Getting Creative with Solar Energy

Okay okay, mega blogging FAIL.

BUT.

You’ll forgive me when I show you this really awesome thing that I have for you today. Like, REALLY awesome.

You know those days where it’s abominably hot and it’s all you can do to move around, much less turn on the oven? Yeah. Summer in Lafayette. I hate those days too… especially because it means no baking. Because when you’re trying not to run the air conditioning, turning on the oven is sooo not an option. Besides, why on earth would I want to use the oven in the first place?! Leaning over a  box that blasts a 350-degree wind at my face is so not appealing right now. Except that cookies sound really good. Like they always do, of course, but now what I am supposed to do?! Summer is hot. Hot = no baking. Hot also equals a burned butt when you get into your car that’s been sitting in the sun… making the car into… an oven. Wait.

WHAT?

Car. Oven. Caroven. Cookies… on the dashboard?! YES. Fully possible and totally hilarious. I told you you’d forgive me for my lack of blogging! You see, now you have a solution for when it’s mega hot and too icky to bake… and your car is just sitting uselessly sucking up a jillion megawatts of solar energy. Cooookies! I’m betting my car will smell fantastic for days, to boot. AND I have cookies. AND my house is still cool. Ish. Winnerrrr! I found this genius idea one day on the blog Completely Delicious, and was determined to try it. I decided on vegan oatmeal-cardamom chocolate chippies, since they came together easily and I could slightly underbake them and not freak out about egg-ness.

Annnd…

TOTAL SUCCESS! The cookies baked beautifully (though I wasn’t a huge fan of the recipe I used), my car smells delicious. You’d never know I baked these alternatively unless I told you, teethee! I foresee many incarnations of the dashboard cookie this summer…

Dashboard Chocolate Chip Cookies

This isn’t really a recipe, more like a suggestion of a cooking method, hehe. Pick whatever cookie recipe floats your boat (vegan or otherwise), and make them according to the recipe directions.

Park your car in full sun, ideally so it’s been sitting there awhile sucking up solar power. Use an oven thermometer or other portable thingy to judge the temperature of the inside of your car—mine read 130 but I’m pretty sure it was more than that, since our thermometer only goes up to 130…It should be somewhere around 150ish, ideally. Place your cookie sheet full of tastiness on the dashboard of your car, and shut all doors/windows. Let them “bake” for about 20 minutes, and then check in intervals until they’re done! Mine took about 35ish, and are still soft on the inside but chewy on the outside. They won’t brown as nicely as when you bake them in the oven, but they are still mega tasty.

Enjoy your cookies! AND the coolness of your house, for lack of oven usage :) Solar energy for the win!