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Friday, July 17, 2009

It's Baking Hot

Posted by on Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 1:15 PM

It's supposed to get up into the high 80s today, why not put that heat to work for you and bake some cookies in your car?

5e52/1247861993-carcookies4.jpg

Full recipe, baking instructions, and analysis at Baking Bites.

It took about 2 1/2 hours for the cookies to bake completely. I ended up opening the car door shortly before the end of the baking period to check for doneness. This check has to be done manually, as there are no color indicators (such as brownness) to judge by because the sugar in the car cookies does not caramelize and brown like that of oven-baked cookies.

The finished cookies were very light in color, but smelled and tasted delicious. They were slightly crisp at the edges and chewy in the center. I think that they were best hot out of the car.


Thanks to Nat for the tip!

 

Comments (25) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment
STJA 1
"Hot out of the car".

I like it.
Posted by STJA on July 17, 2009 at 1:39 PM
PedestrianMe 2
At least all the sprawl and eyesore parking lots can be put to good use.
Posted by PedestrianMe http://carfreeusa.blogspot.com on July 17, 2009 at 1:40 PM
Carollani 3
That's freaking awesome. And it's another reminder of why you should NOT LEAVE YOUR DOGS IN YOUR CAR when it's hot out. Even with the windows cracked it reaches amazing heights in temperature. I swear to god I'll break your windows if I see your dog panting to death in your car.

...I digress. The cookies in the car are awesome and look delicious!
Posted by Carollani http://twitter.com/carollani on July 17, 2009 at 1:40 PM
Dougsf 4
The recent E. coli cookie dough recall has me a little uneasy for this method.
Posted by Dougsf on July 17, 2009 at 1:42 PM
5
I would like to offer my car to somebody who wants to bake cookies but doesn't have one. I would like my car to smell like fresh-baked cookies and, yes I will have one of your cookies, thank you!
Posted by meks on July 17, 2009 at 1:50 PM
lizzie 6
If you don't want to eat raw eggs and/or get salmonella and/or want something without all the saturated/trans fat, try this simple recipe instead. I guarantee they taste better, and perfectly safe to eat raw.

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6391.0
Posted by lizzie on July 17, 2009 at 1:55 PM
7
@4 You do realize that you can make your own cookie dough, right?
Posted by pragmatic on July 17, 2009 at 2:04 PM
Beetlecat 8
@7 how utterly DIY of you! ;)
Posted by Beetlecat on July 17, 2009 at 2:10 PM
hartiepie 9
@7 --- clearly 4 didn't read the article in the link because that is precisly what happened.

I treasure the look of wonder my little brother had on several occasions after he moved in with me. He simply could NOT believe that I made food from scratch. Cookies, pizza and pies were greeted with shock at how easy they were to make without a mix or pre-fab.

Baking cookies in my car window is going to happen this weekend!
Posted by hartiepie on July 17, 2009 at 2:17 PM
McGee 10
Don't use #7's recipe. When it comes to baked goods I am pretty sure vegan is ancient greek for shit.
Posted by McGee on July 17, 2009 at 2:25 PM
PDXRitchie 11
#7 Doesn't have a recipe.
Posted by PDXRitchie on July 17, 2009 at 2:41 PM
Vince 12
The hell with "new car smell" when you can have baked cookie smell! Put it in those car deodorizers!
Posted by Vince on July 17, 2009 at 2:46 PM
lizzie 13
Making your own cookie dough with eggs is just as unsafe as buying prepackaged eggy cookie dough. E.coli comes from fecal matter, which eggs frequently come into contact with. They also can have listeria and, most commonly, salmonella.

Eggs are completely unnecessary in baking and are a relic from the 1800's when few ingedients were available and people needed as much cheap dense fat as they could get. Packaged cookie dough still uses eggs to make them shelf-stable for weeks or months. Baking powder, vegetable oil, and, preferably, raw sugar (like sugar in the raw) take care of making cookies fluffy and delicious without the eggy flavor.

#10: Pizza, maybe, but not baked sweets. Why would you put the flavor of omelettes and mayonnaise in a cookie? If you must use cow milk, fine, but eggs make any baked sweets taste worse.
Posted by lizzie on July 17, 2009 at 2:51 PM
Baconcat 14
@13: Baconcat demands eggs, damn it.

You wouldn't say no to a cat, would you?

Oh, actually, I bet you would. Beetlecat @8, let's get'er!! Cat power!
Posted by Baconcat on July 17, 2009 at 3:01 PM
Will in Seattle 15
@13 for the scientific win.

Use a portable solar oven instead.
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on July 17, 2009 at 3:25 PM
COMTE 16
@13:

Eggs are incorporated in recipes that utilize both oils and water or water-based liquids, in order to create an emulsion that binds those two substances together, and keeps them from separating out in the finished product.

You've heard the old expression: "oil and water don't mix", right? The long-strand proteins in egg contain both hydrophobic and hydrophilic amino-acid chains; thus one part of the chain will bind with the water, and the other with the oil, keeping both evenly distributed through out the dough.

In addition, the egg whites, if sufficiently aerated into the dough will help hold air bubbles in the mix when baked, thus allowing for a chewier, fluffier cookie, rather than a flat, hard one.

And truly, as someone who used to bake cookies by the gross (my mom's standard chocolate chip cookie recipe calls for a 16 cups of flour and a dozen eggs - it would make roughly 10 to 12 dozen in a single batch.), I've never once heard anyone complain about an "eggy taste" to the cookies. Truth is, the only problem I ever had when making these was keeping people away from them!
Posted by COMTE http://www.chriscomte.com on July 17, 2009 at 3:26 PM
john t 17
Eggs are completely unnecessary in baking

I beg to differ. I've never eaten a vegan cookie that was better than mediocre (which is one of the reasons why I'm not a vegan anymore).
Posted by john t on July 17, 2009 at 3:35 PM
Will in Seattle 18
@17 - no, I've had a few vegan cookies that were ok, but I agree that most are pretty dreadful.
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on July 17, 2009 at 4:24 PM
McGee 19
@11: 6, 7 who gives a shit?

Every vegan baked good I have ever had, be it sweet or savory has been flavorless, mealy and dry. I highly doubt 13's are any different.

E.coli and salmonella in eggs is extremely uncommon at a 0.005% total infection rate. That's 1 in every 20,000 eggs and that's no guarentee that the infected egg will make anybody sick, given proper food handling. Store bought eggs also have been washed and sanitized. Egg in baked goods taste neither like omlette nor mayonaise. In fact, the flavor in mayonaise is mainly coming from salt, oil, and acid.
Posted by McGee on July 17, 2009 at 4:26 PM
Fnarf 20
I'd eat a mayonnaise-flavored cookie.
Posted by Fnarf http://www.facebook.com/fnarf on July 17, 2009 at 4:36 PM
Fnarf 21
I'd eat a mayonnaise-flavored cookie.
Posted by Fnarf http://www.facebook.com/fnarf on July 17, 2009 at 4:37 PM
Will in Seattle 22
How about baconnaise, Fnarf?
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on July 17, 2009 at 5:02 PM
litlnemo 23
My grandma's molasses Christmas cookies are awesome -- and I realized as an adult, they are entirely vegan. It's the best raw cookie dough ever. But she wasn't trying to make vegan cookies, just good ones.
Posted by litlnemo http://slumberland.org/ on July 17, 2009 at 7:47 PM
24
high 80s??????? you're griping? It's been over 101 for ten days straight in Austin. Seriously... if it hit the high 80s we'd pull out scarves.
Posted by robo5 on July 18, 2009 at 12:02 AM
25
" E.coli comes from fecal matter, which eggs frequently come into contact with."

Guess what, fancypants? Only commercial eggs have this problem... Commercial eggs are rinsed while the shells are still soft, causing some of these undesirable particles to pass into the egg. Buy eggs at a farmers market or keep your own hens, then you will not have this problem, and you can even put a raw egg in your smoothie like in the olden days.
Posted by so right on July 19, 2009 at 4:29 PM

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