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Pecan Pie Tarts with candy canes Thursday, November 12, 2015, at the Hollywood Casino in Toledo, Ohio.
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A jackpot of tasty treats

THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH

A jackpot of tasty treats

Hollywood Casino swings into baking mode for holiday season

Baby, it’s cold outside.

But it’s warm and cozy in the Hollywood Casino Toledo baking kitchen, which smells of holiday happiness as flour and sugar are being transformed into sweet treats.

How many treats, you might ask?

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Well, let’s put it this way: Even if you gathered your entire family together for a cookie baking frenzy and made a quadruple batch of every recipe in this Holiday Cookie and Candy Exchange, you wouldn’t come close to what the casino’s baking staff will produce.

RELATED CONTENT: The Blade Holiday Sweets Exchange

Because those 12 bakers will work with precision, efficiency, and a good pinch of holiday spirit to make 21,000 cookies this season.

No, that’s not a typo.

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As though that weren’t enough, they’ll also make 7,000 pies and 12,000 assorted goodies such as no-bake orange-scented haystacks and chocolate-dipped candy canes.

In order to make all of this merriment, the bakery will go through 7,500 pounds of flour, 2,500 pounds of unsalted butter, 1,500 pounds of dark chocolate, 600 pounds of white chocolate, and 10,000 pounds of granulated sugar.

“We start about the same time the retail market starts its sales,” said the casino’s executive chef, Ken Bredeson, as that’s the only way to accommodate the demand in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Customers order cookies and other confections to serve at holiday parties and meals and to give as gifts to loved ones. They may even treat themselves to an early present.

The casino’s menu items don’t change much at this time of year. Rather, Mr. Bredeson said, “there are seasonal flavor profiles for the desserts,” with pumpkin being swapped for peppermint, for example. Colors transition “from orange and brown” for fall to holly jolly shades of red and green.

Looking over all the delightful deliciousness, you might start singing, “All I want for Christmas is” ... one of everything.

Choices include peppermint bark and Rice Krispies treats trees decorated with icing and sprinkles, caramel corn and peppermint cheesecake lollipops, cakes and tortes and pies and more. Oh, and there’s fudge, in festive flavors: chocolate mint, eggnog, butter pecan, and vanilla mint.

“Many individuals do not know we have our own bakery and guests [can] order bakery items,” said Shelley Crossley, the casino’s community and public relations manager.

People “always associate [the casino] with gambling and the buffet,” Mr. Bredeson said. They don’t realize that there’s a full bakery on site preparing all these seasonal sweets for casino dining guests and for retail sale.

The pastry chefs and bakers have another opportunity to utilize their skills during the holiday season, beyond the array of goodies prepared for casino guests and for customers.

They pair off and prepare elaborate team gingerbread houses, which are put on display for buffet diners to vote on starting the first week in December each year. This lets them “showcase their individual talents,” Mr. Bredeson said proudly of his staff members, and offers a chance to have some fun and diversion in the midst of the Christmas chaos.

Mr. Bredeson has been with the casino since the very beginning, in 2011, starting as the executive pastry chef. “We had a chance to build something,” he said, with regard to designing the kitchen space and hiring staff. This is the seventh casino he’s worked for, after stints at Mandalay Bay and Aria in Las Vegas as well as two-and-a-half years of training in Lyon, France.

He oversees the 325-member culinary staff and all five of the kitchens for the dining areas, which include the Scene sports bar, Epic Buffet, Final Cut Steak and Seafood restaurant, and the grab-’n’-go Take 2 Grill where bakery orders can be placed.

Peppermint bark costs $20 for a large tin and $15 for a small one. Holiday fudge is $14.99 per pound, and fruit pies start at $16.99. Coffee cakes cost $15.99. And for a quick pick-me-up in the midst of the stressful season, large holiday cookies cost $3.49 each.

To make sure that all of their customers’ sweet dreams come true, in the final countdown to Christmas the bakers will work up to 16-hour days and seven days a week.

“We work when everybody else plays,” Mr. Bredeson said. But he is still passionate and enthusiastic, even in the midst of seasonal stress. “Not a lot of people find a job they love to do,” he said, considering himself very fortunate to be one who enjoys his work immensely.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, they say.

And at the Hollywood Casino bakery, it’s also the busiest.

Holiday treats from the Hollywood Casino Toledo bakery are available for purchase and preorder (with a minimum of 24 hours notice) by visiting the Take 2 Grill or calling 419-661-5370.

First Published November 29, 2015, 5:00 a.m.

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Pecan Pie Tarts with candy canes Thursday, November 12, 2015, at the Hollywood Casino in Toledo, Ohio.  (THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH)  Buy Image
Holiday-season offerings at Hollywood Casino Toledo include an assortment of fudge and peppermint cheesecake lollipops.  (THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH)  Buy Image
Ken Bredeson is the executive chief at Hollywood Casino Toledo.  (THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH)  Buy Image
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