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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We called these fatcakes in my family. Momma served them for breakfast with bacon, eggs, and syrup. I never could figure out the recipe. Thank you.
Both my Granny’s & my Grandma’s recipes call for self rising flour and water. When I asked why they didn’t use shortening, both said that adding shortening would make it biscuits instead of hoe cake. I suppose that for them, milk would have done the same thing. We cook ours in a hot skillet greased with bacon grease, wait for it to be cooked through, flip it once, and serve with sausage gravy, cane syrup, or just plain butter! I’ve made it for others and they are amazed at how simple it is and how good!
This recipe is fantastic. It was dummy proof!!! I made this and my fiance loved it. It was so easy and really good as a side dish with so many different foods. Thank again!!!!
My grandmother made a simple version of this, using only self rising flour,an egg, good Florida spring water and salt. She would grease her skillet with shortening or bacon grease and cook it on top of the stove. When the dough was cooked through, flip it once to lightly brown the other side and it was done. It came out light and fluffy, but crunchy on the outside. Slice it, add some butter or top it with your favorite syrup
(mine was cane) and there ain’t much better. Thanks for the memories. Now I need to go try and make some for myself.
p.s. Christy, GREAT website! Just found it so I’ll be looking in on you a lot from now on!
I grew up with my grandmother making this. Try is with tomatoe gravy it is wonderful.
Sherri! You know about tomatoe gravy!!!! I am 65,grew up with that “gravy” lol
Christy — going to try this — we used to make corn meal hoecakes. We would mix flour, corn meal, lard (did I say that?), and milk — pour in a cast iron skillet and fry it.
My Daddy used to make this on the extremely rare occasions when Mama was gone (I think the only times was when she or someone else was in the hospital). Anyhooooo…
I thought that this was just a way for Daddy to make biscuits so that he wouldn’t have to mess with rolling and cutting them out. I’ve made it myself for that reason very. 🙂
Thanks!
What a great memory!!