Amish soul food from a Top Chef semi-finalist: Johnnycakes and Apple Butter

Johnnycakes and apple butter create a delicious breakfast that straddles traditional Southern and Pennsylvania Dutch cooking. Recipes below.

LIKE MANY CHEFS, CHRIS SCOTT DEVELOPED HIS LOVE FOR COOKING IN HIS GRANDMOTHER’S KITCHEN. And like many Black Americans, his life has been shaped by migration. After the Civil War, his great grandfather left the South and moved to work in a steel factory in “the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch Country,” as Scott puts it. So when Scott learned to cook at his grandmother’s side, he picked up traditional Black Southern recipes, of course, but also those of the family’s adopted home, Amish country.

Scott is a Top Chef semi-finalist who has owned restaurants in Brooklyn and Bridgeport, Connecticut. Homage: Recipes & Stories from an Amish Soul Food Kitchen, published last September by Chronicle Books, is his tribute to how food brings us together. And it is a testament to how the African diaspora has shaped America.

Perhaps most of all, it is a celebration of family, telling his own family story, and through it, the story of generations of Black American families. Scott dedicates the book to his children, urging them to “use it until it’s crumbling from the spine and get bacon grease on a few pages.”

Homage is filled with wonderful recipes that embrace both Southern and Amish cooking. We share a pair of them that perfectly illustrates this melding. Johnnycakes are a Southern tradition, pancakes made with equal amounts of flour and cornmeal. They are substantial and nicely crunchy, thanks to the cornmeal. The apple butter, his grandmother’s recipe, is a nod to the North’s great appreciation of apples. We made the apple butter Saturday night in preparation for a Sunday johnnycake breakfast. On Sunday morning, the house still smelled of the heavenly apple butter.

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Apple Butter

This heavenly sweet/tart apple butter cooks up in about an hour.

Servings 1 generous pint

Ingredients

• 6 apples, about 3 pounds, peeled and cut into chunks (see Kitchen Notes for varieties)
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 2 slightly rounded teaspoons Diamond kosher salt (or 1 rounded teaspoon Morton)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Instructions

• Combine all ingredients in a Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed, large saucepan. Cook over medium heat until juices release and come to a boil.
• Reduce heat to low and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until apples break down and become thick and dark, about 1 hour. There will still be some apple chunks, and that's okay.
• Puree in a blender until completely smooth, then cool to room temperature. Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. You can also freeze unused portions, or even better, use some of it to make this Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie.

Kitchen Notes

Pick your apples. Scott’s recipe calls for all “green apples”—Granny Smiths. We used a mix of Granny Smiths, Fuji and McIntosh. Use the apples you prefer. (Only please don’t use Red Delicious—they are bred to ship well and look pretty, but are otherwise dreadful.)

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Johnnycakes

Made with cornmeal and flour, johnnycakes are a traditional Southern take on pancakes, substantial and nicely crunchy.

Servings 12 or so (we got a baker's dozen)

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
• 1 cup cornmeal, yellow or white
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon Diamond kosher salt (or 1/2 teaspoon Morton)
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup melted unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• grapeseed oil or other neutral oil

Instructions

• Mix the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl, blending everything together with a fork or whisk. Add the milk, eggs, butter, water and vanilla extract to the bowl. Mix until everything is well combined, looking out for pockets of dry ingredients—a whisk is great for doing this.
• Put a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and add enough oil to coat the bottom. When it’s hot, add the batter in 1/4-cup scoops. We got three in the pan per batch, using a 1/4 cup measuring cup and a small silicone spatula to dole out the batter.
• Cook until brown on one side, about 2 minutes (bubbles will start to form on the edges). Carefully flip with a spatula and cook until done, about another 2 minutes or a little less. Transfer to a plate in a warming oven and continue cooking the johnnycakes in batches, adding more oil to the pan as needed.
• Serve immediately with apple butter.

Kitchen Notes

Get the book. We’re looking forward to exploring more recipes—and possibly getting bacon grease on some pages. Homage: Recipes & Stories from an Amish Soul Food Kitchen is co-authored by Sarah Zorn and beautifully photographed by Brittany Conerly. It is available in bookstores and from the publisher, Chronicle Books.