A family-run Perryville bakery is filled with tasty treats.
Ever since the doors to Hoeckele’s Bakery & Deli opened, one of four generations of the Hoeckele family has donned the title of owner. Brothers Paul Hoeckele Sr. and Joseph Hoeckele started the Perryville business at first location on Jackson Street in 1937, serving doughnuts, pastries, bread, coffee cakes, and cookies.
Hoeckele’s continued to grow, and in 2006, it was moved to a bigger building. In 2024, cousins Eli Hoeckele and Leslie Hoeckele-Esselman took the helm.
Eli has fond memories of spending middle school evenings helping his dad, Paul Hoeckele III, at the family business. He continued working there throughout high school and returned after college.
Now Hoeckele’s offers deli sandwiches, iced lattes, fruit smoothies, and bespoke wedding cakes. “We make everything from scratch,” Eli says. While these new offerings have been woven into the Hoeckele’s tapestry, loyal customers come back time and time again for two of the bakery’s most famous treats: the glazed doughnuts and its signature peanut coffee cake.
Subscribe
Get a Missouri Life Magazine Subscription & Save Up to 69% Off Newsstand Prices!
Subscribe Today
Working in tandem, the frosting’s sweetness pairs nicely with the saltiness of the peanut pieces. It is not crumbly and can easily be dunked into a cup of coffee. For optimal control over how much frosting you get, open the package upside down. After cutting a piece, you can scrape as little or as much frosting as you’d like from the wax paper.
If you’re looking for something that’s a bit sweeter, try Hoeckele’s glazed doughnut. While there are all sorts of doughnuts to choose from at the bakery, like blueberry cake doughnuts and Bavarian cream-filled short johns, the real star of the show is the original glazed doughnut. The doughnuts, Eli says, are “one thing that people travel from all over the place for.”
The hexagon-shaped glazed doughnut has a melt-in-your-mouth glaze that crackles across its surface as you bite into it. You might want to use a knife and fork, or you might just want to pick it up so you can lick the melted glaze off your fingers when you’re done.
• 1516 Edgemont Boulevard, Suite 10, Perryville • HoeckeleBakery.com
This article was originally printed in the September 2026 issue of Missouri Life.
