Johnny Cake

One of the things I really appreciate about this cookbook is that the recipes are mostly your every-day ingredients. Not a lot of fancy ingredients that you have to go searching for.  Today's recipe fit very well with my busy day. I didn't give supper a thought until about 4:30pm and grabbed the cookbook, hoping to find something quick, because I had to be ready for an evening meeting. And I needed something with ingredients that I could find in the cupboards here at home, or with a quick jog up to the local grocer. 

We didn't have any cornmeal on hand, so I did have to make that jog.  To my surprise, the cornmeal is not in the baking aisle. It is over in another aisle with bread crumbs. Go figure.  Another thing that this recipe called for, that I needed, was whole wheat flour. I know, whole wheat flour is not something that every Johnny Cake has, but this recipe does. However, due to COVID shortages, my local store does not have any wheat flour in stock.  So I had to make do with unbleached white flour.  I'm partial to King Arthur (unbleached) Flour, and fortunately, I've not yet encountered a shortage of KAF.  
 
Now, making Johnny Cake is not too difficult. About the only thing you have to watch for is letting it go too long in the oven. I can't recall every burning anything to a crisp in the oven (on top of the stove, yes, but in the oven, no). So I don't know why I'm such a worry-nanny about bake times, but I am. I hang out in the kitchen and find things to do so I can monitor the bake time as it nears completion, sniffing the air to see if it smells like burning food. Which it never does, but you never know, right?!

This Johnny Cake came out very well. I was quite pleased with it. Moist on the inside, with just that slight crisp on the outside. I discussed it with my husband, and the only thing to add is perhaps sugar. I made the smaller recipe, for an 8x8 pan, which calls for 1/4 cup sugar. Maybe I'll add just a dite more, next time I make it. The Johnny Cake made for a nice addition to a meal with red hot dogs, cole slaw and potato salad.

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