Cookies! Piping hot fresh from the rice cooker. Eh? What?

January 28, 2007 7:21 AM

Can I bake cookies without a proper oven?

Ovens are a bit of a rarity in Japan. At least I don't have one, nor do any of my friends. But I would love to make fresh cookies.

Sure, raw cookie dough is tasty, but cooked cookies fresh from the oven...

I have a toaster oven, but it is small and really only seems useful for grilling stuff. (No real temperature control except "More Hot" or "Less Hot") Otherwise I have a stove top, a microwave and a rice cooker. The latter which I've seen bread made in, but I'm unwilling to try.

Any ideas?

posted by Ookseer to food & drink (24 comments total)

Toaster ovens are generally okay for making cookies in, though you pretty much have to make two or four at a time. It's fine to experiemtn, you're certainly not going to break anything Just preheat your little oven to some hottish temperature, stick the cookies in on some sort of baking sheet and keep an eye on them. When they start getting brownish on top [or seem to be burning on the bottom] take them out, about 10-12 minutes usually. I've done this before -- in little ovens with temperature settings -- and it's worked fine.
posted by jessamyn at 7:41 AM on January 28, 2007

You can cook small quantities of cookies in the toaster oven. Try it on 'more hot' since you don't have a dial and do some experimenting.

Rice cooker bread is easy to find recipes for if you have a rice cooker more sophisticated than 'push button/get rice'. I've only made rice flour pastries in mine, which I don't think you want.

There are a few microwave cookie recipes on cooks.com (eg, 'microwave sugar cookies'). There are also some cake recipes, which I know work. In the microwave you're often sacrificing crispiness...but hey, that's what the toaster's for!
posted by cobaltnine at 7:42 AM on January 28, 2007

Do you have a stovetop? I bet you could do something creative in a skillet or dutch oven on a burner.

Look for some of Alton Brown's recipes; every now and then he shows how to cook stuff using unconventional methods (I know he did scallops in a toaster oven on one episode of his show, though I can't recall any actual baking in it).

Slightly off track, but that's very interesting about the lack of oven. How do people generally cook for themselves, on stovetops? (Now that I think about it, I don't use my oven very often, and I cook all the time)
posted by backseatpilot at 8:09 AM on January 28, 2007

I have a couple of Japanese cookbooks; they're all stovetop stuff, soups and stir-fries and that sort of thing. I haven't seen any roasts that would require an oven.

(No advice on the cookie thing, I'm afraid)
posted by Jeanne at 8:16 AM on January 28, 2007

i cook entirely in a convection oven and make some really spiffy meals. there's no real limitation, outside of the time it takes to make everything and how much you can make at one time.

in a toaster/convection oven, you want to make sure that the oven is set to an even heat and not just heat from the top or bottom, though, as your cookies will burn. otherwise, enjoy!
posted by dflemingdotorg at 8:21 AM on January 28, 2007

When I lived in the dorms, 3:30pm was cookie time. It's how I got all the girls in the next dorm to come visit :)

All I had was a toaster oven, and never had any problems. Had to do small batches, as mentioned above, but that only helped the "social" aspect of cookie time.
posted by ewagoner at 8:23 AM on January 28, 2007

I've made cookies in my toaster oven many times. I make a batch of cookie dough, then freeze it in balls to store. When I want a couple cookies, I pull them out of the freezer and bake them on a little stoneware tray (usually lined with foil or parchment) in the toaster oven. My t.o. has fairly precise controls for heat, but I would err on the "more heat" side and just watch carefully.
posted by stefnet at 8:26 AM on January 28, 2007

When making cookies in a toaster oven the tops sometimes get overly browned by the radiant heat of the upper element. You can lessen this by preheating the oven to its highest temperature and then turning down the temperature to your desired setting once the cookies are inside. This will delay the element coming on. Also a little foil tent over the cookies can shield them from the element, not a sealing them in or anything, just so that the element doesn't shine directly on them.
posted by caddis at 8:28 AM on January 28, 2007

Another option is a solar oven. Not difficult to make & fun. I have a low "box" type that I use for cookies, brownies or pizza at work. A big hit a work potlucks. Just have to allow for the longer cooking time.
posted by digital-dragonfly at 8:31 AM on January 28, 2007

I have made biscuits stove top. I may have made cookies, I can't remember. I definitely made cake that turned out well. Here's how you do it:

You need as large a pot as you can find. You need to to put some objects in the pot that will raise the cookie sheet off the direct heat.

I took small tin cans and burned* the labeling & paint off, and used three of those. But there might be better alternatives. Anyway, then you put the cookie sheet on top of those small objects. Put the lid on the pot. That setup creates sort of makeshift dutch oven. Cooking time is usually a bit faster than in a normal oven.

*If you use ANY aluminum cans inside your oven, you will need to fire them once in your dutch oven to burn off paint and plastic lining which will otherwise spoil your first attempt. Simply bake your oven with no food inside at highest heat until it stops smoking. If it stinks, it is working.
posted by Amizu at 8:36 AM on January 28, 2007

I don't have an oven either, and like dflemingdotorg I cook in a large toaster/convection oven, and it works absolutely fine. You're not going to be able to cook a whole bunch of cookies at once, but it will ultimately get the job done.
posted by amro at 9:00 AM on January 28, 2007

I've made a large number of skillet cookies in my life. Make your favorite dough; anything works, so long as it's not too runny. Use a greased non-stick skillet over a low flame. Your flipping technique is vital.

Amizu's approach works too, and gets more conventional results. However, I would recommend against burning the paint off of a tin can for your spacers; that sounds ghastly. I built a cage out of something that ya'll have little shortage of in Japan: chopsticks. Tie several of them about the center so that they can be twisted into a polypod (like a tripod, but with more ends). If you have an especially large pan, you might try those ultra-long "cooking" chopsticks.

I recommend cast-iron for the pan. An especially large dutch oven would work perfectly. Invest in a thermometer.
posted by Netzapper at 9:05 AM on January 28, 2007

welsh biscuits or welsh cookies are a type of cookie that are traditionally cooked in a skillet on the stove top...you can find lots of recipes on the internet and i think they are delicious.
posted by lgyre at 11:03 AM on January 28, 2007

I've had fried cookies before. Basically a thin and flavorful pancake batter drizzled into hot oil, cooked until crisp, drained and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Not quite like Mom's toll-house cookies, but here are some recipes.
posted by Dave Faris at 11:09 AM on January 28, 2007

And then there's churros con chocolate.
posted by Dave Faris at 11:11 AM on January 28, 2007

You could get an oven thermometer to see what the temperature is, in your toaster oven.
posted by IndigoRain at 11:53 AM on January 28, 2007

Are there several recipes for bake-less cookies?
posted by Brittanie at 3:03 PM on January 28, 2007

Brittanie beat me to it. If you check out the first recipe in her link you will find the favorite cookie of my family... chocolate peanut butter oatmeal no-bakes. They are cooked on the stove top like many candies, and then firm up and harden into a chewy- cookie like form after they cool.

The best thing is that they take less than 10 minutes from start to finish, plus cooling time. The only real trick is to make sure you boil the milk, sugar, butter mixture for the exact amount of time, or else they may not harden, or harden too quickly.
posted by kimdog at 3:52 PM on January 28, 2007

I've made (small amounts of) brownies in the microwave, so I bet you could do cookies, too. Just be sure to watch it (it might take less time than you think) and don't put them on anything that could melt. Once when I did the microwave-brownie-in-a-bowl thing, the bottom of the bowl melted (from, I assume, contact with the overheated batter, since the bowl was supposed to be microwave-safe).

In fact, googling microwave+cookies brings up this(scroll down for better ones) so I'd say it's definitely possible.
posted by sleeplessunderwater at 3:59 PM on January 28, 2007

You don't even need a proper baking sheet for baking in a toaster oven - I just rubbed a stick of butter on a piece of aluminium foil for easy cookie removal. Terrible, I know - but it worked! And no cleaning-up, just toss the foil away later.
posted by Xere at 5:57 PM on January 28, 2007

Looking at Amazon.com there are a number of convection toaster ovens which may be what you're looking for.
posted by ShooBoo at 7:35 PM on January 28, 2007

Thanks all!

I know about the no-bake cookie recipes, but I'm looking to make those family recipes that I grew up with.

I hadn't thought about freezing the dough. The idea of fresh hot cookies every damn day is pretty exciting...

Thanks for all the field reports of getting this to work in a toaster oven. I always have understood baking to be more science than cooking, so I don't muck with the recipes much, including cooking temp, but you've given me enough advice to give it a whirl. Preheating and a little aluminum foil will probably get me to where I need to be.

(And all of my Japanese friends thank you, who have never had fresh home made cookies before.)
posted by Ookseer at 3:30 AM on January 29, 2007

I would consider looking for a microwave/convection cobination oven. My life is far more happy and convenient for having one! Whether they'd be sold over there, where folks cook according to the dictates of fuel shortage (or so I've had explained) or not, I couldn't say.

Some folks are surprised by my American dependency on an oven for cooking. I almost never choose to cook meat any other way. I hate frying!
posted by Goofyy at 6:39 AM on January 29, 2007

A friend of mine borrowed my waffle maker to make holiday cookies recently. She gave me some afterwards, and they were delicious!
posted by Xazeru at 7:13 AM on January 29, 2007