July 13, 2009
Cookies 'n Cream
by Becca Priddy at 1:15 PM
Wednesday - [undisclosed location]
My mom and I have had this ongoing inside joke that we should learn how to bake cookies for the car engineers. I know, silly right? We’ll I guess the heat gets to us sometimes, or maybe it’s the radioactive water here in town. Did I ever mention we’re just over the hill from Area 51 and the Nevada Test Site? Of course everyone in town claims there wasn’t any fallout here. I’m not so sure.
Today was a slow day, and I decided early on I was going to take a shot at baking these cookies we’re always joking about. We had separate ideas of course. My mom wanted to put a baking sheet under the hood, on top of the engine, and I wanted to make a solar oven and let them cook in the sun. We decided to try mine first because I had been successful at charring a hotdog in a shoebox solar oven when I was about ten, and thought for sure I could bake cookies if I could cook a hotdog…
It was 119 °F outside today, and the ground temperature made it up to about 165 °F. We have an infrared thermometer because most normal thermometers, that you don’t find in your chemistry class, only go up to about 120. I made my solar oven out of a shipping box from an online website, some foil and a sandwich baggie as the plastic part. It was made with lots of creativity, due to the lack of supplies here in town.
I started putting the cookie dough in as fast as I could because it was windy outside, and my mom was scarfing down the roll of raw dough. Unfortunately the first batch got blown away. I left it on the ground to see which would bake faster, the dough on the hot ground, or in my oven.
The instructions on the tube of dough says to “pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees, and then put the cookies in for 10-15 minutes.” After i put the cookies in I waited a bit and I checked the temperature. Not too shabby for a makeshift solar oven.
I wasn’t exactly sure how long I should leave them in the oven, but I figured an hour was probably enough. I went and got some ice cream while I was waiting, and chased away the birds from eating the dough out on the ground. An hour later I was ready to get out of the heat… the car air conditioner doesn’t work well at an idle and it was getting hot inside. I grabbed the cookies out of the oven, they were a little more than half way cooked, probably the consistancy of pizookie and they were actually pretty tasty!
So that was my day, baking cookies in the middle of the desert. The cookies on the ground just turned to mush, and don’t worry, I put them in the trash before we left. We’ll it’s off to the pool for now. If I grow a third arm, I’m blaming the radioactive water…