A Wakatipu High multisport team has employed an 81-year-old Queenstowner’s secret cheese roll recipe for a massive fundraiser.
In May, the mixed eight-student team came second in the South Island Hillary Challenge, for Year 11-13 students, held in Geraldine.
The result qualified them for the five-day Hillary Challenge finals in October, in Tongariro, for which they have to raise a daunting $20,000.
For a major slice of their fundraising, the students pre-sold, for $12 a dozen, no fewer than 4250 cheese rolls to friends, family, classmates and others.
They then set about the time-consuming task of making the rolls last Thursday using a recipe devised by local retiree Jocelyn ‘Jossy’ Morrison, the grandmother of 16-year-old team member Jude Deaker.
Morrison, who’s formerly from Southland, the home of cheese rolls, has been honing her recipe since the ’60s.
She had the advantage of studying, and then teaching, home science.
She says the secret lies in the ingredients for the mix, which may include milk, cheese and Maggi onion and French onion soup mixes.
The other important aspect is rolling the white sandwich bread properly, she says.
‘‘I always make two loaves of cheese rolls up at a time, because you can freeze them if you haven’t got the whole family around to eat them.’’
Ironically, she can’t eat them any longer herself ‘‘because I’m allergic to dairy’’.
