How to Make Solar Chocolate Chip Cookies on Your Car Dashboard

To conserve energy this summer, why not harness the insane amount of heat your car collects to—what else—bake cookies? Instead of warming up your oven (and your kitchen) on an already-too-hot day, it makes sense to use the heat that automobiles naturally store to finagle some freshly baked sweet treats. The blog Baking Bites tried it out and found that standard-sized chocolate chip cookies took about two-and-a-half hours to bake in the writer's car, which reached 180 degrees Fahrenheit (the temperature outside, meanwhile, topped 100 degrees). "I think that they were best hot out of the car," writes the blogger, who placed the cookies on a baking sheet on her car's dashboard. The cookies never browned, but apparently they did smell and taste delicious. "They were slightly crisp at the edges and chewy in the center," she writes. Those of us without cars will just have to bake our cookies ...