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 nana (grandmother) used to make this for breakfast ~ I am so glad to have you post this recipe as she passed away and I never got the opportunity to get it from her. She made a sawmill gravy to “sop” it in and to this day I can still remember the taste! A treasure rescued and restored to pass down to my children. Many thanks!
I am glad you found it Jeannie and I hope my recipe tastes exactly like the one your Nana used!!!
Christy, I am so glad to see this recipe. This is hoe cake like I remember my Momma making when I was a little girl (like a giant biscuit baked in the oven). Looking forward to trying this!
I have made a version of this for 30 years. Was a recipe I came up with after many attempts to mmake cornbread that tasted like my Grandmothers. I have always called it “MY cornbread”. I use half flour and half cornmeal….and put a spoonful of mayo in and stir well right before you pour it in the hot skillet. It doesn’t come out as good to me if I use anything other than shorting to grease the pan. And making sure that pan heats long enough so that the batter sizzles when you pour it is key also. I’m not sure why, but using an off brand shorting ruins the taste and consistency as well!!
Funny how changing just a couple things….like using vegetable oil instead of shortning..and adding an egg and another spoon of mayo…..makes something totally different while equally as good. Granny’s cornbread recipe. She would roll over in her grave if any pan other than the cast iron skillet was used to make either of these breads. Luckily you don’t have to wait to be willed one. You can buy your own at Walmart . ..or many many other places.
You are so right Dawn, once you find the right recipe you can’t change anything!!
In Harlan KY we had a similar bread. Its called Pone Bread. Keep skillet on hot wood stove until bread begins to brown. Then put in oven. Mix butter and honey,spread on hot bread
I grew up learning to make Hoe cakes and Johnny cakes also called Flitters. The Hoe cakes to us were fried corn bread and Jonny cakes or Flitters were the fried biscuit dough..Of course we cooked on a wood stove.
A funny story:
Just a few years ago we had a guest from England and were discussing cooking. He listened to us talking about cooking on a wood stove for a few minutes then asked “,what kept the stove from burning up”.
LOL, that is too funny!!!
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
Can you and honey or brown sugar to this or maybe some cheese
I am sure you could and it would be fine. I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for certain but would love to hear how it turns out if you try it!!
hi christy my name terry i would like to make the hoe cake but dont have any whole milk but i do have several can carnation 2 percent evaporated milk can i make it with that if so can you tell me how thank you …love your site terry carswell riverview fl
Thank you, Christy!
What a treat to read about all the lovely memories of this simple bread! I’ve loved reading of all the variations. I, too, have family roots in southern Alabama and share memories of other Alabama posters of the fried hoe cake on top of the stove in a cast iron skillet- and for us – fried in an inch of bacon fat. O.m.g — not healthy, but oh, so yummy! Torn off and dipped in syrup was a child’s delight.
My dad’s family was very poor and this was their bread. He often told of how the field workers would bring the flour to the field, make a dough with water, and cook it over a fire on cleaned off hoes.
As a child, I remember it was always served for breakfast at Grandma’s. When I was older and had my own family, Dad always made it when we came to visit. I’ve avoided making it at home because I didn’t deem it healthy enough. Now in my 60’s, I’m on a mission to make sure this doesn’t get lost and renew the tradition. It’s now on my Saturday morning breakfast menu. Maybe some of the others in my family will pick it up. At the moment, I’m working on developing a tried and true recipe. Got the frying down, now to get my ratio of liquid to flour perfect. Wish me luck!