Hoecakes - The Southern Cornmeal Pancake Recipe

This Southern food staple is a yummy alternative to corn bread. When you want that corn bread flavor, but want something more breakfasty, try this tasty Southern hoecake recipe.

What’s a Hoecake?

Hoecakes are one of those dishes that many non-Southerners have never heard of. You may have heard their other name — johnnycakes. But some folks also use the term johnny cake to describe a regular flour pancake.

These are cornmeal pancakes, so imagine a regular flour pancake. Now picture it a little crispier with a yummy fried cornbread taste. Sounds good, right? It is!

Indigenous peoples of the the US used lots of ground corn for cooking. They are credited with teaching the European colonists of the South how to make johnnycakes, as well as other cornmeal dishes like cornbread and grits. These foods became popular soul food dishes that have remained Southern cuisine staples to this day.

Watch How to Make Hoecakes

Check out our chef while she makes an easy breakfast-style stack of tasty hoecakes!

Are Hoecakes supposed to be sweet? Where’s the sugar?

This hoecake recipe is traditional and does not contain sugar. If you’re a Yank, or hail from certain parts of the South, you might be used to your cornbread tasting sweet. If that’s your preference, and you want some sweetness in your hoecakes, try doing one or all of the following:

• Top your hot hoecakes with butter. This is a tasty choice regardless of your sweetness preference.
• Drizzle your hoecakes with honey. Honey works great together with the butter and cornmeal flavors.
• If you’re a maple syrup fan, pour some on your hoe cakes. Syrup is perfect if you’re enjoying these corn cake pancakes as your main dish for breakfast.
• Add 2 or 3 tablespoons of sugar to the recipe.

Don’t want them sweet, but want a little extra something? Go full Southern hoe cake style. Cook up some yummies like turnip or collard greens and dip your hoe cakes in the pot likker. These corn cakes work great as a side dish with a big ol’ pot of greens.

Substitutions and Notes on Cooking the Hoecakes

If you don’t keep buttermilk on hand, you might not be a Southerner. But that’s all right; there are a variety of substitution options. Since this recipe calls for 2 cups of buttermilk, you can use 2 cups of regular milk plus 2 tablespoons of white vinegar. Check out this link for more buttermilk substitution techniques.

For frying, the way to make this dish especially Southern would be to replace the vegetable oil with bacon grease. So if you’re serving up these cornmeal hoecakes for breakfast, prepare your bacon first, and then save that tasty rendered bacon fat for frying your hoecakes.

Alternatively, these cornbread cakes can be cooked on a lightly greased griddle, as you would a pancake. If you’re averse to fried food or want to reduce the recipe’s fat content, this is the way to go.

Lastly, make sure you’re using fine ground cornmeal for this recipe. Ain’t nothin worse than a gritty hoecake. If you’re using the White Lily self rising cornmeal mix (or a similar self rising cornmeal mix) you should leave out the baking soda.

We hope you’ll enjoy our Southern Hoecake recipe!

Foods In This Series:

• Instant Pot Turnip Greens
• Instant Pot Collard Greens
• Pot Liquor (Likker)
• Hoecakes, aka Fried Cornmeal Cakes