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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Easy and Great recipe, just like my grandmother used to make!!
Thank you so much for your comments and your rating!!
I grew up on and cooking this recipe! Only difference is I cooked it on top of a wood stove in a cast iron skillet. Gonna have to make me some now. You are so right about not finding this receipe online. Yours is the only one I’ve seen that is exactly how my mama taught me to make it, minus the oven. Thank you.
I hope you get the chance to make it soon Amanda and it brings back some wonderful memories!!
Also I don’t have anyone that i could ask. I do have another question or two. I love white rice. I use long-grain rice (not the instant kind either as this is more expensive and never liked it anyway). I used to be able to cook it with no problems. Now its more and more i cant make it successfully. Its either hard or mushy. So i have a 20 lb bag of it just sitting there. Do you have any advice on how to cook it at a higher elevation of 4400 ft? One other question, my grandma was originally from the south. She was born in Oklahoma. She moved to Utah(where i reside also, does the desert environment change how you make things or just elevation or both?) Anywho, she made ham hock and beans(with black eyed peas) which i love. I made it many times just using what i remember which is ham hocks and black eyed peas. Now whenever i make it its jusr gross or tasteless or the beans wont cook. Do you have any recipes that might be this? Or advice? Thank you!
First, soak your beans if they are dry. Just cover with water right above the beans and allow to soak. The beans will absorb the water. While beans are soaking for about one hour, boil ham hocks. Add chopped onions, garlic, celery and whatever you would like to add, season the water so that the beans will absorb the water. Once ham hocks are almost tender, remove and set aside.
Add black eyed peas in pot with ham hock stock. Adjust seasonings like salt, pepper, seasoning salt, onion powder, garlic powder. Keep seasonings simple for that simple home cooked taste. Cook peas until almost tender then add ham hocks. You may first cut ham hock into bite size pieces or to your like prior to adding.
My boy friends family introduced me to HOE CAKE…Only instead of the shortening..his mother uses 2 cups self rising flour..1 large egg..1 cup milk more or less. It turns out AMAZING!! I LOVE IT! Good with breakfast in place of rolled out biscuits. Great with any soup!! I charish knowing how its done. God bless!
I remember my Granny making this and it always turned out great. We ate it as pancakes and as bread with our meal. We ate (and still do) and LOVED cornbread mixed in a glass of cold buttermilk. And you knew that you were about grown when you got to sit at the table with Granny, your Mom and any or all of her 11 sisters plus the Aunts who married into the family. And have a cup of coffee with a pieces of a biscuit floating in it. Great memories!! My question was can I use oil instead of shortening?
We used buttermilk and fried it on both sides in cast iron and it’s pure heaven!
I made this tonight,not as good as my grandma’s but still delicious.
The only problem is that mine kinda crumbled when sliced.