Austin-based Hoover’s Cooking (hooverscooking.com) is a regular vendor at the annual Purple Hull festival in Shankleville), serving heaps of hot hoe cakes to festival visitors. Hoe cakes are named for how these pancakes were originally cooked: poured onto a hoe and held over a wood fire until cooked.
Ingredients
SERVINGS: 10 Pancakes
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 1 cup plain flour
- 5 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons sugar
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup + 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 1 cup cooked purple hull peas
Preparation
In a mixing bowl, add all dry ingredients (cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt and sugar). Mix and stir in milk.
Continue to stir and mix in the eggs, 1 by 1 and mix thoroughly until the mixture is a smooth batter. Mix in the melted butter until completely incorporated. Finally, mix in the purple hull peas.
Refrigerate batter overnight (or at least 6 hours).
Note: Batter will thicken overnight. Prior to using, add enough milk to thin to original batter texture.
Using a griddle or cast-iron skillet over high to medium heat, add a ladle of batter and cook like pancakes: When the pan-side is browning, flip to cook the other side. Repeat until all batter is finished. Keep hoe cakes warm.
Serve with butter, syrup and/or powdered sugar.
