Here's a simple recipe and Paula Dean favorite. Just can not help but love her southern charm and cute accent and since it is a southern term for a corn or Johnny cake, we thought we would share her recipe favorite.
Ingredients
- 1 cup self-rising flour
- 1 cup self-rising cornmeal, or from a mix (recommended: Aunt Jemima's)
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon water.
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil or bacon grease
- Oil, butter, or clarified margarine, for frying
Directions
Mix well all ingredients, except for the frying oil. Heat the frying oil or butter in a medium or large skillet over medium heat. Drop the batter, by full tablespoons, into the hot skillet. Use about 2 tablespoons of batter per hoecake. Fry each hoecake until brown and crisp; turn each hoecake with a spatula, and then brown the other side. With a slotted spoon, remove each hoecake to drain on a paper towel-lined plate. Leftover batter will keep in refrigerator for up to 2 days. This takes about 15 minutes to cook and will make about 17 round cakes.
For out door cooking, I like using the open skillet preheating over the coolest part of the coals for about a minute or two warming up bacon grease. You can use vegetable oil or butter if your prefer to not using bacon grease, but I like the flavor. Once the cast iron skillet has been preheated, I move it over the warmer part of the coals and add the batter just as indicated above in directions. If you desire, you can make them larger adding one additional tablespoon of batter of mixture but two table spoons will make a good 4-5 inch size. After cooked and placed on a paper towel, I continue cooking until finishing the last one before placing them on serving plates. Cover with butter and Wood Roan Ranch Maple Syrup for taste.
