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at the district, however, was that every one of the bakery’s products contained eggs and/or dairy, even though there was a high number of students at the district that had a dairy allergy, egg allergy or both. “It was kind of a bummer to be producing these amazing products, but not all of our kids were able to actually have access to them,” she says. So, a couple years ago, the team set out to revamp their quick bread recipes to be both egg and dairy. Today, all students can enjoy the district’s quick breads (which include pumpkin bread, blueberry bread and more) no matter if they have a dairy allergy, egg allergy or both. Along with allowing the nutrition team to reach more students, revamping the recipes has resulted in extra benefits, including lower costs given the high price of eggs. GOING EGG AND DAIRY-FREE When the team first started the testing process they planned to try eggless recipes, dairy-free recipes and recipes that were both eggless and dairy free. “We were like, whichever one we can make taste good and function, we’ll go with,” says Molloy. “And really, removing the eggs and dairy didn’t impact the
product in any way negatively. So, we just went with removing both.” The first quick bread to undergo testing was their cowboy bread which is similar to coffee cake. While there are several different types of quick breads on the district’s menu, they all are built around the same core recipe, so once the team mastered the egg and dairy free cowboy bread recipe it was easier to convert the others. There were a number of ingredients the team was planning to test in place of eggs including flax seed and some manufactured egg substitutes, Molloy says, but ultimately, they landed on apple sauce since it was easy to source and cost effective. Apple sauce was successful right off the bat and the team didn’t have to make many changes other than having to tweak the amount of baking powder in the recipe. In reality, one of the hardest parts of the entire process, Molloy says, was finding the time to sit down to do the actual testing. “We’re feeding almost 40,000 students a day in our district,” she says. “Our bakery is very busy, so to find time to recipe test was probably actually our biggest challenge, because we work in such a routine, driven environment that
Cherry Creek School District’s egg and dairy-free quick bread recipes offer a tasty way to reach more students and cut costs The egg and dairy-free breads “are a win-win” for the nutrition team says Executive Chef Cady Molloy. BY BENITA GINGERELLA T he nutrition team at Cherry Creek School District in Greenwood Village, Colorado is proud of its central bakery which supplies schools in the districts with freshly made sandwich bread, cinnamon rolls and more. One thing that Executive Chef Cady Molloy noticed when she first started
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF EUREST
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