Fire Cookies (Or Cookies Baked in Unconventional Ovens)

Warning! This Instructable involve the use tools with sharp edges, hot objects, open flames, food and flammable materials. There are various risks involved with this Instructable including the risk of injury, death and property damage, take all required precautionary measures to mitigate against risk. The author does not accept any liability for any deaths, injury's or property damage resulting from this Instructable.

This Instructable explains how to bake Fire Cookies (Cookies that have been cooked using a homemade oven containing a solid fuel fire, rather than a conventional oven). This oven is intended to be used for baking cookies under unconventional circumstances such as when having a barbeque, camping or when there is a power cut.

The oven used in this Instructable is designed to be easy to build, portable and low cost. This is achieved through the ovens cardboard and tinfoil construction. Since the cardboard frame of the oven is fully wrapped in tinfoil, the cardboard is prevented from burning through the tinfoil provided a flame guard between the fire and the cardboard, as well as the tinfoil preventing air from reaching the cardboard, thus preventing it from burning.

Tools

For the Cookies:

1. Mixing bowl.
2. Sieve (optional).
3. Kitchen knife or spatula.
4. Mass balance.
5. Rolling pin.
6. Cookie cutter.
7. Teaspoon.
8. Tongs and oven gloves.
9. Chopping board.

For the Oven:

1. Stanley knife or similar.
2. Watch or timer.
3. Baking tray.
4. Oven gloves or tongs.
5. Matches or fire lighter.

Materials

For the Cookies:

1. 470g Self raising flour.
2. 38g Granulated sugar.
3. 40g Light brown sugar.
4. 125g Filling (raisins, sweets, chocolate...)
5. 85g Easily spreadable butter.
6. 1 Small egg.
7. Zip lock bag.
8. Baking paper.

For the Oven:

1. Cardboard box.
2. Tinfoil.
3. Disposable barbeque.
4. 4 to 8 Empty drinks cans (crushed).
5. 4 Tall empty drinks cans (uncrushed).
6. 2-4 Bricks/blocks (enough to support the base of the cardboard box).

Note: Ensure that the cardboard box will have enough room for the baking tray to fit within it in addition to extra space for smoke and heat to pass around the baking tray. The disposable barbeque should also have adequate room away from the sides of the oven to prevent them from overheating. Ensure that there is enough tinfoil to wrap the interior and exterior of the box, ensure that there is an extra bit of additional tinfoil as its required quantity is likely to be underestimated, and that it will be used in an inefficient way.

1. Cut out a door on the side of the box, ensure that both the disposable barbeque and baking tray can fit through it. The door should take up most of the face of the box, but not all off it to maintain the boxes rigidity, the door should also be hinged at the top to allow for easy opening and closing (the hinge is easily created by simply only cutting along three sides of the door).
2. Next wrap both of the insides and the outsides of the box with tinfoil. No glue or tape should be used for this step as it could burn or catch fire and contaminate the cookies with toxic chemicals. No gaps should be present in the tinfoil and the different sheets of tinfoil should overlap each other to form a fire resistant layer.
3. Next place the empty crushed drinks cans inside the oven to provide a resting spot for the barbeque.
4. Next place the oven on top of the bricks so that it is raised off the ground, this will prevent the ground from being burned and make it easier for the oven to heat up if the ground is cold.
5. Keep the disposable barbeque outside of the oven just now, the next steps will explain how to light it and transfer it to the oven.

Carefully use the mass balance to weigh out the required quantity's dry ingredients: self raising flour, granulated sugar, light brown sugar and filling. Next mix them together in the mixing bowl until the mixture has a consistent texture and colour.

In this step we will add the wet ingredients to the mixture (butter and egg). Create a well in the middle of the dry mixture and weigh out the required quantity of butter. Next add the egg and butter to the well and stir the mixture with the knife or spatula until the mixture has a consistent texture and colour.

This step explains how to create the cookie dough. Carefully rub the the mixture between your fingers until it forms crumbs, then kneed the dough until it clumps together and forms balls, form the mixture into hand sized balls until you have used up all the mixture. If the dough fells dry add in some water (a teaspoon at a time) to make it easier to work.

Use the rolling pin to roll out the dough to a thickness of about 1cm. Then use the cookie cutter to cut out cookie shapes from the dough. If there is any scrap dough left over after this step, form it into balls again and repeat the process until all the dough has been used up.

Using the matches or fire lighter light the disposable barbeque following the instructions on the barbeque as they will vary depending on the model, ensure that the barbeque is outdoors and in a well ventilated space when it is lit. Keep the barbeque outside of the oven until the flames die and the coals become white and glow red. This is to help prevent the oven from catching fire.

The barbeque is ready to be transferred to the oven when the coals become white and glow red. When in the oven the disposable barbeque should rest on top of the crushed drinks cans in order to maintain distance and insulate the heat from the base of the oven. Ensure that the disposable barbeque is centrally placed in the oven and that there is enough space around it for the tall drinks cans to support the baking tray.

When transferring the barbeque wear oven gloves and use tongs/utensils to position the barbeque to the oven whilst taking care and being careful to avoid dropping the barbeque or being burned.

After the disposable barbeque has been transferred to the oven it is ready to be used to bake the cookies. Place the cookies on the baking tray on top of some baking paper. Next place the tray in the oven so that it rests on the tops of the disposable drinks cans (this will help prevent the cookies from being burned and allow the heat to circulate around the oven), partially close the oven door to keep the heat in but allow enough ventilation for the smoke to escape and for the air to get in. Check on the cookies every 10 to 15 minutes to ensure that they do not get burnt and then at a faster rate once the cookies are almost finished being cooked.

When all utensils are cool carefully wash them and return them to there original positions in the kitchen. When you have finished using the oven it can be kept for reuse, however it must be kept in a dry place away from strong wind and inspected to ensure that it is safe to use before each use. The disposable barbeque will need replaced with each use. When disposing of the disposable barbeque always follow the instructions on the barbeque, always wait until it has cooled down and the fire has been extinguished before putting in the bin (extinguished the fire using water if necessary to ensure that it has cooled down and that the fire has been extinguished).

Please enjoy these cookies. Wait until they have cooled down before eating them. It is recommended to have the cookies alongside a glass of juice or milk.

Thank you for reading this Instructable, I hope you enjoy baking these cookies.