car cookies

I saw this instructable for dashboard baking and thought it was a great idea!  it's an idea that's been around for a while, but somehow I've never seen it.  anyway, it's WAY too hot to bake anything in the house from May-October, but I could go for some baking in the car.  it's an oven that's already always going, and your car smells like fresh baked cookies, so I just had to try it and see.

I grabbed some chocolate chip cookie dough and set up my car for baking.

 

I did a pan by itself, and one with the reflective sun screen thing around it just to see if it made a difference.

 

after 1 hour this is how they looked and the 150°F was holding steady - couldn't really tell a difference between the two pans.

 

after 2 hours they looked a little more cooked, but not quite done yet.  I think the pan with the reflector looked slightly more done at this point.

 

after 3 hours - no real difference between pans - temp still holding.

I pulled them out at 4 hours because they didn't look like they were changing anymore, and I needed to use the car.  I was hoping to see the brown bottoms like in the Instructables picture, but they just looked more dried and had these air pockets underneath... which kinda puzzled me.  they had a caramelized texture/flavor on the outside but were chewy on the inside, and they didn't feel or taste under-cooked.

I think if I wanted a more traditional cooked cookie I'd just put my toaster oven out on the patio and bake them that way if I didn't want to heat up the house in the future, but it was a cool experiment and they still tasted just fine - we ate them all that afternoon!

crustless

we did some baking on vacation and made a pumpkin pie and a buttermilk pie.  when we got home to the chilly weather I was geared up to bake some more pies!  I didn't feel like making a crust so I searched for a  crustless buttermilk pie recipe that doesn't use Bisquick, as I generally don't have that on hand.  this one was super easy to put together and I didn't really need any "special" ingredients.  I have powdered buttermilk and it works just fine.

 

this pie doesn't have a buttermilk pie look to it at all, and actually looks a lot like cornbread.  the recipe said they made two pies, so I figured I need to divided the batter in two plates, but they came out kinda thin and the edges were dark, so to fix it I stacked them! O:)  they tasted alright, but it's nothing like what mom makes.

I tried a crustless no-bake pumpkin pie recipe, too.  I had the can of easy pumpkin pie mix that just needs eggs and evaporated milk, so I nixed the spices and sugar this recipe called for.

it cut beautifully and stayed together on the plate, the texture wasn't quite the same as a baked pie (more like a Jell-o pudding pie), and I did miss the crust, but it's something I'd try again if I didn't have a crust or didn't want to use the oven.

I'm gonna try this recipe next. this one looks really good, too - just gonna have to set aside one day a week through the end of the year to bake all the stuff I want to try, I guess! ;)

babycakes

 

Matt and Leo got me a Babycakes doughnut maker for Mother's Day :)  they had them on sale at Kohl's and I pointed it out to Matt while we were dress shoe shopping not long ago.

I don't think I'd use the box mixes again, and until I find a good recipe this might end up just being used to make quick muffins or pancakes, but they cook up fast (6 in about 3 minutes) and are really cute. 

I made a scratch recipe I found online - not good at all despite what everyone said about the recipe :( - then I did the cinnamon sugar and chocolate mixes I got with the maker.  the vanilla base with cinnamon sugar topping was alright.  I ran out of the mixture halfway through the doughnuts, so I dusted the rest with powdered sugar.  I wanna try the vanilla recipe from scratch and see if it's better than the boxed mix.

I think the best was the chocolate, but not because they resembled anything that of a doughnut besides the shape, but because it was like eating a chocolate cake :)  they were Leo's favorite, too.

I wanted to see how a muffin mix did in it - pretty much tastes like a muffin.  my favorite doughnuts are glazed blueberry cake, and if I could adapt a mix to make my own I'll be... well, super fat, but happy while I'm eating them, anyway! ;)