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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Being from Alabama, the true recipe of Hoe Cake came from the days when the Hoe Cake was cooked on an actual garden hoe over a campfire. Shortening wasn’t available. The Hoe Cake was made by using only flour and milk, and that is how I make mine. Also, I cook my Hoe Cake on the stovetop in an iron skillet and flip it once one side of it is cooked. Shortening is not necessary. The Hoe Cake comes out tasting the same, but with added fat that we don’t need anyway. I use bacon drippings in the skillet and it is divine!
I’m from Alabama and I’m trying to get a mental picture of someone trying to cook bread on a hoe over a fire. Thanks for that information though. I’ve tried to figure out the origin of that name and now I know.
Wow. This sounds a lot like my Mom’s Johnny Cake. I can’t wait to try it. I just happened upon your blog & am super excited.
I love southern food – but I live in Canada. Most of my friends/family cook low fat, non fat & I keep pulling out my Paula Deen cook books! I’m wearing out Maya Angelou’s cook book too. Thanks for a great site, I’m sure I’ll be back often!
When my grandmother died in 1942, my grandfather moved to Okeechobee, FL. and moved in with a Mrs. Johns. This lady made what she called “hoe cake”. Believe me, it was nothing like a biscuit. Not sure of the ingredients but, I’m certain she did not use self rising flour. I’m guessing just flour and shortenin/lard and salt. She cooked on a wood burning cook stove. She would make the batter, put it in a iron skillet, cook until about half done, then use another iron skillet laying empty skillet on top of skillet with cooking batter, then flip over to put uncooked top of hoe cake on bottom of skillet and finish cooking until done. I have no idea how she determined when done, possibly with a tooth pick. If anyone out there has this particular recipe I would appreciate them forwarding it to me. Used to eat this with clabber, which is what yogurt tastes like. Processed clabber. Ummm Umm good.
The trick to keeping a cast iron from rusting is…. After washing the pan dry completly. Then spray with pam or some kind of cooking spray, coating pan with a thin layer and wipe entire pan with paper towel. Your pan will never rust
Hope this helps out people that are having a rust problem with cast iron. Brew a new batch of tea, wash the piece in the warm tea, rinse off with cool water. Then coat the entire piece with oil/lard… The tea bath will desolve the rust on any cast iron item….I found this little secret in an old cookbook. Stephanie in Ocala,Fl.
My mother used to make hoecakes all the time when I was a kid. She learned to make them from her father, who worked on a shrimp boat back during the Great Depression. Their ingredients were a little different: canned milk, water, flour & vegetable oil – all things that don’t need refrigeration. That’s still what I use & my husband (who grew up with the best biscuits in the world) loves it.
My mama made hoe-cake for breakfast nearly every day of my young-life. She cooked hers in an iron skillet on top of the stove. Does anyone know how cook it that way?
see my comment below. that is exactly how my mom made, and the way I taught my daughter to make it.
s/r flour
milk…………that’s it.
pour bacon drippings in an iron skillet on stovetop, allow drippings to get real hot, and turn the heating element down to low to cook. You will see tiny bubbles form on the batter, and once the bubbles become a little cooked, and the sides begin to crust somewhat, it is time to flip the hoe cake. I have to use two spatulas to flip it. Once you get the hang of the flipping, you have mastered the hoe cake. After you have cooked it for about 30 min or so, the hoe cake is all yours.
Yes same ingredients my g-ma did use a pinch of salt and only 1-2 tbsp liguid it will be the consistency of a dough press into skillet and watch for browning flip and do the same to the opposite side.
I’ve heard of Hoe cake and didn’t realize what it was until now!
My recipe is called Biscuit bread and is done the same way in a cast iron skillet. I’ve just learned something today!
BTW, it looks really good!