Wow! Bread Baked in a Solar Cooker. These Cookers Actually Work!

Posted by carrie_roll

We made cinnamon raisin bread in two of our solar cookers (The Solar Funnel Cooker and the Eagle solar cooker), and boy was it YUMMY!
AND, IT WORKS! That’s the most important part.
Our cookers got up to about 175 Fahrenheit (during the hottest time, but they stayed that hot for over an hour), and the bread was better than any store-bought variety for sure.
(Next time though, I’ll make the dough differently and let the yeast rise in warm water before just putting it in the dough mixture. I realized that’s what I did wrong, and why the bread tasted yeasty.)
The instructions are below, and we hope you will post your comments about what you like about this idea of making your own bread from the sun!
Here’s the video of how we made this bread, and the solar cookers in action.

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter (despite what you may have heard, margarine is NOT better for you, or the environment), softened
• 1 cup raisins
• 8 cups all-purpose or wheat flour (or whatever whole flour you use)
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

1. Warm the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Add raisins. Let cool until lukewarm.
2. Dissolve yeast in warm water, and set aside until yeast is frothy.
3. Mix in eggs, sugar, butter, and sald salt. Stir in cooled milk.
4. Add the flour gradually to make a stiff dough.
5. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface for a few minutes. Place in a large, greased/floured, mixing bowl, and turn to flour/grease the surface of the dough. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled.
6. Roll out on a lightly floured surface into a large rectangle 1/2 inch thick. Moisten dough with 2 tablespoons milk.
7. Mix together 3/4 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons cinnamon, and sprinkle mixture on top of the moistened dough.
8. Roll up tightly; the roll should be about 3 inches in diameter. Cut half, and tuck under ends. Place loaves into well greased and floured solar cooker pans. Lightly grease or flour tops of loaves. Let rise again for 1 hour.
9. Bake in solar cooker until loaves are lightly brown. Remove loaves from pans. Let cool before slicing.

One Response to “Wow! Bread Baked in a Solar Cooker. These Cookers Actually Work!”

• Brian white says:

  September 26, 2008 at 8:11 pm

  I admire what you are doing here, and I hope you keep going at it.
  I think the key is to go a bit bigger. I square meter of collector area minimum.
  My best solar cooker by far is the compound parabolic one I just made. It consistently brought 7 liters of water to over 90 C (about 200 f).
  I hope you try it. The sunshine usually hides away from me in October.
  Best of luck!
  Brian White
  Victoria
  BC
  Canada

  Reply