Rare Southern Hoe Cake Recipe
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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
You may also like these recipes:
Easy Birthday Cake Recipe From Scratch
Biscuit Class – Classic 3 Ingredient Biscuits
Garlic Cream Biscuits with Bacon Gravy
I grew up in south central Kentucky.
We called fried cornbread “hoe cakes”.
This exact same recipe was baked in the oven and called “batter bread”.
We would mix sorghm and butter to eat on it. YUM! YUM!
Wow, will have to try this! my family is all from, anywhere between chicago(city/burbs) to ohio. My husbands is from NWInd., although he had some relatives in AL, he spent a summer there and told me all about the wonderful food, including this. You’ve helped me sort of ressurect all those wonderful memories for him, as well as help me hold my head up high with confidence in the kitchen! I have looked at so many blogs, but none have helped me feel confident or comfortable enough to make the recipes like you have. Thanks, for making me the “cook in training” that I am! 🙂 Now I just have to muster up the money to buy your book! Haha.
In my family hoecake was cornbread fried but in my husbands family hoecake was just like you make it. My mother in law cooked hers in an iron skillet on top of the stove. She would slide it off on a plate flip it over back into the skillet to brown a little. It took me a while to get it right but I’ve been making it for years. Its mighty good eatin with fresh churned butter and molasses.
Yes, my family made the kind yours made – there is certainly an art to flippin that thing and getting it right!
My mother made this all the time while I was growing up. She would make the “hoe cake” when she didnt have time to roll out the dough for bisicuits. She would make a tomatoe gravy and sausage and bacon and we would just tear into the bread and take how much we wanted….. best memories ever…..
No, this is not Hoe Cake as my Dad’s family prepared it. They go way back from southeast Alabama and into northwest Florida. My Granny cooked hoe cake using only cornmeal, water, and salt. I was told that the name came from the way the cornbread was prepared – out in the field, over hot coals and cooked on a hoe. The people of this area were very poor and times were hard. Granny cooked her’s on a cast iron griddle on top of the stove. Guess it’s just something you have to grow up eating. I love all the different ways of preparing food around this great country! Christy, can’t wait to try your version! P.S. I never prepared our family hoe cake for guests, it was a family thing and BTW, my Granny made one everyday!
Christy have you ever heard of hot water cornbread & does anyone know how to make it? My hubby’s Grandmother used to make them & no one in the family can remember how she did it.
My mama made this for us, and we called it biscuit bread. I believe she used an iron griddle on top of the stove. The top and bottom were nicely browned, but I don’t remember any part being crusty – just soft like the bottom of a biscuit. I haven’t had any biscuit bread since she passed away some 24 years ago. Thanks for the memory!