People are baking cookies in their cars amid record-breaking heatwave: 'hate that this is possible'

It's so hot right now, especially if you're in the South and Southwest; the temperatures are soaring and even breaking records. In fact, it's so hot that you can actually bake a batch of cookies inside a car, which is something that people have been doing! While it's pretty cool to make cookies with the sun and no oven, it is also quite panic-inducing.

According to TODAY, the area is experiencing above-average heat hitting temperatures over 110 F. “Let’s be clear: heat can kill,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams tweeted on Thursday. “This is dangerous. Take precautions.”

A Reddit user u/8andahalfby11 from Phoenix, Arizona, posted a series of snaps taken on July 22 as they baked cookies inside their car. The Phoenix resident successfully baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies starting with balls of cookie dough placed on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper inside their Hyundai car.

According to a thermometer in one of the images in the post, the interior of the car started at 122.5 F while the tray itself came up to 164F at the end, the baker said. Browning takes place at above 280 F so the cookies ended up being a lot lighter in color.

"They tasted like cookies. I'm used to oven-made cookies being a bit softer in the middle, but these had pretty similar consistency throughout," they wrote adding that it took 4.5 hours to cook at this temperature to get the results shown. For many Reddit users who were concerned about OP's health, baking in such an unconventional way, they assured them that they felt fine.

"Since people are asking about the dough and bacteria safety, here's Pillsbury's FAQ on the dough I used. I'd like to stress that baking cookies this way is a sub-optimal way of doing it, and that the safest (and fastest) way to do it is to follow the recipe and make them in a normal kitchen oven," they said.

u/No_Telephone_4487 reacted to the unique cookies by stating, "This is amazing and well done! But also slightly horrifying? Has it always been hot enough in July to pull that off, or has it only been the last decade or so?" To this, the original poster responded, "It's my understanding that some days in July are hot enough to do this, but this year has been special in that it has blown past the old 19-day record for most consecutive>110F days. We are now at day 23. My forecast says seven more days of this. Terrified how my utility bill will look like at the end of the month."

u/princessawesomepants added "As a fellow Phoenix resident. I love the science but I hate that this is even possible. The parking lot at my job has no shade at all so I know exactly what these cookies feel."