osoab
22nd July 2011, 07:05 PM
Paradise by the dashboard light — can you bake cookies in a car? (http://blogs.sj-r.com/offtheclock/index.php/archives/5276)
http://blogs.sj-r.com/offtheclock/wp-content/uploads/dashboard.jpg
In the name of journalism, science and the culinary arts, the staff at SJ-R.com today is attempting to bake cookies — in an oven-like car with the summer sun as the only heat source.
Not content with the old egg-on-the-sidewalk trick, we instantly were intrigued when we spotted some fellow reporters across the country testing out “dashboard cookies.”
It’s simple, really. We bought a package of Pillsbury premade cookie dough, preformed into balls and placed the dough on two cookie sheets. We then placed the dough-laden cookie sheets on the dash of a car in the employee parking lot at The State Journal-Register.
Photographer Justin Fowler (http://blogs.sj-r.com/behindthecurtain/index.php/author/justinfowler/) set up a camera inside the car to take time-lapse photos of the baking process. We also placed a thermometer inside the car to monitor how hot it gets.
http://blogs.sj-r.com/offtheclock/wp-content/uploads/Justin.jpg
We started about 11:35 a.m. and expect the process to take about four hours.
Check in with us throughout the afternoon at the Off the Clock blog (http://blogs.sj-r.com/offtheclock/index.php/archives/5276) to monitor our progress.
11:35 a.m. — 94° F and Sunny
Heat index: 105° F
Humidity: 51%
UV index: high Justin Fowler and I headed outside about 11:15 a.m. with our dashboard cookie gear. He mounted his camera on a magic arm attached to the emergency brake of the SJ-R car we’re using for this experiment. The camera is pointed at a cookie sheet on the dashboard and is set to take photos every five seconds.
We placed the cookie dough on the first sheet and set it on the dash at 11:35 a.m., as Justin made some final adjustments to the camera. We then placed dough on the second cookie sheet about 11:40 a.m. Justin reached over to move the first sheet, and it was so hot it nearly burned his hand. A couple of the balls of dough already had begun spreading.
We placed a refrigerator thermometer inside the car. The initial reading was over 100 degrees.
The car is in the employee parking lot, free of shade and in direct sunlight. Our plan is to check on the cookies every hour. Based on experiments others have done, we believe it will take about four hours.
12:45 p.m. — 93° F and Sunny
Heat index: 105° F
Humidity: 55%
UV index: very high We were pleasantly surprised to find the cookies already had spread out on the pans and looked just as you would expect them to look inside an oven. Speaking of ovens, the internal temperature of the car is about 160 degrees already. The oven instructions for the premade cookie dough we are using calls for them to bake at 350 degrees for about 9 to 13 minutes.
http://blogs.sj-r.com/offtheclock/wp-content/uploads/spreading-later.jpg
12:45 p.m. — The cookies were starting to spread out on the pans.
1:45 p.m. — 95° F and Sunny
Heat index: 106° F
Humidity: 51%
UV index: very high Checked on the cookies again. They appear to be coming along nicely. Some of the wetness from the dough has disappeared. Internal temperature of the car is about 175° F, according to the thermometer.
3:45 p.m. — 97° and sunny
Heat index: 112° F
Humidity: 51%
UV index: high Just stepped out to check on the cookies. They are looking good. They don’t have that nice browning on top that would come from a conventional oven, but they definitely look edible. Much of the moisture from the dough is gone, and the interior of the car smells of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies. The internal temperature of the car seems to be holding at about 175° F.
Justin is out on a photography assignment, but I’m planning to retrieve the cookies after he returns, probably within the hour. I’m getting lots of requests from coworkers interested in trying them. Check back for the next update.
http://blogs.sj-r.com/offtheclock/wp-content/uploads/cookie2.jpg
3:45 p.m. — the interior of the car smells of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies.
4:45 p.m. — 96° F and Sunny
Heat index: 107° F
Humidity: 50%
UV index: high
We removed the cookie trays from the car about 4:45 p.m. Consensus from the newsroom (at least from those who were brave enough to try one): surprisingly not bad. The cookies are crispy on the top and a little doughy in the middle. It probably would have behooved us to elevate the trays off the dash a bit to get some hot air moving around the bottom.
The temperature inside the car when we retrieved the cookies was still holding at about 175°.
I think the lesson to be taken away from this experiment is that the interiors of vehicles get incredibly hot during the summer – hot enough to bake cookies – and it doesn’t take long for them to get that way. Never, ever leave people or animals inside an enclosed vehicle when it’s warm out.
http://blogs.sj-r.com/offtheclock/wp-content/uploads/Ryan-OShea1-300x225.jpg
“Scrumptious,” declared copy editor Ryan O’Shea. ” It’s a combination of crunchy and gooey.”
Post script: Journalism blogger Jim Romenesko (http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/romenesko/140323/frying-an-egg-on-the-hot-sidewalk-thats-so-old-fashioned/) has taken note of our experiment, putting it in the context of news organizations trying to find new ways to cover the same old heat wave stories. (What (http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x1259731512/Battling-the-heat-in-hot-jobs) on (http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x1259736748/Few-problems-reported-from-heat) Earth (http://www.sj-r.com/breaking/x920800829/Heat-dome-traps-much-of-US-in-pressure-cooker) is (http://www.sj-r.com/ourtowns/chatham/x1259733160/CRC-children-beat-the-heat-with-a-water-play-day) he (http://www.sj-r.com/opinions/x920799627/Britt-Brutal-heat-wave-in-central-Illinois) talking (http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x1259736677/Muni-show-must-go-on-despite-the-heat) about (http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x920802552/CWLP-nears-record-for-energy-demand)?)
We’d also be remiss if we didn’t mention our neighbors to the south at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who tried the same experiment (http://www.stltoday.com/news/multimedia/vmix_bce0f254-b46b-11e0-99ff-001a4bcf6878.html) Thursday.
http://blogs.sj-r.com/offtheclock/wp-content/uploads/dashboard.jpg
In the name of journalism, science and the culinary arts, the staff at SJ-R.com today is attempting to bake cookies — in an oven-like car with the summer sun as the only heat source.
Not content with the old egg-on-the-sidewalk trick, we instantly were intrigued when we spotted some fellow reporters across the country testing out “dashboard cookies.”
It’s simple, really. We bought a package of Pillsbury premade cookie dough, preformed into balls and placed the dough on two cookie sheets. We then placed the dough-laden cookie sheets on the dash of a car in the employee parking lot at The State Journal-Register.
Photographer Justin Fowler (http://blogs.sj-r.com/behindthecurtain/index.php/author/justinfowler/) set up a camera inside the car to take time-lapse photos of the baking process. We also placed a thermometer inside the car to monitor how hot it gets.
http://blogs.sj-r.com/offtheclock/wp-content/uploads/Justin.jpg
We started about 11:35 a.m. and expect the process to take about four hours.
Check in with us throughout the afternoon at the Off the Clock blog (http://blogs.sj-r.com/offtheclock/index.php/archives/5276) to monitor our progress.
11:35 a.m. — 94° F and Sunny
Heat index: 105° F
Humidity: 51%
UV index: high Justin Fowler and I headed outside about 11:15 a.m. with our dashboard cookie gear. He mounted his camera on a magic arm attached to the emergency brake of the SJ-R car we’re using for this experiment. The camera is pointed at a cookie sheet on the dashboard and is set to take photos every five seconds.
We placed the cookie dough on the first sheet and set it on the dash at 11:35 a.m., as Justin made some final adjustments to the camera. We then placed dough on the second cookie sheet about 11:40 a.m. Justin reached over to move the first sheet, and it was so hot it nearly burned his hand. A couple of the balls of dough already had begun spreading.
We placed a refrigerator thermometer inside the car. The initial reading was over 100 degrees.
The car is in the employee parking lot, free of shade and in direct sunlight. Our plan is to check on the cookies every hour. Based on experiments others have done, we believe it will take about four hours.
12:45 p.m. — 93° F and Sunny
Heat index: 105° F
Humidity: 55%
UV index: very high We were pleasantly surprised to find the cookies already had spread out on the pans and looked just as you would expect them to look inside an oven. Speaking of ovens, the internal temperature of the car is about 160 degrees already. The oven instructions for the premade cookie dough we are using calls for them to bake at 350 degrees for about 9 to 13 minutes.
http://blogs.sj-r.com/offtheclock/wp-content/uploads/spreading-later.jpg
12:45 p.m. — The cookies were starting to spread out on the pans.
1:45 p.m. — 95° F and Sunny
Heat index: 106° F
Humidity: 51%
UV index: very high Checked on the cookies again. They appear to be coming along nicely. Some of the wetness from the dough has disappeared. Internal temperature of the car is about 175° F, according to the thermometer.
3:45 p.m. — 97° and sunny
Heat index: 112° F
Humidity: 51%
UV index: high Just stepped out to check on the cookies. They are looking good. They don’t have that nice browning on top that would come from a conventional oven, but they definitely look edible. Much of the moisture from the dough is gone, and the interior of the car smells of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies. The internal temperature of the car seems to be holding at about 175° F.
Justin is out on a photography assignment, but I’m planning to retrieve the cookies after he returns, probably within the hour. I’m getting lots of requests from coworkers interested in trying them. Check back for the next update.
http://blogs.sj-r.com/offtheclock/wp-content/uploads/cookie2.jpg
3:45 p.m. — the interior of the car smells of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies.
4:45 p.m. — 96° F and Sunny
Heat index: 107° F
Humidity: 50%
UV index: high
We removed the cookie trays from the car about 4:45 p.m. Consensus from the newsroom (at least from those who were brave enough to try one): surprisingly not bad. The cookies are crispy on the top and a little doughy in the middle. It probably would have behooved us to elevate the trays off the dash a bit to get some hot air moving around the bottom.
The temperature inside the car when we retrieved the cookies was still holding at about 175°.
I think the lesson to be taken away from this experiment is that the interiors of vehicles get incredibly hot during the summer – hot enough to bake cookies – and it doesn’t take long for them to get that way. Never, ever leave people or animals inside an enclosed vehicle when it’s warm out.
http://blogs.sj-r.com/offtheclock/wp-content/uploads/Ryan-OShea1-300x225.jpg
“Scrumptious,” declared copy editor Ryan O’Shea. ” It’s a combination of crunchy and gooey.”
Post script: Journalism blogger Jim Romenesko (http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/romenesko/140323/frying-an-egg-on-the-hot-sidewalk-thats-so-old-fashioned/) has taken note of our experiment, putting it in the context of news organizations trying to find new ways to cover the same old heat wave stories. (What (http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x1259731512/Battling-the-heat-in-hot-jobs) on (http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x1259736748/Few-problems-reported-from-heat) Earth (http://www.sj-r.com/breaking/x920800829/Heat-dome-traps-much-of-US-in-pressure-cooker) is (http://www.sj-r.com/ourtowns/chatham/x1259733160/CRC-children-beat-the-heat-with-a-water-play-day) he (http://www.sj-r.com/opinions/x920799627/Britt-Brutal-heat-wave-in-central-Illinois) talking (http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x1259736677/Muni-show-must-go-on-despite-the-heat) about (http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x920802552/CWLP-nears-record-for-energy-demand)?)
We’d also be remiss if we didn’t mention our neighbors to the south at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who tried the same experiment (http://www.stltoday.com/news/multimedia/vmix_bce0f254-b46b-11e0-99ff-001a4bcf6878.html) Thursday.