Baking in the Heat

I woke up this morning and felt like lying lazily in bed all day. Lately I've been wanting more unscheduled days when I can just read, go to a park, talk on the phone. It used to be very rare that I even wanted a day with no plans. I thought five social plans per weekend was pretty much the ideal amount. I seem to be having a mood shift lately where I get really excited when I have no evening plans after work, and even a whole weekend with no plans seems nice. "No plans" often means I'll go to swim practice, and probably do laundry, and still end up running around a lot. But it still means the whole day is full of my own choices I can make on the spot, not commitments to other people.

Since my air conditioner is at the foot of my bed, staying in bed all day seemed like it made perfect sense as a goal. But I'm not usually still for all that long, so it figures that eventually I came up with something worth getting out of bed for. I wanted to bake! Then I remembered it was going to be 94 degrees today.

When I was in high school, my sister and I loved baking and cooking. We just wanted to be in the kitchen all the time! My mom always had reasons she didn't want us to bake: either we had too many leftovers and she wanted us to eat those before making something new, or it was too hot she didn't want us to put the oven on. She doesn't remember it this way; I'm sure she allowed us to bake or cook more than she stopped us, but I remember the restrictions. Oddly enough, even though I understand her objections better now that I am adult, they still bother me. I live alone, so everything I cook lasts more than a week, and I'm always thinking, "I wish I didn't have so many leftovers in the house! I really want to cook." Sometimes, like today, I find myself wishing I could bake, but I know I'll be uncomfortable with the oven on.

When I bought my condo almost ten years ago, and it had a roof deck, I had a great idea. I'd buy a solar oven! That way I can still cook on hot days without turning on the oven or standing over the stove. My dad commented once, "It's funny, it seemed like a novelty when you bought it, and I thought you'd try it out and then it would sit in your closet, but you really use it." It's true, I really do use it several times a summer.

cat, in the shade of the solar oven

I'ved used it for foods that are meant to saute, like sliced cabbage, for soaking/cooking dried beans, for slow-cooker-type dishes, and several times for veggie burgers.

baked beans

black bean burgers

Today with my out-of-season baking mood, I went with an out-of-season recipe for pumpkin muffins. 

They are brown because of the molasses; not burnt. Also, note that it's 250 degrees in there!

Baking in the solar oven does not always work. Stuff tends to come out flatter and wetter than it would in a regular oven. I think because the oven traps moisture inside the baked goods don't really puff up. But they do get fully cooked. One nice thing is that it's a lot harder for foods to over-cook in the solar oven, so you don't have to worry too much about cooking times. And you can leave the house while it's "on," because it's just collecting sunlight! Once you get used to putting food in, leaving it, and then just checking when you get home, it can feel so convenient. Also, of course you can't use it if it's too cloudy, and sometimes I forget to check the weather and then realize the stuff I put in the oven isn't really cooking. On a cloudy day it only heats up to 150, and that's not hot enough. But today was crazy hot to begin with, and the oven got up to almost 250. And I got to make muffins. Success!