By Kellie Speed Dec. 7th, 2010

Boston Bakeries: Not sure what to get that hard-to-buy-for person on your list this holiday season? Call the folks at Dancing Deer Baking Company and they will find the perfect gift for you. Located just minutes from the Dedham town line, the Boston baking company creates up to 400 packages daily during the off-season but in peak holiday packaging, the company churns out up to 1,600 each day.

"We hire a lot of seasonal employees for about eight to 10 weeks, pushing our total employees up to around 200," said Frank Carpenito, president and chief executive officer of Dancing Deer Baking Co, which has been in its current location for two years moving previously from Roxbury. "We do all of our products in small batches to keep that home baked flavor. All of our products are natural. We do not use preservatives."

Inside the enormous 50,000-square-foot bakery and distribution facility on a behind the scenes tour, I learned there is a unique balance between both the automated and manual preparation that goes into the design and creation of each and every baked good that is produced here. For example, all of the brownies are funneled and weighed manually on trays then cut by an automated single blade, sent to a cooling room and then de-panned. "The combination of both automated and manual keeps the artisan quality of our products," Carpenito said. "All of our cookies are decorated by hand then hand packaged, bagged, sealed and then boxed. The brownies have a shelf life of 14 days while it's 18 days for cookies. Once they are ready for packaging, they go through a metal detector for food safety. Each year we hire an independent auditor for food safety and we just scored an excellent. Our goal is quality and consistency and being able to over deliver what the customer is expecting."

With more than 100 different all-natural gift options this holiday that range from $19.95 to $150, Dancing Deer offers something for everyone. Don't miss their signature flurry gift tower, which includes everything from triple chocolate chip shortbread cookies, peppermint snowflake shortbread cookies, snickerdoodle cookies, chocolate chunk brownies and hand-decorated red mitten cookies.

The gourmet sandwich cookies were a huge hit — chewy vanilla cookies with a thin layer of rich chocolate ganache in the middle. Admittedly, the signature molasses clove cookie just might be one of my most favorite addictions yet. Dancing Deer even prepares a great breakfast gift basket filled with tea, coffee, a bottle of pure Vermont maple syrup, buttermilk pancake mix and pumpkin spice pancake mix.

For more information or to place an order, call (888) 699-3337 or visit them online at www.dancingdeer.com.