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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Hello Christy. I need a little help from you. I have made this recipe for the last couple of years the exact way that your recipe says and the hoe cakes have come out nice brown, ligt and fluffy just like your pictures. BEAUTIFUL. However, something has happened…. the last 5 attempts that I have tried to make the hoe cake it has come out heavy. All the way done and brown on the outside and undone mushy, doughy on the inside. The inside is not done and fluffy. I don’t know what the problem is because I am following the same recipe that I always have. I thought that it may be my oven so I took it to my sister’s house to mix it there and bake it and it still came out done and brown on the outside and undone, wet and doughy on the inside. It was in the oven longer than the recommended 20 minutes each time because it was not ready to come out of the oven at that time. I love this hoe cake recipe. Please help me get back to the better days of making the fluffy hoe cake. Any ideas?
Andrea…
Sounds to me like your oven temp may be a bit hotter than the setting. Try dropping the temp to say 375 to start with and then after maybe 15 minutes turn it up to 425 and continue until browned. I know my oven temp does this with corn bread so after a few times of having to put it back in the oven and wait until it was done in the middle, I figured it out. Hope this helps.
May not be the case here…but I have found a big difference in my cornbread making…coming out kinda like you have described herr…when I use an off brand shorting. Dunno why..but if I use anything other tha crisco….it comes out wrong.
It is possible that baking powder in your flour is old and has gone bad.
Thank you so much for the How Cake flour recipe, you brought a piece of my mom, she made ho cake this way ,but she used buttermilk. Thanks again, Michael
I grew up in the north but have lived most of my life in the South. My son married a Alabama girl and that opened up new horizons on southern cooking. The first year of their marriage I was introduced to boiled custard and we introduced her to Yorkshire pudding. Your hoe cake makes me think about the Yorkshire pudding we make every Christmas with our roast beef. I make it in grandma’s old cast iron pan. If has of course eggs and an “eggy” taste. I wonder if they have some similar origins.
I was first introduced to this hoe cake by my mother-in-law 30 years ago. She is from Statesville, NC and this is a staple at her house.
However, she didn’t have a recipe, it was just a handful of this, dab of that.
So thank you for a recipe I can follow. My husband was so excited when I found your recipe. It tastes just like his momma’s hoe cake.
My grandma calls it flour bread. I’m so glad I found a recipe because she usually jus throws it all together. She would make it for breakfast and give me honey and butter. Omgeeee its so good. I can’t wait to have it with my soup.
I hope you enjoy!!
I make hoe cake for my family. My mom taught me how. I use buttermilk and I grease the iron skillet with shortening before baking. My girls have learned how to make it as well.
I make a version of this using Biscuit mix and milk. I fry them in 3 or 4 inch circles until crisp on both sides. My mother called it Hoe cakes but my children call it Fried Bread. They love it with Nutella spread on the top
Finally someone who remembers home cake as fried bread. This is the way my grandmother made it and plan to start making too.
what are the measurements you use for the Biscuit mix, milk, shortening.
Hi!! I’m so glad i found this recipe and I can’t wait to try it!! I just wanted to let you know some of the pictures aren’t working for me? It might just be me I guess but I would love to see the pics about texture and stuff. Thanks so much!!!!
I just made these—ok—so I was sorta half asleep and I got them alittle toooooo wet….but….other than that they turned out good. I just stuck them back in the oven to dry out alittle more. Next time I’m going to add a wee bit of sugar and watch the milk. OH YES….there will be a next time for sure !
Thanks for another yummy easy reacipe
My Mom and I have made this for years. Now that I am a WW member I have made a more points friendly version.
I spray my iron skillet with Coconut Oil spray and get it hot in the oven.
I preheat my oven to 450 degrees.
I use one cup of self rising flour
1/2 cup or a little more of skim milk
1/4 cup of plain yogurt
Mix and add to preheated pan
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.
It is surprisingly wonderful and only three points for 1/4 of the hoe cake.
I core and slice apples, sprinkle with Truvia, ground cinnamon, cloves and ginger, microwave for five minutes stir. I then remove lid from casserole dish and cook for an additional two minutes. This is no points for WW’s
My husband loves this with Country Ham and Eggs. How cake, country ham, eggs, and apples were a Fall favorite in His Virginia home.
My Mom would often serve hoe cake with chocolate (chocolate gravy) in our Georgia home.
have never heard
of making pone bread, hoecakes, or any other kind of cornbread with flour. I use self- rising meal in all breads including stuffing/