Southern Bakery Tour - Back in the Day Bakery, Savannah

December 01, 2015

Southern Bakery Tour - Back in the Day Bakery, Savannah

I've been wanting to write about bakeries for a long time. Not just because I am a baker or because I have a devotion for scones, caramel, and anything pie-like.
Because bakeries bring me this particular sort of joy. I think about them a lot. I map out the bakeries before I travel to a new city
or an old place. Hanging out at a bakery brings this immense feeling of comfort and welcome. The smells bring back such good memories to me. Growing up baking cookies with my mom after school.....working in bakeries and pastry kitchens in my 20's and 30's.
It feels like home to me. It is home. It's community. A gathering place.
Working in pastry is a wonderful life, but the production is not always so romantic. It's not like baking at your leisure.
It's hard work and repetitive work.
But it's soulful work and can be very satisfying.
Having been there myself and having a number of friends who live the pastry life, I have a deep respect for professional bakers.
I am passionate about really good bakeries and I can't wait to share about more of them with you. Life is such a sweet adventure.

Recently, I visited Back in the Day Bakery while in Savannah, Georgia. The bakery was founded in 2002 by Cheryl and Griffith Day and is located at the corner of Bull and West Fortieth. They make everything from scratch, including breakfast pastries, artisan bread, cookies, cupcakes, pies, bars/brownies, and lunch sandwiches and salads. They've also got a full espresso bar including house made syrups, like sorghum brown sugar.

The bakery's motto is "Slow Down and Taste the Sweet Life". Bingo. I'm all over that.

Oh, and they are James Beard "Outstanding Bakers"Award Nominees for 2015. Very, very cool.

They have a very pretty cookbook (actually two of them) and you know I couldn't resist adding one to my collection. I got their New York Times bestselling The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook.

How about these lovelies? Peach Cobbler Muffins, Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting, Apple Brown Betty with Rum Custard Sauce, Lavender Shortbread, Pancetta Fontina Bread Pudding. Mmmmm....they are all in there.

So when you visit a bakery, you have to choose. I don't like it, but it's true. While I'd like to get one of everything and have my own personal dessert party, some restraint is good. These are the two that spoke to me....the sweet pink cupcake and the "Drunk Blondie". Both were so good.

Beyond all the goodies at Back in the Day, the space is super cute. Vintage chic, airy, light, friendly, and full of flowers. I loved hanging out there. I remember thinking, if I had my own bakery, this is how I would want it to look. The bakery was full of customers and I'm sure they just keep coming back for more.

I made my second recipe from the cookbook this week...the Creole Brownies {first one I tried was the Lovely Lemon Loaf and it was amazing}. Let me just say that I am typically a bigger fan of blondies than brownies. But the fact that the recipe promised a fudgy result with a chicory coffee infused ganache, kinda got my attention. So here they are...deep, dark, and delicious.

I've had Cafe Du Monde before. It's been a while. And damn, it is still really good. We've been enjoying it well past the last brownie.

These brownies are probably the best I've had. I think it's the little crunch inside from the cacao nibs that sets them apart. In my friend Samantha's words, "those brownies are the shiznit!"

Yep. Word.