Across the South, bakeries are preserving family legacies through recipes that have been passed down for generations. More than just sweets, these techniques carry the flavor and history of Southern baking. From salt-rise bread in Tennessee and golden dinner rolls in Alabama, to French-inspired loaves in Louisiana, here are the bakeries keeping time-honored traditions alive.
Olde Colony Bakery
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Just over the bridge from Charleston, in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, Olde Colony Bakery has been preserving a Lowcountry legacy since the late 1940s. The shop was founded by Peter Kikos, a two-time Bronze Star recipient and World War II veteran, along with his wife, Leila, a Charleston native. The couple ran the bakery for decades and slowly built a following, especially for the benne wafer.
Benne, or sesame, in the Gullah language, has roots in West Africa, where the seeds are associated with prosperity and good fortune. There are no actual records about when benne seeds arrived in South Carolina, but it is widely believed that they were brought by enslaved West Africans who planted them throughout the region.
After returning home from the war, Kikos modified a benne cake recipe that had been passed down through generations of Charleston kitchens. The updated version became the bakery’s bestseller. Today, Olde Colony toasts the benne seeds in industrial ovens before folding them into the dough. “It draws out a deep, nutty, and robust flavor that would otherwise be muted in the final cookie,” says Jake Nutley, the bakery’s manager.
Currently, between 800 and 1,600 pounds of benne wafers are sold across the country and online each week. The Original Benne Wafer remains the bestseller, followed closely by the Key Lime variety.
519 Wando Ln, Mt Pleasant, South Carolina 29464
Savage’s Bakery & Deli
Birmingham, Alabama
Savage’s Bakery & Deli has been a Birmingham staple for more than 85 years. Serving generations of locals since 1939, the bakery was originally opened by Mr. and Mrs. William Savage and later purchased by Van Scott, Jr. in 1978. Since then, Scott has stayed true to the Savages’ traditional methods. Still made by hand daily, the smiley face cookies, meltaways, gingerbread men, and butterflake rolls have remained mainstays on the menu.
One of their most popular items, especially during the holiday season, is the butterflake rolls. Used as a dinner roll, Scott reworked Savage’s original recipe to include more shortening, eggs, sugar, and water, achieving a richer flavor and a longer shelf life. Each batch is layered with shortening, folded, and run through a vintage sheeter to create its sought-after flakiness. During the Christmas season, Savage’s sells more than 400 dozen daily. Each one is golden, tender, and ready for any holiday table.
2916 18th St S, Homewood, Alabama 35209
Dutch Maid Bakery & Cafe
Tracy City, Tennessee
Tucked into the hills of Tracy City, Dutch Maid Bakery & Cafe has been a part of Grundy County’s landscape for more than a century. The oldest bakery in Tennessee was founded in 1902 by Swiss immigrants John and Louise Baggenstoss. The couple began the bakery as a way to share a taste of home with the many Swiss migrants who settled in the area. Using recipes passed down from their mothers and grandmothers, everything was made from scratch daily, and the bakery stayed in the family for three generations until it eventually closed in 2003.
Two years later, Cindy Day acquired the bakery and reopened it using many of the beloved recipes that made the shop a local landmark. Day also added a cozy cafe serving Southern staples, but it is the pastries, including Salt-Rise Bread, that keep people coming back for more.
Each batch of Salt-Rise Bread takes five days to make using cornmeal, milk, and baking soda. After a fermentation process that once relied on the warmth of a salt block and sunlight, now replicated by a light bulb in a cabinet, the mixture is combined with yeast and flour, left to rise again. Finally, it is baked into a dense, tangy loaf that resembles French bread. According to Day, it tastes best when toasted and is designed to last for extended periods of time. Dutch Maid Bakery sells nearly 100 homemade loaves each week.
109 Main Street, Tracy City, Tennessee 37387
LeJeune’s Bakery
Jeanerette, Louisiana
The oldest bakery in the state is located in the heart of Jeanerette, Louisiana, known as “Sugar City” due to its centuries-old sugar mills. Founded in 1884 and family-owned for six generations, LeJeune’s Bakery continues to serve its iconic French bread and ginger cakes the old-fashioned way.
Ricky LeJeune, the current owner and great-great-great-grandson of the founder, says the bakery sells thousands of loaves of French bread each week. The recipe, passed down from the 1800s, hasn’t changed much, and that’s the point. “We still use hog lard instead of modern shortening,” says LeJeune, crediting the ingredient for the bread’s distinctive flavor and crackly crust.
Everything is all-natural and made by hand daily, and much of the equipment dates back to the 1920s and 30s. The result is a texture and richness that can’t be replicated with modern equipment.
1510 Main Street, Jeanerette, Louisiana 70544
Kolache Shoppe
Becca Wright/Kolache Shoppe
Kolache Shoppe opened in the late 1960s in bustling southeast Houston, started by two entrepreneurs with a shared interest in Czech pastries. While they were dedicated to their sweet treats, they lacked the business skills necessary to sustain the store.
Erwin Ahrens, an investor in the company, decided to take over operations when it looked like the business might close. Although his background was in finance and not baking, he committed himself to learning from both professional bakers and Czech grandmothers about their family’s kolache recipes. By combining their advice with the basics of bread chemistry, Ahrens developed the fluffy yeast dough recipe that would define the shop’s future.
“Kolaches are more than just pastries; they are a Czech tradition that traveled to Texas along with the immigrants who came here starting in the 1820s”, says Ahrens.
The exact recipe has been used for more than half a century, and today Kolache Shoppe sells nearly 15,000 kolaches per month across four locations, with sausage and cheese as the most popular flavor.
5404 Telephone Rd, Houston, Texas 77087
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Dining and Cooking