Saturday, August 22, 2015

Solar Cooking

The boys brought me a surprise! 
A few days ago Eli and the boys surprised me by bringing over a solar oven from the other compound where no one was using it. As you can see, it's not your typical oven and I thought they were bringing me a giant satellite dish for internet (which would have also been a nice gift). Anyway, as you can imagine, it took some experimenting to see how exactly this contraption works. In the picture below, you can see that in the middle of the "shiny dish" is a metal rack. I simply put what I want to cook on that rack in a black dish and so far things have taken the same amount of cooking time in a regular oven!

First I tried boiling water. I put a pot of water on at 4:40 pm, in the late afternoon sun, and 20 minutes later it was boiling! The next day I tried zucchini bread and it turned out beautifully, taking the same amount of time it would have taken in a regular oven. Since I was on a roll, the next day I tried a chocolate zucchini cake! Again, it turned out deliciously! Today I've got a pot of beans in the solar oven and we'll see how that works.

To get my cake out of the "oven" I have to wear sunglasses because the sun's reflection is so strong!
So, yes, I have to be a little more creative here in order to bake for my family but these tasty treats cooked by the sun are so worth it!

3 comments:

Audrey said...

Awesome! Thanks for explaining.

Anonymous said...

And you don't have to heat up your house...

Unknown said...

I have a recipe for you, Bethany:

Nutella 3-ingredient-Brownies

Ingredients

Nonstick cooking spray, for spraying the pan
2 1/2 cups chocolate-hazelnut spread, such as Nutella
1 heaping cup all-purpose flour
3 large eggs

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F; spray a 9-by-13-inch pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Stir together the chocolate-hazelnut spread, flour and eggs in a medium bowl. Pour into the prepared pan and spread the mixture to the edges.

Bake until the surface looks set and slightly crisp, about 25 minutes. Let cool slightly, then cut into squares and enjoy!

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