agree Jason, so many recipes are long gone.
My mama and grandma ( my daddy’s mama) always called that a “johnny cake”. Hoe cake is made with corn meal and used to be fried on a hoe, now we use oil. Mama and grandma always used lard or Crisco shortening. I loved my mama’s “fried cornbread” with her homemade soup and chicken and dumplings. Ah, memories. RIP mama and grandma, the best cooks I ever knew.
Very interesting. My Mama and Daddy always made hoe cake with self-rising flour instead of the corn meal that people like Paula Deen use. But they used oil instead of shortening and fried it in a pan. Today would have been my Daddy’s 85th birthday. He loved hoe cake. I might make some in his memory. 🙂
I hope you enjoy the Hoe Cake, and enjoy the happy memories of your Daddy.
Whew! My mouth is watering! Growing up in eastern KY, we called this pone bread! It is great with red eyed gravy, or with chicken and dumplings, or homemade applebutter! YUMMY!