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…