Heeeeeeere’s Johnny!!! (And he’s brought cakes!)

Don’t get me wrong, I love pancakes. But we can get sick of even our most beloved dishes from time to time, and after a few months of making pancakes nearly every weekend, I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus recently. But last night, I was reading Deborah Madison’s What We Eat When We Eat Alone (a great little book) in search of inspiration for an easy Sunday dinner, when I stumbled upon a recipe for johnny cakes.

The pancake’s rustic cousin, a johnny cake is a no-frills griddle cake made with cornmeal instead of flour and usually without eggs or baking powder. They’re even easier and more forgiving than pancakes, and the cornmeal makes them seem more hearty and filling than pancakes.

Plus, their name makes them sound like an overweight mobster…

And actually, “Johnny Cakes” is what Vito Spatafore nicknames his lover in the Sopranos. So there’s that.

There are a number of etymologies for johnny cakes: The two most prevalent are that they were originally called “journey cakes” because they were good food for travelers or that they were originally called “Shawnee cakes” after the Native American tribe that Europeans picked up the recipe from, probably right before committing some horrible atrocity against them. Either way, the name got mangled and became johnny cakes.

The cakes are a Rhode Island specialty, and the recommended cornmeal is Kenyon’s White Corn Meal. Recommended or not, I couldn’t find any. What I did find was self-rising corn meal, which just means corn meal that already has baking powder and salt in it. So right off the bat, I was breaking from tradition, which says that johnny cakes are made without baking powder. But who’s going to stop me? I went ahead and added an egg as well, just to be a complete heretic.

The results, traditional or not, were delicious. Slightly thinner than pancakes, the rougher grain of the corn meal gives these cakes an awesome texture and makes the batter much more forgiving in the pan. It only took me about 20 minutes to make enough cakes for two people, and I think these might become a regular pancake alternative for me.

There are a thousand recipes out there for Johnny Cakes. The one below is for using self-rising corn meal, but if you’re working with regular cornmeal, give this one a try.  Either way, be aware that the batter will be thinner than traditional pancake batter and will spread out more in the pan.

Johnny Cakes

1.5 C Self-rising corn meal
1 C Milk
1 Egg
~1 tbsp. sugar (More or less to taste. None is fine.)
1/3 C vegetable oil

1. Combine all ingredients and mix well.

2. Heat a skillet or griddle and coat with butter or (sigh) cooking spray. (Bacon fat is good as well.)

3. Ladle on batter and cook, flipping when bubbles start to appear and burst on the uncooked side of the cake.

4. Serve with butter and maple syrup or honey.