When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. When it hands you a Qatar summer… make cookies.
With temperatures soaring this July, we decided to take advantage of the heat by baking chocolate chip cookies in a car.
This feat has been accomplished a few times before in the past.
Our experiment took place with the help of this recipe and instructions from Doha resident Salvino Salvaggio, who made cookies in his car in 2013.
After baking for about three to four hours, our cookies came out a golden brown color and tasted almost like they came out of a traditional oven.
Oh, and the car smells amazing. Success!
Update: People have expressed concerns about the safety of eating car-baked cookies. Our reporters suffered no ill effects from one batch, but we don’t advise you do all your baking in your car.
Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients*
- 200g all purpose floor
- 120g butter (room temperature)
- 100g brown sugar
- 50g white sugar
- 150g chocolate chips
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- A pinch of salt
Method:
1. Preheat your “oven” by parking your car with the windshield facing the sun, keeping doors and windows closed. This should take only about an hour if the sun is high in the sky.
2. Prepare your dough by first mixing together butter and sugar (either with an electric mixer or by hand) in a large bowl.
3. Gradually add your dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
4. Add the chocolate chips; stir by hand to incorporate into dough.
5. Spoon rounded teaspoons of dough onto a greased cookie sheet, keeping them a few inches apart.
6. Place the sheet on the dashboard of the car, under the windshield. Bake for three to five hours, depending on how much sun they get and until they turn golden brown.
7. Take the sheet out of the car (use an oven mitt!). Bring indoors and cool on a wire rack, if possible.
*Note: This recipe doesn’t contain vanilla extract, but we recommend adding a little less than a teaspoon for flavor.
Who’s up for their own weekend experiment? Thoughts?
