This week as I was enjoying some of my favorite blogs, the blog from Around My Family Table caught my eye. The subject was homemade marshmallows. I never even thought about making homemade marshmallows before. Did you? Sounded interesting. But it was the very first line that really caught my attention. She wrote, “It’s hot and sticky this time of year and I try to avoid turning on my oven. However, you will have to turn on your oven to make these yummy toasted coconut and key lime marshmallows but it will only be for a few minutes.” And I thought “No! Not me! I’m not turning on my oven – even for this .” As it turned out, the only thing the oven is used for is to toast the coconut that is put on the top. So today, I toasted coconut in the solar oven. It was so-o-o-o easy.
Toasted Coconut
Just put the coconut – I used sweetened – into a shallow pan and place in the solar oven. I used the Global Sun Oven. I knew it wouldn’t take long, so I intended to check on it in 30 minutes. But I forgot – truth be known, I was involved in a round on Candy Crush on Facebook – and didn’t check it for 40 minutes. WOW! It was really, really toasted!! Not over done, but a little less cooking would have been okay.
Coconut flakes toasting in the GSO
So if like me, you want to try the really great recipe for making homemade marshmallows over at AMFT, remember that you don’t really have to heat up your kitchen –even for a few minutes.
And if you like toasting coconut, try toasting pumpkin seeds and s’mores.
Oh my gosh, this is such a great idea! For some reason when I think about using a solar oven, I usually only think about making a meal or a baked goodie. I try to avoid recipes that require me to use my oven for one ingredient – like toasted coconut or toasted almonds. I never thought to use a sun oven for this!
Now I’m thinking about all of the things that I could use my sun oven for! Have you tried kale chips in the sun oven?
Rachel
Rachel, I bake eggs to put in tuna or potato salad. I bake my bacon and sausage and the freeze them in packages. I only cook them about 1/2 way, and then I can microwave them for breakfast, and they finish cooking. Or I can put them in the solar for breakfast and they are done that much faster. I did try kale chips once. They didn’t turn out well, probably operator error, and so I didn’t try again. I think because Kale chips need to be crispy and the moisture doesn’t escape from the solar oven. But now that i have the dehydrator racks in the Sun Oven, kale chips might work better on that. I think I’ll give that another try. If you try it, let me know how it does and send pictures Thanks, Merry