Southern Hoe Cake Recipe
Hoe 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 it using corn meal as seems to be the custom among recipes found on the web. My family’s version uses flour and produces a bread much like buttermilk biscuits in flavor only with a lighter and fluffier texture and crispy outsides.
Either way you look at it, hoe cake is revered by those who know of it. I am sure its origins sprang forth much like the rest of our southern dishes - too little time and too few ingredients. It is a simple food to make but will easily take over the starring role at your dinner table. Once you see how simple it is to make, it will take a starring role in your dinner preparations as well!
I made hoe cake for my in laws for the first time this past weekend. Even though they are from Georgia, they had never had it either! It was requested and made the following meal as well, where a pint and a half of fresh apple butter was ate along with it!
I can honestly say that this is a rare recipe, 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 hoe cake.
Ingredients for this are a cinch. Self rising flour (White Lily, of course!), vegetable shortening, and whole milk. If you don’t have self rising flour where you are, go here (bottom of the page) for the formula of how to make your own.
To two cups of self rising flour, add 1/2 cup of shortening.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Pour a thin layer of vegetable oil in the bottom of a cake pan. This is where the old folks use a cast iron skillet but I figure a cake pan with a wee bit of wear on it is just as good ~grins~. Alright, so I don’t like cooking with cast iron. Sue me. 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.
You want this oil to be good and hot.
It should look like this. You can add about a fourth of a cup more of milk if need be. What we are making here is soupy biscuit batter.
Bake at 425 degrees until browned on top, fifteen to twenty minutes.
Remove from oven when it looks like this and turn out onto a plate so it is upside down.
All that brown is the crispy bread. This is SO GOOD! Cut it any way you choose and dig in!
Hoe Cake
2 cups self rising flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
Preheat oven to 425. Pour a thin layer of oil to cover the bottom of an eight inch round cake pan and place in oven to heat. Cut shortening into flour well. Pour milk in and stir until wet. Pour into well heated pan and bake for fifteen to twenty minutes or until browned. Invert onto plate.
That looks so easy! When it’s finished baking, is the texture more corn breadish or biscuity? And would it be good to smush up into a big bowl of collard greens or black-eyed peas?
mmm.Hoe cakes! I had my first Hoe Cake at Lady and Sons Restaurant(Paula Deen)!! Yumm!!!
You profile states your blog is new..it looks like its been around for years..packed full of info!I just love it! I love love love southern food, but my butt..not so much!LOL
Thanks for stopping by my blog..I am glad you enjoy it! Stop by anytime!!!!I will be back to yours!!!
Leslie:
Wow, thank YOU for stopping by MY blog!! I love yours and have already subscribed!
Your compliments mean so much! You’ve made my day and I feel like I’m doing something right! YAY!
Looks delicious. I love biscuits and this does look like one big biscuit - with apple butter it must be amazing!
Welcome to The Foodie Blogroll!
Thank you so much Leftover Queen!! I am THRILLED that you stopped by my blog! It is divine….but looks like I’m going to have to do a little explaining on apple butter to folks who haven’t heard of it! Hehe! I have thought about making more and mailing samples out via USPS…….
I have never heard if this. But not being from the south why would I ?? LOL
BUT I think i will try it.
Now I know Those Cast iron are supposed to rock (plus the old add iron to food is great) but I prefer ceramic bake ware myself.
Or stone. I have bought my share of Crappy stoneware. but I have a few loved and abused pieces!
I wonder on this one, if the stoneware would absorb the oil though? Better try it on the glazed ceramic to be safe!
Pinky, I prefer anything but cast iron as well! Although that is something I won’t be proclaiming too loudly where I live!
I just bake mine in a metal cake pan but a glazed ceramic dish will work fine. I have made it before in a Longaberger pie plate!
Happy Thursday Christy. Tonight I am making homemade salsibury steak and gravy in the crockpot. I will be adding the recipe soon. Its just to darn hot to turn on that oven (104 degrees today). I needed a bread to go with my meal. I know i said i wouldnt turn on that oven but I am making this hoe cake with dinner tonight i cant help it. I have a cast iron skillet and a cake pan i will decide later on which to use. I am keeping to my cast iron skillet for my corn bread i just gotta stick to that. I will let you know how it goes. I am so excited. Carson is a biscuit mand so i am hoping he likes this.
TINA!!
YAY! I hope you loved the hoe cake! I think I know that our food tastes are so much alike, you likely did!
It also makes good drop biscuits. Just use a baking sheet that has a bit of a side on it and pour a little oil on that to heat, then drop big old spoons of the batter onto it and bake. Makes these ugly lumpy mounds that taste out of this world.
Salisbury steak and gravy in the crock pot……yeah you better be posting that soon little missy!!!!
Christy I made your recipe just like i said i would. It was out of this world good. A new favorite in our house. Thank you so much for posting this wonderful recipe. Now I just need to make your biscuit recipe next. LOL I wish we lived closer we could do some great cooking together they would have to roll us out of the kitchen sideways after preparing and eating all this awesome food.
I must say, I love your blog!
I am an Idaho Yankee who married a man who was born in Tuscaloosa, AL and raised in Mississippi. He has a love for all things Southern cooked. I am so glad to be able to finally find a recipe for Hoe cake. After 21 years of marriage, he will be absolutely floored that I can finally make this southern treat for him.
I have perfected several things that he loves, but Hoe cake was the elusive recipe, you are right.
Thank you so much for your blog, you are among my bookmarded favorites now, what a treasure of recipes, keep up the good work!!
Tina: I am so thrilled you liked it as much as I do and am even more thrilled that you made it! Definitely sideways….definitely!
Mary Lu: Thank you so very much for commenting! I’m thrilled you found Southern Plate and hope I can keep making you happy and bringing you back for more! If you have any special requests just give me a holler!
I appreciate your kind words more than you know!!!!
Thank you!!
Christy
Oh my goodness! This was soooo good! I would say that it tastes like a KFC biscuit but not as dense and SO much better!
Thanks so much!!!
Yummy! I grew up eating Hoe Cake and homemade plum jelly. You just can’t beat it.
Becky: Thank you! I am so thrilled you liked it!!!!
Rose: Plum jelly! OMG YES! I have been eating hoe cake lately with my crock pot apple butter, but plum jelly is divine!
I just found your site - love the recipes, many are similar to my own! my family made hoe cakes when I was young, but it was always rumored in our house to be the same thing as flapjacks (corn bread that you fry in a cast iron skillet like pancakes). I’m totally trying this recipe tonight! Sounds delicious!
Rachie!: I’m so glad you found us! Welcome to Southern Plate!!
Do let me know if you try it, I love my feedback!!
I have a few hundred recipes still left to do, so check back often!
Christy
I was raised in South Ms. and was blessed to have a Grandmother that cooked some of the best southern foods, hoe cake being one of my fav. I’ve tried making it but never had luck.(I think it has something to do with not using lard.lol) I tried your recipe and it was like being back in her kitchen again. Oh and it was so good with my chicken gumbo! Thanks for bringing those wonderful memories and recipe back into my life!!!
Doubly Blessed: Thank you so much for that story. It means so very much for me to hear things like that.
Please contact me via email. I’d love to speak with you and make sure I put up some more recipes from your childhood!
Christy@southernplate.com
This has become one of our favorite recipes! So, we tried this today with about 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese mixed in (added just before the milk). Holy cow! Christy, if you have not tried adding cheese to this hoe cake, you have to do it, right now!
OH WOW!!
That is one of those “DUH” moments!
Why didn’t I think of that! I bet it is awesome!!
I have a quickie supper already going tonight but I will definitely do that this week, my husband loves cheese so much that his grandmother used to say he “had rat blood in him”! hehe
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
christy
I made this last night and it was so delicious! It was part of breakfast this morning and will be part of dinner tonight! I definitely will be reading your blog from now on.
Yumm! My grandmother used to make these, and we would eat them with fresh fig preserves. However, her’s were a little thinner and made in a cast iron skillet, but same recipe made with flour.
Can’t wait to try this.
Hey Lauren! I’m so glad you liked it!!
It is a delicious breakfast bread!!! I save my leftovers (if I have any) for breakfast too!!!
Thank you so much for reading!!
Hey Kyle!!! If you gave me this WITH Fig preserves, I’d think I had died and gone to heaven!! I LOVE FIGS! My grandaddy used to have a fig bush and he would pick a big old bowl of them when I went to visit him and we’d sit on the couch and eat them all together.
Its so good to have you here!!!
Oh, my mama makes hers in a cast iron skillet, too! I am going to start cooking in cast iron, honest!!
Christy
This is the best. I made mine in my cast iron skillet. Yummmm. Oh and served with your peach preserves recipe. Well should I say anymore? Thanks for all of the great recipes.
I haven’t had this since I was a girl, when my best friend’s mother would make it for Sunday dinner–not supper, you understand, dinner! Thanks for bringing back some wonderful memories. I’ll be making some hoe cake for my family.
This is the closest I’ve seen to my Mother’s hoecake. The difference is she cooks it in a cast iron skillet on the stove. She uses bacon grease - just covering the bottom of the skillet, then drizzles a little around the edges of the skillet as needed while cooking. One of my favorites! Great site!!!
Hey Beth! Thank you so much!! Wow, this AND peach preserves, you got a lucky family!!! I bet you’re an amazing cook!!!
Bbrock Dinner, I know exactly what you mean! No one has supper on Sundays anyway :). Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment, so glad to have you here!!
Anonymous My mother makes hers in a cast iron skillet as well! I am proud to report that I have been reformed! I am now making mine in a cast iron skillet!! My matriarchs would be so proud!
Thank you all for reading Southern Plate!!!
Gratefully,
Christy
OMG!! I almost came to tears when I came across this recipe! My Grandmother (Grandmama Margaret Jackson, God Bless her soul!)made this type of Hoe Cake (with flour and not cornmeal) for me almost every morning before school and she also served it with apple butter!!! I cannot THANK YOU ENOUGH for sharing the recipe as I thought it was gone forever!
Oh yeah……to add to my above comment…..my Grandmama use to make it on top of the stove in a cast iron skillet. THANKS AGAIN! Teresa
I’m gonna try this too!
John
I know I’m probably stupid, but what’t’s with the profile. I registered with you, but found no place to login. I guess I’ll just be anonymous John.???
Do you think this would work with soy milk?
i'm SO glad the link to this recipe works again!
this is a VERY hard to find, authentic recipe, and i spent an embarrassing amount of time earlier this year trying to track down your archived page & recipe on the internets in its entirety, since i foolishly didn't copy it down before–
you're a peach to share it, thanks!
Hello! I so much loved your recipe that I end up blogging it! Thanks for sharing the hoecake recipe! I loved it!
Love the recipe - will try this weekend. We’ll be using rice or soy milk because hubby is lactose intolerant. Thanks for posting it! Vikki http://www.food-self-sufficiency.blogspot.com
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.
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Southern Plate recipes and stories by Christy Jordan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.southernplate.com.
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