Saturday, November 21, 2009

Bakery Review - Village Baker - Pendleton, SC


Village Baker
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.
In a recent issue of G - The Magazine of Greenville (SC), I read about the Village Baker in Pendleton, SC. The article was very complimentary, the pictures made it look like a serious bakery, so on a day off, we headed there to sample the baked goods.

Google Maps said it would be almost an hour drive but it took me about 30 minutes. Pendleton, SC, is a tiny town with a very tiny downtown - hardly a town square with a few shops and restaurants. It is incredibly close to Clemson and Easley, so there are a lot of people in proximity, and the bakery was quite busy when we were there. I am always thrilled to come across small town bakeries and candy shops.

The picture shows the general idea of what is available at the Village Baker - multiple kinds of breads, muffins, pastries, pies, cakes, and cookies. Their web site says, "We are committed to creating Artisan Breads without additives and preservatives, using unbleached and un-bromated flour. We use no trans-fats, artificial flavors or preservatives." So you know what that means - actual butter. I know, it seems obvious, baked goods should have butter; anymore so many bakeries rely heavily on Crisco!

You can taste the difference here, from the homemade Nutella-type chocolate inside the pain au chocolate, to the dense and hearty rye bread, to the most perfect almond cookie I've ever had. We'll be back!

Categories: Bakery Review

3 comments:

Anna said...

Nutella!?!?! Sounds delicious! I've gotta get my fix somehow once we come back from Italy.

Nancy Hellams said...

Pendleton is very proud to have the Village Baker on our historic town square in Pendleton SC. This is a wonderful blog post and I hope many more will come visit our town.

Anonymous said...

I went several times after reading the article in the magazine. The baked goods are wonderful. I loved the biscotti, the almond cookies, and the stollen. I am making a trip from Greenville on Wednesday to stock up on goodies.

gg from Greenville, SC