The Tennessee Bakery Still Baking Bread Like It's The Early 1900s

In the last century, a lot has changed about the way we bake bread. For one, it's baked at home less and less, as grabbing a few shelf-stable loaves from the grocery store is simply more convenient. Bakeries do provide somewhat of a middle ground between convenience and freshly-made bread, but they, too, have largely streamlined their baking process, focusing on quantity and often operating with frozen dough. There is one bakery in Tennessee, though, that still bakes bread like it's the 1900s: Dutch Maid Bakery.

The motto of this bakery is, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" and the old way of doing things is clearly still working for the place. The bread recipes and most of the equipment are still the same as they were in 1902, when Swiss immigrants John and Louise Baggenstoss first opened Dutch Maid Bakery. The oven and some of the mixers, for example, date back to 1919 and are part of what makes the bread at this bakery so special.

Another thing is the patience and craft of bread making that has certainly gotten lost in our modern fast-paced culture. At Dutch Maid Bakery, prep begins four days before the loaves are ready to bake, and the large Hobart dough mixers would be considered antiques by most. This slow-cooking system creates a greater appreciation from the customers who can nostalgically indulge in the exact type of bread eaten in the distant past — for example, yeast-free salt-rise bread, eaten by American pioneers.

Dutch Maid Bakery had always been a family business, and some consider it to be Tennessee's oldest family-owned bakery (the oldest bakery in the U.S. in general is in North Carolina). The Baggenstoss couple had five children, so there were many helping hands that were ultimately able to take over the bakery. The place was owned by the Baggenstoss family until 2003, when it was closed and put on the market to sell. This was the second time the bakery almost met its end; the first was in 1920 when it burned down and had to be rebuilt.

In 2005, Cindy Day bought Dutch Maid Bakery and made it her mission to reopen it in a way that not just honors its roots but fully leans into them. The commitment was serious, as Day moved from Florida to Tennessee to take on this project. After 18 months, the bakery finally reopened its doors, and it has been growing ever since. It now features a café, offers delivery, catering, and even custom wedding cakes — both modern and from decades past. Dutch Made Bakery is a place for building community, too. People can sign up for baking classes, seasonal events, and tours of the bakery, once again proving that bread really does bring people together.