Do the record high temperatures have you down?
It has been so hot lately! Why not embrace those high temperatures and bake some cookies…..without warming your house up any more than it already is. Last year, I heard about someone baking cookies in their car, but I didn’t have a chance to try it. I had just had a baby via C-section, so I was doing the minimum when it came to baking (or anything else for that matter)! As the temperatures here recently have gotten hotter and hotter, we decided to give it a try. Whatever I can do to keep from heating the house up, right?
A Fun Idea for Hot Summer Days
Here’s how to do it.
Mix up your favorite cookie dough recipe. We had a cookie mix in a jar, so it made ours super quick & easy. We just added some eggs, butter, milk and vanilla to it. After it was all mixed up, we put it on cookie sheets and placed them in the really hot van.
Keep in mind that you may want to “preheat” your automobile by leaving it in the sun, closed up. Once you place your cookies in the dash, make sure not to open the door to check on them, that way you don’t lose a bunch of your heat. If you need to check on them, look through the window. Let them bake for 2-4 hours, until they look like cookies you’d enjoy eating. They will not turn a golden brown because the temps aren’t hot enough to carmelize the sugar. Mine were already brown, so it was even harder for me to tell.
I highly recommend starting them earlier in the afternoon. We did ours at 4 and let them bake until about 8 and they were still a tiny bit gooey, but the temps had dropped while they were finishing and the sun was going down. It was also a slightly cooler day than it has been, “only” in the upper 90’s. For best results, bake when the temps are 100 or higher. The prime hours for baking in a car would be sometime between 12 & 5 p.m.
After they’re done, pass them around and enjoy! Delish!
Stephanie says
Ha! What a great way to take advantage of this insane heat!
Shellie says
We did this last year in August during the 100+ days. We made snickerdoodles and when they turned out so well I decided to throw a roast in there the next day. I put it in a regular roaster on the dash, covered it with foil (shiny side toward the meat), and after 6-7 hours we had supper! I think I put it in around 10 a.m. and it was ready by 4-5 p.m. it was ready. I just prepped it like I would for the crock pot. Everything was cooked and delicious! I used a meat thermometer to check that it was finished cooking. Thanks for the reminder! I've not even thought to do it again this year! We've talked about building a solar cooker around here but until we get that done we can use the van! 🙂
Sidetracked Sarah says
Oh my, how funny about the roast. That's awesome!
Hilliary says
This is great for us. We’ve already had temps in the 100’s and if this summer is like last (we hit a record for number of days over 100 in dfw)
No Doubt Learning says
Great idea! It's hot enough here that I think the bake time would be next to nothing! 🙂
Sidetracked Sarah says
Yes, we've had some crazy temperatures! Thankfully it's about to let up a little.
Ms. B. says
This is great – when life hands you lemons, make lemonade. When the weather sends you unbearable temps, make cookies! Such a fun idea!
Sidetracked Sarah says
My girls thought it was great! We'll definitely do it again.