Cornmeal Griddle Cakes

My husband has been bugging me about these griddle cake things he had a long time ago. When I started looking up what he was after it became apparent I’d be trying out at least (at the very least) ten different recipes. You know how many different kinds of griddle cakes there are? Even the names are completely different. Hoecakes, Griddle Cakes, Flapjacks, Hotcakes, Johnnycakes, the list goes on. It’s not a pancake, and it’s fried in oil , not just heated on a hot skillet. Not to mention they were small and had a crunch to them instead of being nice and fluffy like a pancake all around. What on earth my husband was thinking I had no idea. At least until I tried the Griddle Cakes, they were awesome!

I settled on a recipe from Bon Appetit Y’All, by Virginia Wills . It’s a favorite cookbook of mine because it’s comfort food from the first page to the very last. If you ever want some great recipes check that book out!

Cornmeal Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

2 cups white or yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 to 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup water, plus more if needed
1/4 to 1/3 cup vegetable oil, for frying

Directions

 In a large bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, baking powder, and salt.
 In another bowl  whisk egg and 1 cup water until smooth. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, using as few strokes as possible.
 Heat 1/4 cup of the oil in a cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Ladle 1/4 cup of batter into the heated skillet for each cake (don’t over crowd the skillet)  The batter will immediately sizzle at the edges.
 Cook the cakes until the bottoms are a rich brown and bubbles form on the tops and along the edges, just a few minutes.  Turn and brown the other side, an additional 2 to 3 minutes adding oil to the skillet as needed while you cook the rest of the cakes. Serve hot with syrup or preservers.

 I enjoyed these with ham steaks and made a little Griddle cake sandwich. I did not like them with syrup or perseveres as all, but then again  I’m just weird that way! 🙂

Enjoy!