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 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 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 ~grins~. 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.
*I am happy to report that I now have a cherish cast iron skillet from my Mama but I still go back and forth between a cake pan and cast iron when making this (whichever on I grab first) so don’t you dare go feeling bad for whichever one you choose to use.
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!
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 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.
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Posted by Christy Jordan
on Jul 8 2008. Filed under Breads, FEATURED Southern Favorites!, Southern Plate Kids.
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I used this recipe today and made Drop Biscuits. They were wonderful! I will use the recipe again and make it in this form.
This is exactly like the ones my Grandfather cooked for me. He called it a hoe cake and I never understood why everyone else’s hoe cakes were flat. He would cook it in a cast iron skillet over a camp fire and we would eat it like a biscuit.
That is EXACTLY how my Daddy made it…I have been searching for the recipe for years!! All the ones I have seen have cornmeal in it…my Daddy would flip it in the air to turn it, and then cut it like a pie or pizza. Our favorite as kids growing up!!
My mama made this on the stovetop in a cast iron skillet. She called it “doughny bread”. Anyone ever heard of it referred to as that?
Marcia, my family also did it this way but we called it flour bread.
In our family (Southern Louisiana) this is called flour bread also. Our hoe cake is simliar but made with corn meal. the dessert version (with sugar and butter) is a tea cake. All three recipes have been in our family since slavery.
What a legacy you have Bettina!
Bettina….would you be willing to share your Hoe Cake recipe that is made with corn meal! Sounds great and would love to see it to compare.
Bettina, a girlfriend gave me her family’s recipe for tea cakes. She said the recipe was just what to start out with. ( As we talked about it, it seemed to be…some times you just didn’t have much, so you did with what you had.) She said put more flour in it to make them harder. I absolutely love them hard. Thanks for reminding me of my friend.
I never heard it called that, but I’ve heard it called “Johnny bread” or “Johnny cakes”.
This is how we made it in Georgia but we called it a hoecake. Oh how this brings back memories.
I’ve missed this bread since my granny died. My mom nor her sisters never really knew how she made it. We ate it everyday with fresh vegatables in the summer. There was never enough to go around. My granny’s bread seemed thinner and she cooked it on top of the stove in a cast iron skillet. I can’t wait to try this.
I thought “genuine” hoe cake had cornmeal in it. (??)
If your mother made it that way, then that is genuine for you
. This is how my Mama made hers. There are two varieties. I talked about that in the introduction of this post.
Make it how you love it and that will be genuine
Gratefully,
Christy
My family also made in a cast iron griddle on top of stove. We called it flour bread. Yum!
That’s one good thing about southern cooking. It is what it is, no matter what name you call it.
That is exactly it Sandy!!!
When I was growing up, we had this often but called it “biscuit pone”. Mother made it when she was in ahurry and didnt have to make cut out biscuits. I love it and dont waste a crumb of it. Christy, you are the only other person I know who makes a lot of food like I learned to cook.
Lots of good old fashioned ways to make & call it
I think i will try making it in the “muffin topper” pans that make 6 of them. Thanks for the tip of using a cake pan. we always either cooked stove top or used a cast iron skillet.
i think if you add an egg and sweeten it up it becomes like a scone – & you could add some blueberries or other softened dried fruit.
Happy summe everyone!
My brother called this ” fried bread” although is was baked. We loved our fried bread with molasses and butter.
I am confused. did you forget the cornmeal? i am new to a lot of southern recipes but i really thought hoecake was a form of cornbread…
I talk about that at the start of the post
Gratefully
Christy
This reminds me of a larger version of the cornbread patties my granddad would cook. Are they similar?
Hey Christy! Every couple weeks, we go over to some friends’ house for the afternoon. We make dinner together and just spend a few hours together. Yesterday there were more people than usual (about 12) and we had a southern themed barbecue. There was a big hunk of pork, collard greens, cornbread, coleslaw, baked beans, and we brought my famous mac and cheese (people always request it and swarm around it). I also made hoe cake over there! We live in Alaska and no one had ever heard of hoe cake so they were fascinated. Served it with honey and butter because that’s what our friends had. Everyone scarfed it down and just loved it
Thought you’d like to know!
i’m a Georgia girl who moved to Alabama in 1976. i was traumatized by their idea of cornbread here in southeast alabama- plain meal and water. in Georgia we used sr meal, flour, eggs and milk. big difference.
anyhow, i have been making biscuits a long time but have never gotten them like my mama’s or Hardee’s (which is the texture for which I strive) . i made this hoecake last night. The texture was very close to what i have been searching for!!! Thank you!
Carolyn, I enjoyed your comment about the cornbread in southeast Alabama. My husband has family in northern Alabama and they make their cornbread with plain meal and water. I am from Southern Arkansas to Ohio and now in middle Tennessee and we make our cornbread like you. The first time I saw her make her cornbread with meal and water I could not believe it. I thought she had gotten busy talking and forgot but I mentioned the milk and egg and she said they do not put that in their cornbread, but I prefer ours. Traumatized is a good word to describe me too when I saw her make it that way.
My mother use to make this and fry it on top of the stove. she called it flap jacks. We were very poor and really enjoyed mamas flap jacks.
My mama made it more like biscuit dough and fried it also. We called it hoe cakes. I still like it today with good sausage and syrup.
My mom’s from Calhoun, GA and my dad’s from Florence, SC. My mom didn’t learn to cook until they got married so I don’t know where her recipe for hoecake comes from. Her recipe is like Christy’s except my mom used oil instead of shortening. Like many cooks, my mom’s recipe doesn’t have exact ingredient measurements. She uses about 1 cup of self rising flour, 1-2 tbs vegetable oil, and enough milk to make the batter a little thicker than cake batter. She always cooks hers in a cast-iron skillet with a little oil in it on top of the stove. I have done this, too, but now prefer using a non-stick skillet as it is less likely to burn and is easier to flip. She cooks it on low heat (2-3) until bubbles start to form on the top. She flips it and cooks 3-5 minutes longer. This will make an 8″ round, 1 – 2″ thick cake. We like to use a bread knife to slice it in half, pull the top layer off, and pour melted cheddar cheese over it. Sometimes we add country ham and eggs. It’s also good with red-eye gravy, and my husband’s favorite way to eat it is with butter and cane patch syrup. We’ve served this to many people and everyone loves it.
[...] with chicken tenders, sweet and sour green beans, fresh creamed corn with buttermilk, and yes, a Hoe Cake. These recipes were from the bubbly Christy Jordan, food blogger for A Southern Plate. I met her at [...]
[...] – ohhhhh so many I have cooked of yours. First and one of the favorites is Hoe Cake, mercy, my family went to heaven the first time I served that one! Hot Dog Chili Sauce, that one is [...]
Whew! My mouth is watering! Growing up in eastern KY, we called this pone bread! It is great with red eyed gravy, or with chicken and dumplings, or homemade applebutter! YUMMY!
Very interesting. My Mama and Daddy always made hoe cake with self-rising flour instead of the corn meal that people like Paula Deen use. But they used oil instead of shortening and fried it in a pan. Today would have been my Daddy’s 85th birthday. He loved hoe cake. I might make some in his memory.
I hope you enjoy the Hoe Cake, and enjoy the happy memories of your Daddy.
My mama and grandma ( my daddy’s mama) always called that a “johnny cake”. Hoe cake is made with corn meal and used to be fried on a hoe, now we use oil. Mama and grandma always used lard or Crisco shortening. I loved my mama’s “fried cornbread” with her homemade soup and chicken and dumplings. Ah, memories. RIP mama and grandma, the best cooks I ever knew.
Whatever we call them they are the best things to eat. Some call fried corn bread johnny cakes some call hoe-cakes johnny cakes, who cares I think it just depends on if cornbread or flour was available. Being from South Ga some cooking is a lost art along with things like tatting. But things like Hoe-cakes and rutabagars make watching your grandmother cook glad that you paid attention..lol
I agree Jason, so many recipes are long gone.
My grandmother always said she’d make me hoecake one day, but never did, as she wanted to cook it over a campfire! She said hoecake just didn’t taste right without a wood-burning stove! We gobbled ours up before church yesterday, yummy! I have a dear friend at church who makes hoecake for her grandkids with chocolate sauce/syrup. She said her grands don’t consider it trip to Granny’s house with hoecake for breakfast!
Hey Christy, would swapping out buttermilk for the milk portion change much to the recipe other than giving it a buttermilk flavor? I am a waste not want not with a family of five all boys. I make everything stretch and have enough buttermilk to use for this recipe. Just wondered if it changed anything or if I should just stick with milk? Thanks!
I think it would only improve it Katheryn!! In my opinion buttermilk is always better!!
Thank you! Will let you know how it turns out! We are TN so they were always called Johnny Cakes here. Never knew what it was! So feeling frisky tonight with that tad bit of buttermilk and we will see! Thanks for all you do!
My mama still makes Hoe cake, and taught me how to make it for my family. She uses Dukes Mayo instead of shortening. It is soo good!! I love all your recipes and posts!!
How much mayo does she use, i would like to make this
Okay, my 2 cents. Mother made hers on the stove top, but thinking it was like one other reader’s mom. She didn’t want to take time to cut them out. She just said it was a skillet biscuit. We would break off a hunk to go with our breakfast. Thanks Christy, once again you bring back good childhood memories.
Thanks for the warm memories. Brings a smile to my soul!
This looks just like my Mother’s “biscuit bread” we used to request it, and loved it over biscuits!!! Thanks for the recipe – I have wanted to recreate it and have failed miserably – but now realize the key is the oil and the pan being hot!! The crust was always the best part!
I too had missed my grandmothers hoe cake not knowing how to make it – only relishing the memory of having hoe cake and gravy for breakfast! I was frustrated by searching and only finding recipes using corn meal which simply wasnt right. Happily today I am going to make it for my sons and introduce them to such a yummy treat.
This is a great recipe. Taste like the biscuits my mom made (and still does)…absolutely delicious and my kids enjoy it too!
hoe cakes are traditionally made with corn meal. Slaves used the hoes that they worked with in the fields to cook the cakes on. Masters wouldn’t give them time to leave the fields for meals so this was a food of nessity. Corn meal was readily available and most was ground at night from the stocks to feed the farm animals. Its amazing what kind of good foods came out of hardship.
This is exactly how my grandmother made her hoe cake. I’ve always heard it attributed to the Cherokee, but sounds like yet another Southern food with diverse regional variances. At any rate, I fix this for my family all the time and it goes good with anything really. Quicker than biscuits and has a nice neutral flavor for breakfast, lunch, dinner & desserts.
Thanks for posting this recipe. My great grandma, born and raised in southeastern NC, used to make this wonderful bread in an iron skillet on the stove top. She called it flour bread. She passed away in the 80′s and very few people I’ve spoken with since have heard about it or seem to be familiar with it. I’ve tried to resurrect the recipe a few times, but struggle with the exact ratio of ingredients. I’ve found that sometimes it comes out more like a giant biscuit, while other times it soaks up too much shortening from the pan. For me, when it comes out just right, it’s nice and crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and not greasy. I like to rub a little salt over the top when it’s done. Once again, thanks for posting!
I am so glad you found it Philip!!!
Oh, my goodness! I remember my mom making this for us on a wood stove in a square cast iron skillet, which is now my most prized possession. I tried to watch her and learn (and I’m sure I was underfoot and in her way), but she didn’t use a recipe and just took “some” of this and a “pinch” of that and stirred it up and it was always so delicious. There were twelve of us, five girls and five boys and Mom and Dad, and she seemed to make food by magic out of thin air. The small cabinet had very little beside flour, salt , pepper and lard because most of the food was in the garden, made by her, right out off the kitchen door through the gate. And the chickens were on foot, running through the yard and pen. She was such an amazing woman. Trying to type through tears … I can see us now, all at the long table and mom scurrying around making sure everyone was eating. I don’t ever remember seeing her sitting to eat. That beautiful woman left us on September 8, 1997 to live with the angels. I am honored to say that I was holding her hand as she lay in a hospital bed in my living room, where she wanted to be and had been for 5 wonderful caring months. She called me mommy then and I called her baby. Thanks so much for that recipe, and the memories it brought to me this beautiful morning. Amazing how such a simple bread recipe can stir such emotions, isn’t it? Today, I’ll bake that bread in her cast iron skillet and give thanks. God Bless you.
Thank you for this recipe! It’s exactly the way my grandmother used to make it in her old wood-burning stove that always made the kitchen seem way too hot! I’ve made it several times since I found the recipe, and I’ve put a big dent in our supply of apple-butter! This brings back a lot of great memories of my family and sitting around the table at breakfast with a big ol’ pone of hoecake. In fact, I believe that my aunt used to use this recipe to make a crust for pizza when she would babysit us! All the kids in the neighborhood wanted to be over when Binky made us pizza for Saturday breakfast.
My grandparents made this for breafast when i was a kid. We use buttermilk instead of milk. And now i put sausage, bacon,eggs,jalapenos and cheese in mine and it is wonderful.
I’m not the only one that knows this recipe!! We do ours in a cast iron skillet on the stove, but you are the only other person I have ever met outside my family that has even heard of this! It’s so nice to see we aren’t alone. We know all about the apple butter, but with us tbh it was sorghum. What my misplaced southern roots wouldn’t DO for Oma’s hoe cake with sorghum right now!
My nanny made these for me as a kid, but as you stated mine where made flat like a pancake. We ate them for just about any occasion. Personally i loved mine with jelly on top. Thanks for the loveing memories of my Nanny
My Grandma would make us hoe cake and I have always tried to find just the right ingredient that made hers taste different from mine. Mine always taste good and is eaten up very quickly but hers was better. It just maybe the shortening…. I use self-rising flour and buttermilk mixed together and cooked on an a well greased hot iron skillet on top of the stove with an iron lid covering it to keep the heat in. Flip it once and it’s done in about 6 minutes. Tomorrow I’ll try making it with the added shortening. A friend told me about your site. I’m glad I checked it out. I too, do not know very many people who know how to make hoe-cakes or poor-boy bread.
My grandmother usually used buttermilk instead (milk would be used if we didn’t have enough buttermilk to eat with supper) and rolled the dough into balls, but we called them biscuits. Funny how people have different names for the same things.