It seems like it has been over a 100 degrees for over a month now and it is really hot. Not like the kind of hot where a nice breeze is appreciated, but the kind of hot that makes it hard to breathe at times. Honestly, I almost pass out walking from my car to the coffee shop.

I was looking through a blog the other day and noticed a way to make the most of a hot day. Bake cookies! Who doesn’t love cookies. Beat the heat this summer by setting a tray of raw cookies on your dashboard to bake in the stifling heat inside your car while you work — you get a tray of warm, fresh-baked cookies to eat on the return commute!

The blog entry explained that it took about 2 1/2 hours for the cookies to bake completely. I ended up opening the car door shortly before the end of the baking period to check for doneness. This check has to be done manually, as there are no color indicators (such as brownness) to judge by because the sugar in the car cookies does not caramelize and brown like that of oven-baked cookies. So, I gently pressed the edges of the cookies to feel that they were firm and even more gently touched the center of one of the cookies to see that it held together and was not gooey (the center of the cookie should not be entirely firm, unless you are shooting for a crispy cookie). Finally, I slid one of the cookies around on the parchment paper – a good test for this type of baking because a baked cookie will release easily from the paper, while an unbaked cookie will stick in place. If your cookies are not done, add more baking time in 15 or 30 minute increments, as opposed to the 30 second or 1 minute increments you might add to an oven-baked cookie.