The Magnolia Bread Story

Magnolia Bread Company started in 2004, as a one-woman bakery with a lofty goal: to make the best bread we could possibly make. Dianne worked full-time as an ER nurse while she built the bakery on her property in the woods north of Atlanta. It took several years and many extra shifts to pay for the construction.

From the beginning, Dianne had one goal - the same goal that is the guiding force of Magnolia Bread Company today - to make the best bread possible.

We have always used organic products and in 2008 became the first certified organic bread bakery in Georgia.

Through our association with farmers, we have become educated in the benefits of fresh, local food. We are committed to using local produce in our bread as much as possible, and consequently our breads change with the seasons.

We have adapted our business model several times to allow us to both survive financially and to get good bread to the people who want it. We no longer sell to restaurants, except for a select few, and now sell primarily directly to the public or to distributors of fresh produce.

Now, in our continued attempt to get the freshest bread possible to our customers at the lowest price, we are starting an exciting new venture!

You can now order online for home delivery in certain location and in-store pick-up at others.

Click here to find delivery locations and ordering days for your preferred pick-up point.

What We Believe

• That providing nourishing healthy food feeds both the body and spirit.

• In using only the best ingredients, organic, and not chemically treated in any way.

• In buying ingredients that support the larger goals of sustainability and a local food system.

• In being conscious of our impact on the environment. We heat our oven with wood that was being burned as scrap by a local company. Our delivery vehicle runs on recycled vegetable oil.

• In being financially responsible, both with your money and with ours. The price of our wheat tripled last year and shipping costs skyrocketed, but the price of our bread increased minimally.

• Most importantly, we want our work to matter; to make a positive contribution to the world; and we want to be happy while doing it. It’s that simple.

What Makes Our Bread Different Ingredients:

Ingredients:We use Heartland Mill flour, specifically milled to meet the specifications of artisan bakers. If you want to see how complicated milling the best flour is, take a look at the Heartland Mill website. All of our ingredients certified organic and we incorporate local farm produce whenever possible.

Pre-ferments: Almost every loaf of bread we bake is made with pre-ferments. A preferment is a simple mixture of flour, water and our own sourdough starter. The pre-ferment sits at room temperature for 12-16 hours to allow natural yeasts to grow. We use pre-ferments because the yeast and bacterial action gives the bread greater complexity of flavor, enhances the flavor and increases the shelf life.

Prolonged Proofing: Our pre-ferments, along with our prolonged proofing after we mix the dough, reduce phytic acid which impedes mineral absorption. Bread made with sourdough starter is a better source of available minerals, especially magnesium, iron, and zinc.

The Oven:

We bake in an 8x11-foot brick oven, often called a "Traditional Oven" or Retained-Heat oven. The walls of the oven store heat from the fire within the oven. The oven is designed with may layers of insulation to retain the heat and prolong the time we can bake without re-firing the oven. Magnolia bread is baked directly on the hearth, which is made of fire brick. (If you look closely at the bottom of our breads, you can often see the brick marks.) This radiates heat into the dough immediately and helps the dough rise and helps form a crisp crust. We inject steam into the oven, which also helps the bread to rise and puts a nice finish on the crust.

Hand scaled, hand shaped Our bakers are low-tech/high tech people. We divide, weigh, shape and bake the bread by hand, but usually with our iPods implanted in our ears! We bake to music, novels and some amazing podcasts and feel very fortunate to be able to both work and be educated and entertained at the same time.