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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I have looked for years for this. My grandma layered this for a strawberry shortcake (about 4 or 5 cakes layered between strawberries w/sugar) No one in the family had this. My home burned 25 years ago and I lost this. Had on idea no one knew how to make this. I can’t thank you enough!!!
Can I sub butter for shortening?
Thank You for sharing this recipe for Hoe Cake. I remember my Grandma Eva May Hicks, in North Carolina would cook Hoe Cake every morning in her wood stove, when done we would make what we called Coffee and Bread with it.
We would break off small pieces of the bread, place them into cup of coffee and then sprinkle sugar on the soaked bread and eat with a spoon. It was so good.
Oh my goodness, that does sound good Debra!! Thank you for sharing, I think I am going to have to try it!
My, grandmother and mother use to make this and my mother passed the recipe down to my wife. I have loved this since I was a kid, and we’ve always called it hoe cake. I could eat a pan everyday, I mean you can use it at breakfast with jam or preserves or Jelly, or coat it butter and spread peanut butter on it. You can eat it anytime of the day. Thanks for keeping it alive and well.
Thank you Christy for this recipe. My mid-atlantic/east coast husband LOVES hoe cake! It was kinda funny when it was baking. He came out into the kitchen…(which he never does when I am cooking, he usually hollers from the living room)…and asked..”what smells so good?” When I replied “hoe cake!” the look on his face was priceless, wish I had a camera. He said…”that’s not very lady-like” and honest to goodness I almost wet myself laughing at him. [he’s either very old-fashioned or has a potty mind] After eating the ENTIRE pan by h.i.m.s.e.l.f except for 2 small pieces my daughter & I were able to put on our plates, (and within 8 days time he begged for & got/ate a total of 3 pans of hoe cake) he asked me why I called something so good such a ‘terrible’ name. I said…”I didn’t make up the name, CHRISTY DID!” (sorry girl) I could see his mind flipping the through the pages of my friends faces looking for “Christy” – but I don’t have a friend named Christy. “Who?” he asked. “Christy! The lady who brought this yummy recipe to YOUR tummy!” “Well SHE probably didn’t mean to name it something so ugly!” Hmmph, I get in trouble but you get a pass! He was telling his daddy about the “corn bread” I have been making for him. Whaaaaa—??? I corrected him loudly & proudly telling his daddy it is not cornbread, it is hoe cake. His daddy got the same look as my husband soooo I must ask…why is it called “hoe cake?”
LOL, I didn’t name it either. The story is that in the olden days folks would make this and bake it on the end of a garden hoe, which is how it got it’s name. 🙂
Ran across this just web surfing got flooded with childhood memories my father who raised 7 kids alone use to make this for us kids coming up we would have it for breakfast with syrup .never figured out his recipe he was one of those great cooks that just dumped stuff in to a bowl and good things happened gonna give this a try my father cooked his on top of the stove in a cast iron skillet turning it over and over until it was cooked threw gonna give this a try thanks for the trip down memory lane
I never had hoe cake growing up…my Mama made either biscuits or cornbread at nearly every meal (the BEST in the world and I can’t make either one like hers no matter how hard I try) 🙁 Anyway…I made this hoe cake and it was just wonderful! My dearest doesn’t like biscuits (horrors!) but I love them and can’t bake a decent one to save my soul (even though my soul doesn’t need saving…that was done years ago!). But when I baked this hoe cake, I just stood in awe of it when I turned it out of the pan….and then I sliced myself a big ‘ole piece and ate it plain….and then I sliced another and slathered a little butter on it….and then I sliced one more and put a little butter with some strawberry preserves…my oh my oh my. And best of all…I didn’t have to share a single morsel with anybody!! Thanks Christy!