What Are Johnny Cakes Made Out Of?
Jamaican Johnny Cakes have been varied and complicated and diversified over the years. However, the authentic, old-fashioned Johnny cakes comes with three essential ingredients: white flour, sugar and salt. Johnny cakes are made without milk and without butter. Yup, that’s it. I know this is a controversial statement, but the secret to making a great tasting Johnny cake is not in the complexity of the recipe, but the method of rolling and frying. You can watch the video below to see my demonstration, or keep reading to learn more.
How to Make Johnny Cakes that are Easy to Eat
The is the essence of a making an excellent Johnny cake:
- TEXTURE: Crispy on the outside
- APPEARANCE: Beautiful golden color (without burn marks)
- CONSISTENCY: Soft on the inside (but fully cooked all the way through)
The result is a super addictive fried dumpling. Simple.
Click Below to See “The simple way to make PERFECT JOHNNY CAKES!“
Fried Dumplings Should Not Be Tough!
TEXTURE: Too many fried dumpling recipes are using way too many ingredients – the main culprits sneaking into Jamaican Johnny cake recipes are milk and butter. These result in a consistency that is approaching a biscuit consistency. Use only the ingredients below.
CONSISTENCY: Another reason some persons Johnny Cakes are tough is that the rolling technique is off. You don’t want a Johnny Cake that is tough like rocks and can be used as a weapon to stone people. Watch the video to see how to roll your fried dumpling, so that while it’s frying, the middle puffs up and creates these lovely air pockets. This is how you get the soft consistency in the middle.
APPEARANCE: Do you like greasy oily Johnny cakes? As you watch my video tutorial, you can see the oil level in my cast iron pan barely decreases – my johnny cake recipe does not absorb oil when frying. To get a clean tasting Johnny Cake, you combine the right amount of oil, and heat.
- The heat should not be too hot to burn the flour before it cooks, and not too low to cause the oil to saturate your fried dumpling. This does take practice and intuition. A good temperature for your oil would be 300 degrees Fahrenheit, +/- 15 degrees.
- You need enough oil to ensure the Johnny cakes float. I demonstrate this in the video
- After frying, set on a cooking rack like this to finish crisping up. DO NOT STACK FRIED DUMPLINGS ON EACH OTHER as this can cause steam which makes your Johnny cake lose crisp.
Equipment Used to Make These Jamaican Johnny Cakes
Here’s the full list of essential equipment needed to make this recipe:
- Cast Iron Pan – retains heat better and fries more evenly than stainless steel. This is an important factor for success.
- Mixing Bowl
- Measuring spoons
- Cookie rack – for cooling so that you don’t stack your cakes on each other and create steam
Jamaican Johnny Cakes
Course: BreakfastCuisine: JamaicanDifficulty: Easy6
servings10
minutes10
minutesYou will never struggle to make perfect Jamaican Johnny Cakes again! Follow my step by step guide with recipe, kneading technique and frying method to get crunchy on the outside and light fluffy on the inside, perfectly round Johnny Cakes.
Ingredients
3 cups All Purpose Flour
3 tsp Double Acting Baking powder
3 tsp. Granulated Sugar
1 tsp. Salt
Water (as needed)
Directions
- Add all ingredient into a strainer and sieve into a large mixing bowl. This helps to aerate the flour and more evenly distribute the additives through the flour. Gently mix with a fork
- Make a well into the center of the bowl. Gently pour in room temperature water and using a spoon gently stir the flouring into a shaggy dough. Follow by using your hands to knead the dough until soft and smooth. Cover with damp cloth and let rest for 10 minutes. After the dough has rested divide and shape dough into 8-10 golf sized balls-indenting the tops of the dumplings.
- Heat cast iron skillet, wok, or dutch pot. Add oil to heat for deep frying. When oil is reaches medium heat, gently lower the dumplings into oil, about half of them so as to not overcrowd the pot which would lower the cooking temperature too much. Let dumpling fry on one side for about 2 minutes, then flip on the other side to continue frying for another 2 minutes. Prick one dimpling with a toothpick to test for complete frying.
- Remove from pan and set aside on cooling wrack to crisp up even more.
Notes
- Johnny cakes should not be fried shallow – you need lots of oil so that the dumplings float and not stick to the base of the pan
- Try stuffing your Johnny cakes with different fillings before frying – like smoked herring or ackee
Tip: Making Johnny Cakes with Self Rising Flour
The easiest, quickest way to make Johnny cakes is to use self rising flour. Yes Johnny Cakes with self rising flour is a thing. Just add your sugar and salt and that’s one less thing to worry about. I’ve found that most self rising flours have a good ratio of leavening agent to flour that will create the same result.
A Short Background Story on Johnny Cakes
Jamaica is famous for its Johnny Cakes, but they’re not unique to that island Jamaica—far from it. Versions can be found all through the Eastern Caribbean islands, as well as in places like Turks and Caicos, the Cayman Islands and St. Croix.
They’re also well known throughout New England, and American Indians have their own versions. In fact, it’s said that American settlers in New England learned of the food and how to make it from the Pawtuxet tribe. The bread migrated to South America and the islands courtesy of North American native peoples, or perhaps when U.S. loyalists fled south when faced with the American War of Independence. The first mention of johnnycakes in written records came about in the 1700s.
Serve hot with your favorite stew, Ackee, garlic butter or smoked herring paste!
So there you have it – a simple Jamaican Johnny Cake Recipe that approaches perfection
