So, on Monday I tweaked both the cookies and the bread and was pretty happy with the results. I wanted to share in case any one else is crazy enough to try this.
For the cookies, I added extra flour to make the dough slightly stiffer than I would for oven baked cookies. My car made it up to 180 degrees F at the highest, which means that the cookie dough was melting and spreading before the crust could form. By adding just a bit more flour, the dough held it's shape better.
The other tweak to the cookies is I greased the parchment paper before adding the dough. This made removing the cookies easier after they were baked. There's something about baking at a lower temperature that made the cookies stick to the parchment more than usual. Anyway, those were my tweaks for the cookies.
For the bread, on Monday I made flat bread using a French bread dough. I rolled the dough out into circles, using a rolling pin and placed on a greased baking sheet. I didn't allow the dough to rise because I was running late and needed to get it into the
Despite this, the bread came out pretty good, not doughy like the last loaf. So, what I learned is that it's possible to bake a yeast bread in a hot car if you make it flatbread.
Are there any realistic practical applications to what I learned these last few days? I think the most valuable aspect of this was stretching the way I thought about something that was ordinary, baking cookies and bread. I may not ever "need" to bake with my car in the future. However, I now know that there may be other ways I can bake in an emergency.
