Baked Milk and Egg Recipes for Dairy and Egg Allergic

Bake with Dry Milk

So is anyone working on allergy-friendly recipes that introduce baked milk and baked egg for those with dairy and egg allergies? 


This Twitter feed from Dr. Browdash at the 2012 Western Society of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (WSAAI) meeting says, "70% of children who are allergic to egg or milk can tolerate extensively heated forms of the protein (e.g. cookies, cake).


We've gotten the go-ahead from the allergist, but I'm getting a little bored with my chocolate cake recipe into which I add one egg now. The guidelines are: bake for a minimum of 30 minutes at a temperature of at least 350 degrees. This means no cookies or cupcakes (not in the oven long enough), my favorite granola bar recipe is out for the same reason too. Cake seems to work well as I can substitute the additional eggs called for in the recipe. I'm not doing well with the baked milk at all, although we've had some success with commercially available breads like Pepperidge Farm Cinnamon Swirl, although I would prefer to make from scratch so I can control, and then increase the amount of dairy protein as tolerance increases.


This is an untapped area. Anyone else exploring this? I'd love some suggestions!

Food Allergy Update: Almonds Are In

With a child allergic to dairy, egg, peanuts, tree nuts and shellfish, we've worried over the years about protein and calcium sources. It's tough to get those things while avoiding so much. Last week, my child tried a sliver of almond.

No reaction, even though a blood test showed an allergy to almond.

The next day, half an almond.

No reaction.

Fast forward a week and a bunch of almonds later. Either my child was never allergic to almonds, or the allergy was very recently outgrown. Whatever the case, I'm glad to be able to add this nutrient-packed food to his diet.

Sesame seed, almonds, baked milk (powdered) and baked egg all successful over the past few months.

On to cheese this week.

We're making progress. Very exciting, quite stressful.

Food Allergies and Baking With Milk and Egg

As I've reported, we're adding tiny amounts of egg and milk in baked form to my egg and milk allergic child's diet. As all these food allergy transitions have been over the years, it's been challenging finding recipes that work. It sounds easy- just add an egg or some milk to any recipe.

It's not that easy. We're trying to stick to the guidelines of baking foods for at least 30 minutes at a minimum of 350 degrees. That eliminates most cookies and muffins and primarily leaves us with breads and cakes.

We've been eating an awful lot of chocolate cake in our house recently.

I'm in the routine now of having one baked good that contains one egg and one that contains a tiny amount of milk. My child eats egg one day and milk the next. The egg recipes are easier. Most cakes call for two eggs. For now, I use one regular egg and I substitute the other- usually 1 tablespoon flax seed mixed with 3 tablespoons water. The milk recipes take an advanced degree in chemistry with a minor in math. My childis off the scale allergic to milk so we're proceeding with extreme caution. I found a cake recipe that calls for 1/2 cup milk. I use 3 grams (our food scale comes in handy here) of dried milk powder mixed with an 1/8th of a cup of water. Then I add 3/8 cup of soy milk.  The plan is to gradually increase the amount of milk powder.

So, I'm certainly not complaining. Any time we can add more options to this food allergy diet is cause for great celebration, but I do see a need for a new kind of cookbook as more people are able to tolerate baked milk and egg.

In the meantime, we'll have to share.

Food Allergy Challenges for Baked Egg and Milk

I just baked a cake. It has an egg in it. A real egg for my egg allergic child! Last night I baked bread in the bread machine. I put 15 grams of dried milk powder in it. Real milk for my milk allergic child!

I haven't shared anything about this nearly 3 month journey because like all journeys, it's had plenty of bumps in the road and wrong turns. Frankly, I feel like we've stepped off the road and we're ploughing our way through uncharted territory. It's scary. It's exciting. We continue to move forward.

This food allergy journey began in July 2010 when we made an appointment to do a baked egg challenge in our allergist's office. As instructed, I baked an angel food cake with 12 eggs. My egg allergic child needed to eat one piece to get roughly one egg. There was much anxiety leading up to the appointment. It's hard to convince a child to eat something after telling them for 10 years to never eat it. The anxiety made the appointment difficult. Physical symptoms were hard to separate from symptoms of anxiety. The challenge was not completed. We left the office not knowing if there had been an allergic reaction.

Over the next few days, we, the parents, decided to use egg in baked products- just one egg in a whole cake for example. Our allergist was aware and not totally comfortable with the plan, but acknowledged that we had the tools to handle a reaction if there was one.

There wasn't a reaction.

For several months now my egg allergic child has been eating baked goods containing one egg that have been baked for approximately 30 minutes.

So, we decided to tackle baked milk. We wanted to use a small amount of dried milk powder in a batch of muffins. For the first serving, we decided to go into the allergist's office. This wasn't a traditional food challenge as technically we weren't using enough of the allergen, but the reassurance of having a doctor close by was helpful. My milk allergic child was able to eat a whole muffin that contained 0.33 grams of dried milk powder. As per the allergist's instructions, we've continued to keep milk powder in the diet over the past week.

This experience has been fraught with anxiety for all of us, but we hope we're doing the right thing in the long run. Our efforts are two-fold: get missing nutrients into the diet and begin to introduce the allergen slowly to allow the body to recognize it as okay.

There continues to be moments of, "I think my mouth is tingling" and "What if I can't breathe after I eat this?". We work through each situation as it comes up with as much confidence as we can muster. We're just parents trying to do the right thing by our child.

I certainly can't recommend this method, but I can recommend an open dialogue with your allergist. The research is coming in quickly and it's hard to keep up with the latest recommendations. Talk to your doctor and make a plan that is best for your child and your family.

I'll keep you posted on ours and hope you'll keep us posted on yours. We can all learn from one another.