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
My wife happened on this site earlier today and mentioned it to me because I’ve been trying to get her to make hoecakes for 42 years (to no avail) I’ve now read through all 44 comments. Can’t respond to all individually but will touch on some of the points made.
If you are a true hoecake aficionado you just cannot make a proper hoecake without a cast iron skillet. To keep it from rusting, you NEVER wash it. NEVER! Wipe it out with a towel and it’s good to go. After a while, the skillet will actually build up a crust on the outside because of the oils that work through the cast iron.
Now a question for you folks. I was raised in the south (NW. Fla.) and we had either biscuit hoecake (above) or cornbread hoecake for almost every meal depending on what we were eating.
However, my memama cooked her hoecakes on TOP of the stove. When cooked, they were about the same physical size as the one above but the top and bottom was a heavy crust (from the frying). Does anyone else make them this way?
Her recipe seemed similar. Lard, buttermilk, flour. She would mix as above and kneed into a large ball. She would then put than in the frying pan, flatten it out until it touched all the way around and let it bake on the stove top. Flipping once and then on to the table. It was never sliced. We just broke off a piece as needed. My favorite snack was a large chuck of hoecake, homemade butter and homemade CANE syrup.
Her corn meal version was much different. Mix the cornmeal and butter milk into a batter resembling pancake batter and then fry it like a pancake. When finished, it resembled a plate-sized pancake about an inch thick in the center and crispy around the very edges. I never cared for it my self preferring the biscuit hoecake.
Anyone else remember hoecakes like these?
Now a question for you folks. I was raised in the south (NW. Fla.) and we had either biscuit hoecake (above) or cornbread hoecake for almost every meal depending on what we were eating?
Yes in answer to above question. I also was born and raised in NW Fla East Coast. We never did the cornbread on top of the stove but did and do the biscuit hoecake. Cast iron were and is the choice in my families cooking. I agree NEVER wash cast iron, however there are times you can’t simply wipe out like after gravy. But you can put the skillet under HOT water (never cold) and wipe it with a soft scrubbie or dishcloth that have NOT had SOAP in them. Soap will totally ruin cast iron, talk about rust you’ll have it.
A couple other tips about cast iron for those who might need it. It helps in preventing rust if you can hang your cast iron, if you can’t then put a piece of wax paper between those that are stacked.
Hope this helped
P.S.
Sorry can’t think of everything
You also want to dry your cast iron by putting it back on the stove untill the water dries, (to long or to hot will burn off your coating) let it cool down and put it away.
About cast iron skillets – there is a trick to working with them.
If you buy an old used one, literally put it into a fire (fire pit is best but fireplace works) to burn off the old grunge. Let it cool and then put it on the stove to heat, rub it ALL OVER with bacon grease to “season” it. Now it is ready to use. NEW skillets will also need to be seasoned before you use them.
To clean a skillet (or dutch over, or any cast iron ware), wash in HOT water but NEVER use soap. Wipe it dry, put it on the stove, heat it up (the rest of the moisture will evaporate), and rub the inside – bottom and sides – with bacon grease. I use a papertowel and keep a jar of bacon grease in the refrigeratior for this purpose. That re-seasons it. When you pull it out the next time to cook with, give it a quick swipe with a clean papertowel and you’ll be ready to cook.
works every time!
Oh, how I remember the cornmeal hoecakes! I grew up on a large farm in NC and my mother made these hoecakes for supper after a long hard day of working in the fields. Usually when she made them we had only the hoecakes and milk (from the family cow, of course).
I am not absolutely certain but I believe she made them with cornmeal, egg, buttermilk and lard – really just a more watery corn bread recipe fried on top of stove to a crispy brown.
This brings back fond memories and I am going to try them very soon.
Yes the flour version hoe cake is exactly as my g-ma made them. Cool.
Mama used to make hoecake on top of the stove in a steel pan. The dough looked like biscuit dough and she patted it into the pan. After awhile, she flipped it and when done it had brown spots on it and looked somewhat like a big fat soft tortilla. We ate it w/ pinto beans or grape jelly. Yum! She came from Taylor County, Fl.
cast iron skillets makes the best fried chicken and gravy and have used my skillets for years
I am a Georgia Girl (Go Dawgs) born and raised. My grandma’s hoe cakes were small and had a little cornmeal.
She tells that the name “hoe” cake came from workers working the crop fields and heating up a hoe on an open fire and making these for lunch. At least that’s her tale!
I just loved all her stories.
Hello! Just love the site, been here many many times. I made this a month of so ago and just forgot to get on and post a comment.
Anyway, I came out so great. My husband loved it, guy ate like 3/4 of it, no joke. Its has not become a bread replacement staple and he asks for it all the time. Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
Thanks Again and Keep Smilin
Colleen
Oooh, I am so with your husband! I think I’ll make it tomorrow now that you made me think of it again! Have you ever tried it with fresh apple butter on it? My in laws just love it with my crock pot apple butter – which is sooooooooooooo easy to make its embarassing. lol.
Thank you, Colleen, for taking the time to comment and for your kindness!!
Gratefully,
Christy
I have done something very similar but I use bacon fat instead of veggie oil. Veggies are what food eats LOL! Besides everyone loves bacon. My family tradition also used flour because the corn meal kept getting bugs. And we baked it also instead of frying. When they were fried it was usually used or tacos.
Southern Plate I was curious if you saw this article reprint from the NY Times in 1908. While it is w/ corn meal I thought oyu might get a chuckle if oyu had not already seen it.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9E0DE4D71631E233A25753C3A96E9C946997D6CF
I made this last night and don’t know if I will ever make regular biscuits as a dinner bread again. I had the last of it this morning with a bowl of Aldi brand Lucky Charms. It was honestly one of the best breads I had ever tasted in my life.