These Southern Johnny Cakes aka Hoe Cakes would be a great alternative to your everyday pancake. Made with cornmeal and a touch of sugar and nutmeg. Light and fluffy with a delicious crisp edge.
Hoecakes are cornmeal flatbreads with exceptional texture and flavor. They’re sort of a minimalist approach to cornbread.
This is made with leavening agents which makes it moist and fluffy, somewhat comparable to pancakes but not quite.
Aside from keeping the ingredients list simple, what you fry the cakes in, matters. Along with the texture and subtly sweet flavor, hoecakes need some fat. It seeps into every inch as it fries for additional flavor. Butter or good ol’ bacon fat is the way to go. Butter will yield light, crispy hoecakes and promote that golden brown color only butter provides, while bacon fat will add some of its signature pork and smokey flavor.
For the health conscious go easy on the butter.
My version of hoe cakes has a hint of sweetness and spice from the addition of nutmeg. ‘Course I love it so much AND it pairs well with the flavor of the cornmeal while still yielding versatile rounds of corny goodness. If it’s tradition you are after then leave out the nutmeg. We’ll still be friends, no worries!
Johnny cakes are a cinch. You mix the incredibly simple batter in a large bowl, heat your selected fat, spoon batter into the hot skillet and cook until golden and firm. Once done, serve them quickly because hoecakes are best when warm. Upon taking a bite, you’ll be greeted by their crisp and dense yet soft texture. As for flavor, the hint of fat is the first thing that hits your tongue followed by the expected corn flavor. The sweetness from the touch of sugar comes soon after and the nutmeg brings a faint hint of its signature aroma and complexity.
Something special happens when the aromatic spice melds with sugar. The duo enhances the hoecakes resulting in a perfect bite every time.
Don’t forget to drizzle with honey or syrup or save as an accompaniment to a savory meal.
Enjoy!!!
Watch How to Make It
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Southern Johnny Cakes (Hoe Cakes)
Ingredients
- 1 cup or (128 grams) flour
- 1 cup or (120 grams) cornmeal
- 2 eggs
- 2 1/2 teaspoon or (10 grams) baking powder
- 2 tablespoon or (28.12 grams) sugar
- 1 teaspoon or (5.69 grams) salt
- 3/4 cup or (177 ml) milk
- 1/2 cup or (118 ml ) water
- 1/3 cup or (75 grams) melted butter
- 1 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon or (0.011 grams) nutmeg
- butter or oil for frying
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix cornmeal , flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg , and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in milk, water, egg, vanilla and melted butter . Through mix until pancake mixture is smooth
- Heat a lightly oiled cast iron or frying pan over medium high heat. Scoop about 2 tablespoons each of the batter onto the cast.
- Fry each Johnny cake until brown and crisp; turn with a spatula, and then brown the other side.
- Remove and serve immediately with syrup and/or butter .
Tips & Notes:
- Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.
Nutrition Information:
How To Make Johnny Cakes
David says
I use buttermilk instead of whole or 2% milk.
They taste much better and have more flavor. I use 1 and 1/2 cups of white fine ground corn meal. 2 table spoons of sugar. 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. 1 and 1/2 cups of buttermilk. Mix all ingredients together and in a cast iron pan with hot oil or lard.
ImmaculateBites says
Awesome! Thanks for sharing your version with us. Glad to hear it worked out well for you.
Etoya says
Can I use maize meal instead of cornmeal?
ImmaculateBites says
You sure can.
temmy adeboyejo says
Thanks for the knowledge shared,I love it and will give it a try today.pls can I use cornflour in replace of cornmeal?
ImmaculateBites says
Hi Temmy ! You sure can.
Rose James says
Loved it, my daughter can’t stop talking about it. My mother made Hoe cakes. Thank you for reminding me of my childhood. Mama
ImmaculateBites says
Hi Rose! So glad to hear it brought back fond memories! Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me.
Jessica says
Thanks for the recipe! My mom calls them corncakes. I searched and searched for CornCake recipes and all I got was Cornbread like recipes. Then i found this (must be the southern name and Corn Cakes is the Northern Appalachian name). My mom said it was simple, just Cornmeal and milk… mine turned out horrible. I finally figured out she was using Cornmeal Mix, not plain Cornmeal.
ImmaculateBites says
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with us.
Toni Hopkins-Garcia says
These sound so good! My childhood friend’s mother (from St. Croix) used to make us Johnny Cakes for dinner. I’ll try these tomorrow!
ImmaculateBites says
They sure are tasty! Do let me know how it works out for you. Thanks!
Scott Raschke says
It’s just me this morning, so I halved the recipe and substituted glutten free AP flour. I left out the vanilla and nutmeg. They were great!
ImmaculateBites says
Awesome! Glad to hear it worked out well for you.
Deb says
Hi there, thanks a bunch for this. I was looking for something easy and quick…Having guest for bf.
ImmaculateBites says
Glad to be of help. Do let me know how it works out for you
Linda Jones says
I would like to know where to get Immaculate bite cookbook.
Didina says
I love corn, so you know I can’t resist these…
For a gluten free version, I would like to sub the 1 cup of ap flour with half (70 gr) maseca and half (70 gr) corn staech. They would taste a bit different, but 100% corn. Yum. And top them with coconut. Yum!!!
ImmaculateBites says
OH YES! Me love coconut.
Didina Gnagnide Angorinie says
I’ll tell you a shameful secret…I don’t like cornbread (at least the ones I have tried). 90% of the problem is that it is called bread but it’s a cake (you can’t fool me on this, it’a a savory cake and it sure is not a focaccia). It’s a mental thing I guess. But these hoe cakes might replace cornbread well and they are called ‘cakes’ so no wrong advertising XD. I feel like using lard these days so that’s what I would use to fry them (lard is amazing and one of the healthiest oils to fry with, much more than peanut or sunflower ~ of course frying is not that healthy to begin with…but really, it’s excellent).
Christine Fay says
Can also make them gluten free using corn flour or 1 to 1 gf flour!!!! We live on these! Easy and inexpensive!!!
ImmaculateBites says
Awesome!!Thanks for taking the time to share Christine.
Rahma says
Thanx…..will definitely try dis. Please do u mind sharing your cornbread recipe as I have bin wanting to mk cornbread but can’t get hold of d recipe, I will really appreciate. And please is cornmeal same as cornflour coz its cornflour I have.
ImmaculateBites says
No cornmeal is not the same as corn flour. Corn flour is used for the most part as a thickening agent. Will have to adjust recipe if using cornflour. Check out this recipe cornbread here https://www.africanbites.com/pineapple-jalapenos-corn-bread/ or this other one here https://www.africanbites.com/mealie-bread-south-african-corn-bread/
Matti says
I believe corn flour is just a finer grit version of cornmeal. It is cornstarch that is used for thickening.
Joe says
What happened to the cane syrup or molasses that I grew up eating with the hoe cakes. Using these two instead of honey or maple syrup will really be authentic!
ImmaculateBites says
That would be great too! Thanks for sharing!!!
Claire says
Can’t wait to try this with nutmeg. Love anything with a little hint of nutmeg
Darlene says
How much salt, no mention in ingredients, just in directions. No mention of the water in the directions, just in ingredients. Thank you. I winged it and they turned out pretty good! No need for syrup at all. Thanks for this recipe. 🙂 Love the crunch!
ImmaculateBites says
NO WAY!!! That was fast. I agree no need for syrup but my son can’t have it without. Thanks for trying it out Darlene. Glad it worked out well for you. Recipe has been updated.
Sandra says
Thanks for this! It seems an interesting variation of what the English know as the Flap Jack. Looking forward to giving these a try.
ImmaculateBites says
Awesome!!! Do let me know how it works out for you Sandra. Thanks