Dodger Bread
Dec 08, 2009 
14 Comments
Dodger Bread.
It’s old school. It’s country. It’s delicious.
It was a staple on my grandmother’s table. Rarely did I eat a meal at my grandmother’s house that she didn’t have dodger bread hot and slathered in butter. My mom carried on the dodger bread tradition at our family table each time she’d cook a pot of beans. Or turnip greens. Or a roast.
It’s not a pretty food. It’s not a fancy one, either. But it’s the perfect accessory to any chilly-day meal and satisfies like nothing else. You bake it until it’s hard and crunchy, then smear butter on it while it’s still piping hot. Use it to sop up the juice from your beans. Pile some greens on a piece and scarf it down. It’s comfort in its truest form.
I’m sad, though, that it’s such a dying tradition. I can mention dodger bread in a crowded room and nobody knows what I mean. This is a delicious, simple food that needs to be widespread and carried on. Help me bring it back to life!
Dodger Bread
2 cups cornmeal
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tblsp sugar
Boiling water (I boil about 3 cups to be on the safe side)
1 tblsp oil
Pour 2 cups of cornmeal into a medium mixing bowl (Nevermind my large one in the pictures. Unnecessary.).
Add salt, baking powder and sugar.
Now, you’ve boiled a few cups of water, but we’re going to start by pouring in 1 1/2 cups of it. I added a tad bit more to achieve this paste-like consistency.
Add your oil.
Mix well and spread on a cookie sheet*. I use my oldest, ugliest one covered in foil because dodger bread bakes at high temperatures. In fact, if I’m in a hurry, I’ll crank it up to 500 degrees, but that’s not necessary if you allow plenty of time. Don’t forget to spray your pan or foil! (I did forget while I was taking these pictures. I lived to regret it.)
Stick it in a 425 degree oven and set your timer for 30 minutes. I like mine nice and crunchy with a little bit of softer bread toward the center, so I bake until the edges are nice and brown. That’s the magic behind it, you see. Get it almost brutally crunchy, then soften it with the juices from your meal. Man, it’s magic on a cold day!
Make dodger bread a family tradition in your household. Your kids will beg for it when they’re coming home from college one day. I promise.
*You can also pat a little bit of the dough into greased muffin cups.
Try it and let me know what you think!
Find this recipe on Tasty Kitchen!
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Couldn’t help but comment on this. Your Dad makes some great dodger bread. I had never heard of it till I married him. Must be a West Texas thang! But I can tell you, I love it! Sometimes he adds chitlin’s to it and may add garlic salt at times. But however he does it, it tastes good!
OH YUM. Just…YUM! I love the garlic salt addition mentioned above too…mmmmmm
It’s accidentially vegan! I’ll make it soon!
I thought about that after I posted! I’m glad I finally posted something that you can enjoy!
We used to have this all the time at home and i finally made my first batch the other night. It is so good!!
this looks amazing and easy enough for me to do!!! thanks for sharing
Great tutorial, but I think it’s best cooked in well seasoned iron skillet.
Yum!! Looks awesome! I’m definitely trying it soon!
I’ve never heard of it. Looks so yummy! I think I might make some tomorrow.
is it possible that it is… dojer or dodjer? hmm… i guess not.
Anything is possible…
I have to try this! I’m going to make a batch of bread using our old family recipe (with potato water) and I was looking online for the term “dodger” when I came across your blog. My great Gram would take some extra bits of the bread dough and fry them in a pan, then we’d put butter and jam on them. She called them dodgers but from looking around online, I think it’s really a variation of a true cornmeal dodger called a Jonnycake. ANYWAY…they’re both old recipes and I’m glad to see youngsters like us still making food that our elders passed down! Can’t wait to try this ♥
Is it like cornbread? I’ll have to give it a try. Sounds good.
Hi, I have grown up on Dodger Bread, but it a bit different. Same concept, though.
I am a senior citizen and my grandmother and mother (and now my brother) makes it using yellow cornmeal, some white flour, salt, boiling water and mix, like you do in your recipe. BUT….we make patties out of (wooden spoon full patted out by hand) and thrown into an iron skillet that has been heating about a 1/2 inch of oil.
Fry on both sides til nicely golden. Slather with butter. YUM…
I can’t wait to try YOUR family’s Dodger Bread. I am so happy to see “old family recipes” remembered.