Solar Oven Part 2
We tried the solar oven again this time with cookies and then crayons. The crayons turned out the best so I will tell you about them first. I had a cookie pan of “boy” things such as rockets, planes, cars, and sports. I know, it’s sexist but they were so cute I couldn’t resist. We had some broken and chewed up crayons (thanks, Zack!) and I peeled some new ones and we place it into the cookie tin mold and an IKEA silicon ice tray mold. Some we placed in the solar oven and some we placed just in the sun. Both ways worked but it melted much faster in the solar oven because the heat is trapped in the plastic wrap. The sun worked as well but it just took twice as long.
It’s greasy and messy looking when it melts especially because the oils (wax) float to the top but once you take the crayons out, the colors are very vibrant and beautiful. Oh yeah, and they work too!
Next time, I will try to layer the colors like they did in this tutorial.
We also made peanut butter cookies with an egg, 2/3 cup of sugar, and 1 cup of peanut butter.
Sean likes to crack the egg and pour everything together. When I let him crack the egg, I usually have to pick some shells out but I think he is getting better at it. Andy did have to help him with the peanut butter. This picture reminds me of that chunk of cranberry sauce you must gently coax out of the can on Thanksgiving.
I couldn’t find a cookie sheet that could fit inside the solar oven so I covered a plate with aluminum foil and cooked a cookie at a time.
It said it would take 45 minutes but it didn’t look done so I left it for an hour and a half. Even after that, only the top and sides were done. The bottom and inside were still uncooked and gooey (Andy ate it anyways). So you know what I did with the rest of the batter? I shaped them into cookies, placed them on a cookie sheet, and baked them in a regular oven for ten minutes! So yeah, this solar thing is cool when you go camping or get stuck on a deserted island but when you’re at home and have a brand new oven, just freaking use the oven!
Yeah this one time I was a camp councelor for a bunch of 5th graders and we were in Sonora area in NorCal and we had a camp instructor take us for a hike and talk about Native Americans and how they used sticks to make fire.
Then the the guy split kids in groups and gave them a pair of sticks and some kindling and NOBODY made fire. Even the guy himself, he was trying so hard he must have have major blisters, because after a while he had to put on these biking gloves (not sure if Native Americans had them), but the best he could do was a wisp of smoke. A TOTAL letdown for the young generation.
So by comparison, yours was a resounding success!
This is awesome Lucy, such a cool project (or should I say HOT project!)
Another great idea! Wish I hadn’t just thrown a bunch last week. haha.