Johnnycake
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
In a mixing bowl, combine cornmeal and salt.
Add molasses and enough water to form a stiff dough.
Shape the dough into cakes the size of your hand.
Bake
Place the cakes on a barrel-top set before a fire or on a bed of coals.
Bake until golden brown, ensuring they do not burn.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Cornmeal
- Forms the bulk of the dough and gives the cakes their structure and grainy texture.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crust brown as it bakes.
- Water
- Hydrates the cornmeal so it binds into a stiff, shapeable dough.
The step that matters
Bake until golden brown, ensuring they do not burn.. Cornmeal and molasses brown quickly over direct heat, so the cakes can scorch before the interior sets. Keeping them at a steady distance from the fire and turning them helps the centre cook through while the outside colours evenly.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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