Hoecakes With Fruit Recipe (2024)

Delicious idea, but the batter adhered like crazy glue to my well-seasoned, lightly oiled cast iron skillet. I tried scraping the top off and flipping that but the problem happened again. I'm sure there's a way around this but I haven't found it yet.

I was nervous to try these after reading about others' difficulties, but I have successfully made them twice now and found no problems. A few things I think helped:
1. Carefully time how long the cornmeal sits to absorb the water.
2. Boil the water in a kettle & keep it boiling for the 2nd addition.
3. Measure the oil: half in the batter, half to cook with.
4. A non stick electric griddle worked a bit better than cast iron
5. Don't try to flip too early!
Hope that helps!

To all those complaining about sticking...the key to these is having a *hot* pan and keeping them small (2-3” across). Tip from a Rhode Islander who’s been making johnnycakes (similar) for many years.

Maybe it's just me, but I had a heck of a time w/this recipe that looks so simple! Needed tons of water to get it thin enough to pour, and those bubbles didn't quite appear as predictably as promised. I'm not an expert cook, but this recipe made me feel even less than competent!

Since others had trouble with sticking, I followed the recipe carefully--boiled the water, let the cornmeal soak, heated the pan and oiled it generously. Still, my "hoecake" ended as a pile of warm cornmeal with a hard crust stuck to the pan. I checked other recipes and found one that was the same, but it called for heavily greasing the pan. Other recipes added eggs, flour, and milk to the mix. How did Mr. Bittman get those lovely hoecakes in the photo?

Mine stuck to the pan a little bit in a cast iron, but it stuck like crazy in the steel frying pan. It also worked better when it was a little thicker and didn't pour, which was surprising. I think this recipe could be great if I had added more fruit or some additional fruit puree, because it was the plums that were the star of this recipe and the corn was just the vector.

I made this recipe and it turned out great. I used 1 cup fine cornmeal and 1/2 of coarse cornmeal. I actually only needed 1-1/4 of cup boiling water and I was afraid it would be too liquids bud was fine after sitting. These turned out great and I topped it with runny egg. I actually spiced the batter with chili and salt pepper and garlic to add to it more savory. Great breakfast pancake!

These worked out great for me but I added one egg to the recipe.

To all those complaining about sticking...the key to these is having a *hot* pan and keeping them small (2-3” across). Tip from a Rhode Islander who’s been making johnnycakes (similar) for many years.

I made this recipe and it turned out great. I used 1 cup fine cornmeal and 1/2 of coarse cornmeal. I actually only needed 1-1/4 of cup boiling water and I was afraid it would be too liquids bud was fine after sitting. These turned out great and I topped it with runny egg. I actually spiced the batter with chili and salt pepper and garlic to add to it more savory. Great breakfast pancake!

This is not the hoecake that I grew up with. We called this hot water cornbread. A hoecake, in my family, is pan fried biscuit dough. It was how we used the scraps that couldn’t be turned into biscuits.

This was a genuine mess of a recipe, perhaps a video or additional information would rescue it. With exact measurements of water and cornmeal the batter was a sandy dough rather than a pourable batter.

What a mess! I won't try this recipe again, but I will try the recipe from the link MRG shared.

Try cooking SPRAY rather than oil. It always works better to stop batter from sticking to the pan for me.

I was nervous to try these after reading about others' difficulties, but I have successfully made them twice now and found no problems. A few things I think helped:
1. Carefully time how long the cornmeal sits to absorb the water.
2. Boil the water in a kettle & keep it boiling for the 2nd addition.
3. Measure the oil: half in the batter, half to cook with.
4. A non stick electric griddle worked a bit better than cast iron
5. Don't try to flip too early!
Hope that helps!

Since others had trouble with sticking, I followed the recipe carefully--boiled the water, let the cornmeal soak, heated the pan and oiled it generously. Still, my "hoecake" ended as a pile of warm cornmeal with a hard crust stuck to the pan. I checked other recipes and found one that was the same, but it called for heavily greasing the pan. Other recipes added eggs, flour, and milk to the mix. How did Mr. Bittman get those lovely hoecakes in the photo?

Mine stuck to the pan a little bit in a cast iron, but it stuck like crazy in the steel frying pan. It also worked better when it was a little thicker and didn't pour, which was surprising. I think this recipe could be great if I had added more fruit or some additional fruit puree, because it was the plums that were the star of this recipe and the corn was just the vector.

Delicious idea, but the batter adhered like crazy glue to my well-seasoned, lightly oiled cast iron skillet. I tried scraping the top off and flipping that but the problem happened again. I'm sure there's a way around this but I haven't found it yet.

Maybe it's just me, but I had a heck of a time w/this recipe that looks so simple! Needed tons of water to get it thin enough to pour, and those bubbles didn't quite appear as predictably as promised. I'm not an expert cook, but this recipe made me feel even less than competent!