Pa's Old-Fashioned Johnny Cake / Cornbread

"The plain version was a staple during my dad's Depression-years childhood; but we rarely had it when I was growing up. My children expect this at least once a month as a regular feature on our Saturday morning breakfast menu OR when we have breakfast-for-supper. Prepare the optional sausage and hard-boiled eggs ahead of time, and it goes together quicker-n-anything!"
 
Download
photo by Debber photo by Debber
photo by Debber
Ready In:
32mins
Ingredients:
8
Yields:
1 large cake pan
Serves:
8-10
Advertisement

ingredients

Advertisement

directions

  • Preheat oven to 425; grease a 13x9 pan.
  • Add dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl, stir through, make a well in the center.
  • In another bowl, add eggs, milk, and oil all at once; blend well.
  • Add wet to dry ingredients, stir until moistened (don't over-mix or you'll be sorry!).
  • Fold in optional ingredients. Sausage should be in crumbles or bite-size pieces.
  • Pour into prepared pan; rap pan on counter-top several times to bounce out the air-bubbles.
  • Bake for 25-30 minutes--top will be golden-brown.
  • Serve with butter and maple syrup.
  • OPTION #1: Add 1 cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese.
  • OPTION #2: Add 1/2 - 1 cup of sweet corn (plain kernels); adds a neat "chewy" texture to the 'cake.'
  • OPTION #3: Add 6 hard-boiled, chopped eggs.
  • OPTION #4: Add 1 pound fried & drained pork sausage (crumbled) or links (bite-size).
  • TIME-SAVING HINT: Gather a handful of 1-quart zipper bags, fill with DRY ingredients, and store in your cupboard. At meal-time, add wet ingredients as described.

Questions & Replies

Got a question? Share it with the community!
Advertisement

Reviews

  1. This was a pretty good recipe. I wound up adding a bit more sugar and milk to get it to the taste I was looking for, and then I fried them like pancakes and served with lentil chili. Thanks for posting!
     
  2. This will be my new cornbread recipe. I made it as written without any of the optional extras, preheated the cast iron skillet in the oven, and poured it in the hot skillet. 20 odd minutes later I pulled out some of the moistest cornbread, almost cake-like, with a wonderful crunchy outer crust. Can't wait to try it again with the added goodies. Hats off to Pa.
     
  3. I've made this several times and the family loves it. Yesterday I wanted corn muffins, so I doubled the sugar and voila! Yummy corn muffins. I just greased 24 muffin cups filled them 3/4 full of batter and baked them at 425 for--I'm guessing here--about 15-18 minutes. Thanks so much for a great recipe.
     
  4. I made this and really liked it. I cut it in half for and 8x8 and baked for 25. I have attempted many cornbread recipes, but have always ended up throwing it out. This one was really good, moist, a touch spongey, and a great flavor. I wanted it a little sweeter, but i'm pregnant, my taste is way off. Great recipe! Easy to follow!
     
  5. This was very good everyone in our family enjoyed it. I made the basic recipe it had the perfect amount of sweetness and the texture is perfect. I have a convection oven so I baked it at 415 degrees for 25 minutes. I'm looking forward to trying it with the optional ingredients.
     
Advertisement

Tweaks

  1. i was looking for this recipe since many years. I use to spend my summers in the country at my grand parents place, by a lake, and my grand mother use to prepare this cake that she was calling «Johnny cake » in the oven of the wood stove where the heat was a little uneven. The bottom was always dark brown, and it gave a fantastic taste to the cake. She use to throw big cristal of sugar on the warm top crust, just before taking the cake out. I am from the Eastern Township in Quebec, it took me a while before realizing that this recipe was coming from aunts on my grand mother's side who had move to Road Island during the great depression. Now that I have the recipe, and as I can't eat eat, I replace the flour with a Pamela pancake mix with almond flour and rice flour and the taste is amazing... Love it!
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p><img src=http://pages.prodigy.net/indianahawkeye/newpage21/10.gif alt=/ /> &lt;&gt;&lt; wife &amp; mother of seven (four adopted foster children grown up now &amp; three biologicals)--my baby(!!!) is a 12th grader! ... plus five grandkids (ages 5 - 21 y.o.); been married 34 years now to the *same wonderful &lt;&gt;&lt; man.* .....</p> <p>Love cooking and being the happy little home-maker. .....</p> <p>Enjoy writing my own blogs and maintaining their FB pages:</p> <p>Blog, Facebook, Pinterest: &nbsp;TitusTwoFriends.blogspot.com (Twitter handle @Titus2Friends )<br />Blog, Facebook, Pinterest: &nbsp;NatureStudyLessons.blogspot.com (Twitter handle @NatureLessons )&nbsp;</p> <p>Pinterest: &nbsp;<a href=http://pinterest.com/debberlynn></a>http://pinterest.com/debberlynn/ &nbsp;</p> <p>Instagram: &nbsp;<a href=http://instagram.com/debberlynn>http://instagram.com/debberlynn</a></p> <p>..... as well as quilting, writing, flower-gardening, and home-organizing, ...and very active in our &lt;&gt;&lt; church, Bible study, teaching, and singing alto in choir. Plan to get back to writing and earning money at it!&nbsp;&nbsp; AND I work as a virtual assistant--check out www.elance.com for more info on VA-ing.</p> <p>&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;***God is good!***&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;<br /> <br /><strong><em>. . . C O N T E S T S . . . </em></strong><br /> <br />My little Rosebud Cottage was a winner in the Basic Category in the 2009 Gingerbread House-Making Contest. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>.&nbsp;</p> <p>. <br /><strong>B A R B E C U E ... S A U C E</strong></p> <p>I entered my mother-in-law's excellent recipe in the contest (Recipe #241146) and won the Family Friendly category! &nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><img src=http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c99/ruemke/ff.jpg alt=/ /></p> <p><br /><span>. . . E V E N T S . . .&nbsp;</span><br /> <br /><strong>Z A A R . . W O R L D . . . T O U R</strong></p> <p><img src=http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z205/jubespage/GGtiedyesmall.gif alt=/ /></p> <p>My gastronomically GROOVIN' team mates are the lovely and talented Team Captain: CraftScout #463202, our equally talented &amp; hip CookBook Guru (staying in the 70's mode) JackieOhNo! #386585, and a slew of Gnome-warriors including Gandalf The White #167236, Az G 946146, kellychris #416985, luvcook'n #308434, Axe #310749, NELady #743849, and sarahubasics #744296 <br /> <br />WE TOOK 5TH PLACE (no thanks to me---I was along for the ride, but unfortunately didn't get to participate very much--with an emergency trip to Montana!)!!!!&nbsp;<br /><img src=http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa130/nowsonexitmusic/bumbag5.gif?t=1211686551 alt=/ /> <br />My fellow hagsters included AmandaInOz, <br />CaliforniaJan, DreamoBway (Christina), JanuaryBride (Jen), JCC (Janice), jkoch960 (also Janice!), megnbrycesmom (Holly), Queenofcamping (Karen), and our lovely team captain Leggy Peggy. <br /> <br />My floozeriffic Fantabulous Friendly Foodie Floozy team-mates included captain Chef #28729 (Iowa), Chef #37036 (Texas), Chef #37449 (No. Carolina), Chef #107135 (Nebraska), Tina Chef #222055, Chef #337668 (Colorado), Chef #448342 (Colorado), Chef #306797 (Australia), and Leanne Chef #416807 (Canada). ...June/July 2007&nbsp;<br /> <br /><strong>. . . M Y . . T H R E E . . C H E F S . . . </strong><br /> <br />2009 (November) <img src=http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b2/kiwidutch/my3chefs2009final-1.jpg alt=/ />My themes were Rise-n-Shine Breakfast and Autumn Suppers OAMC <br /> <br />2008 (Summer) <img src=http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e110/flower753/Food/my3chefs2008Small.jpg alt=/ /> My themes were Ruh! Ruh! Rhubarb! and Sparrow Guts! and Quick Fix: Pizza For Lunch! <br /> <br />2007 (June) <br />My themes were <br />*Picnic &amp; Lunch Box Snacks* <br />*Canning Up Summer's Bounty* <br /> <br /><strong>. . . P I C K - A - C H E F . . . </strong><br /> <br />PAC Autumn '09 <br /><img src=http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j166/ZaarNicksMom/Animation6.gif alt=/ /><img src=http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j166/ZaarNicksMom/PACsticker-Adopted.jpg alt=/ /> <br />My children were Chef #1273716 and chef #321816; my mother was Chef #226863. <br /> <br />PAC Spring '09.... <br /><img src=http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg271/MrsTeny/Permanent%20Collection/PACSpring09Participation.jpg alt=/ /><img src=http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg271/MrsTeny/Permanent%20Collection/PACSpring09Iwasadopted.jpg alt=/ /> <br />I adopted Chef #176481 and Chef #892963. I then had a late-in-PAC baby named Chef #619505.... And I was adopted by Mom2Rose!!! <br /> <br />PAC Autumn '08 ... <br /><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/PACfall08partic.jpg border=0 alt=Photobucket /><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/IWasAdoptedfall08.jpg border=0 alt=Photobucket /> <br />My small family included Chef #434123; and then I got myself adopted by Chef #361931(my sheep-mother, NOT my step mother!). :rofl: <br /> <br />PAC Spring '08 ... <br /><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/PAC08Main.jpg border=0 alt=Photobucket /><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/adoptedspring08.jpg border=0 alt=Photobucket /> <br />My children Chef #797028, Chef #532407, Chef #28177, Chef #510821, Chef #356933 &amp; Chef #429493 and from the preemie nursery I picked up Chef #488944 and Chef #665370. Charlotte J was my little mother! <br /> <br />PAC Autumn '07 ... <br /><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/smPACp.jpg border=0 alt=Photo /><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/Adopted1smp.jpg border=0 alt=Photo /> My children were Chef #179488 from KY, Chef #207616 from NC, Chef #38901 from TX...and from the newborn nursery Chef #351525 and Chef #21667, and my littlest one is Chef #469264 all the way from the Philippines! And I was adopted by Chef #451700 over in Norway! She took the MOST beautiful pictures of my recipes!!! <br /> <br />PAC Spring '07 . . . <br /><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/projects/pacbanner.jpg border=0 alt=Photo /><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/projects/200_PACpic.jpg border=0 alt=Photo /> My children included Chef #396078, Chef #402846, Chef #37593, Chef #122993, Chef #48439 from the Newborn Nursery, Chef #321820, Chef #59476, Chef #293042, Chef #236959, and Chef #196248. ... I was adopted by Chef #186802 <br /><br />&nbsp;<br /></p>
 
View Full Profile
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Find More Recipes