A cross between a cracker and a cookie, these super easy to make, slightly sweet squares go well with cheese, soups, or even yogurt.

Sun Oven Oat Crackers

Ingredients

1/2 cup steel cut oats

2/3 cup wholewheat flour

1 teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

3 1/2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons milk

Preparation

Set Sun Oven out to preheat. Line baking rack or rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat, set aside.

Whisk together the oats, flour, baking powder, and salt. Using your fingertips, run the butter and sugar into the flour mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the milk and continue working with your hands to make a dough.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Using a floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to a rectangle about 1/4-inch thick. Cut into 12 squares. Using a spatula transfer the cut squares to the prepared baking rack, prick the tops with a fork. Bake in the Sun Oven until light golden, 20 to 30 minutes. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container up to 1 week.

Oatmeal isn’t just for breakfast. Steel-cut oats give this simple soup its unique flavor and texture.

Sun Oven Irish Soup with Oats

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter

1 onion, finely chopped

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

1 carrot, finely chopped

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 3/4 cups chicken or vegetable broth

1/4 cup steel-cut oats

2 tablespoons cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Fresh parsley, chopped for garnish

Preparation

Set Sun Oven out to preheat.

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and carrot. Cook until the onion just begins to soften, about 2 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for about 1 minute. Add the broth and the oats. Cover and transfer the pot to the Sun Oven. Cook until the vegetables and oats are tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Stir in the cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls and garnish each serving with parsley.

Makes 4 servings.

These muffins are yet another way to make your morning oatmeal easy to eat on the go. Store them in the freezer and take one out before going to bed. Then all you have to do is remember to grab it when you head out in the morning. There’s nothing worse than being half way to work and realizing your breakfast is sitting on the kitchen counter.

Sun Oven Oatmeal Raisin Muffins

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 cup buttermilk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup raisins

Preparation

Set Sun Oven out to preheat. Spray the indentations and rims of two 6-cup muffin tins with cooking spray. Set aside.

Whisk together the oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl.  Cut in the butter, using a pastry cutter or two forks, until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until lightly beaten. Add the brown sugar and continue whisking until the mixture is thick and pale yellow. Whisk in the buttermilk and vanilla until smooth. Stir in the raisins, then the prepared oat mixture until moistened.

Fill the prepared tins 3/4 full. Use any leftover batter for a second baking. Using a rack to separate the two pans bake the muffins in the Sun Oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. The bottom pan make take an additional 5 minutes. Set the pans on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Remove the muffins and cool completely before storing.

Makes 12 to 18 muffins.

Now that we live in the L.A. area long commutes are becoming a part of life. What should be a 20 minute trip can take an hour (on a good day) or more. Easy to eat, fun snacks like these oatmeal bars help make sitting in traffic a little more bearable. This recipe is pretty basic. It can be jazzed up with mix-ins such as chocolate chips, chopped nuts, or dried fruit.

Ingredients

3 cups old-fashioned oats

2/3 cup whole-wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg, beaten

3 tablespoons orange juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup raisins

Preparation

Set Sun Oven out to preheat. Spray two 6 x 9-inch (toaster oven sized) baking pans with cooking spray, set aside.

Mix together the oatmeal, flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, combine the honey, oil, egg, orange juice, and vanilla extract and mix thoroughly.

Mix the wet ingredients into the oatmeal mixture. Stir in the raisins.

Divide the mixture in half and firmly press it into the prepared baking pans. Using a rack to separate the pans, bake in the Sun Oven until light brown and firm, 30 to 45 minutes. (If you don’t have a rack use a baking pan with higher sides and cross stack the two pans.)

Cool in pans on wire racks. Turn out onto a cutting board and cut into bars. Store in airtight containers.

We were among the thousands of Los Angeles area residents without power after the massive windstorm Thursday night so I finally got to use my Sun Oven in an emergency situation. What did I make? Cookies, of course. I thought, based on the estimate given to us by the power company, that the outage would be fixed by early evening. If I’d known we’d be without power until the following day I might have rustled together something for dinner instead, but cookies were on my schedule so that’s what I made. We had just enough sunshine to get the job done.

Big Sun Oven Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

3/4 cup raisins (optional)

Preparation

Set Global Sun Oven out to preheat. If using dehydrating racks line with parchment paper or silpat mats, otherwise line 3 rimmed baking pans with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside. Beat the butter until creamy, by hand or with an electric mixer on medium speed. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy. Beat in the egg. Using a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula, stir in the flour mixture. Stir in the oats and raisins (if using). Roll the dough into 2-inch balls. Place balls on prepared baking racks or pans about 2 inches apart. Flatten the balls slightly. Bake in Sun Oven 30 to 40 minutes. Remove top layer, if lower layers are not done continue baking an additional 5 to 10 minutes. Cool cookies on baking pans or racks for 2 minutes, then transfer to racks and cool completely. Store in air tight containers.

Makes 9 t0 12 cookies

I’m sure I’m not the only one that looked at the new dehydrating racks and thought “Could they be used for baking?” The answer is yes. Today I baked a full batch of drop cookies, over three dozen, in two Sun Oven loads. The same as it would have taken to bake them in a conventional oven. The top layer baked slightly faster, but by less than five minutes, pretty much the time it took to take the top layer inside and transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.

Sun Oven Muesli Cookies

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup fresh orange juice

1 egg

1 cup muesli (I used Bob’s Red Mill)

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cups chopped almonds

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

Preparation

Set Global Sun Oven out to preheat. Line racks with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Sift together first six ingredients, flour through salt, into a medium bowl. Set aside.

With an electric mixer beat the butter and the sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Slowly beat in the orange juice and egg. Stir in the flour mixture until well blended. Stir in the muesli, raisins, nuts, and oats.

Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of dough about 2 inches apart on prepared racks. Smooth tops slightly with moistened fingers. Bake in Sun Oven until surface is set. Cool cookies completely on a rack. Store in airtight containers.

Makes about 3 1/2 dozen.

The next time you cook steel-cut oats in the GSO make extra for these muffins. The maple syrup and blueberries make them a sort of portable oatmeal breakfast. Keep a few in the freezer for those mornings when you want to grab something healthy as you head out for the day. Here in Arizona, a frozen muffin placed on the dashboard will defrost by the time it takes most people to commute to work.

Click here for the recipe.

Except for baking them in the GSO I made no changes to the original recipe. It makes 12 muffins. They can be baked together by separating the muffin pans with a rack and cross stacking them, or in two batches. Either way the baking time will be 25 to 30 minutes.

Longer summer days mean more hours can be dedicated to solar cooking. Here in Arizona it’s not unusual to be able to cook with the sun from as early 8:00 AM to as late as 6:00 PM. But for an even earlier start to your solar cooking day turn the GSO “topside down” (the side with the thermometer will be on the ground), remove the leveling tray, then place a rack or trivet what is now the floor of the cooking chamber and you’ll be ready to catch the first rays of sunshine. I use this trick to bake breakfast casseroles that I assemble the night before or a simple bowl of steel cut oatmeal. First thing in the morning I pop my breakfast in the GSO then I go about my business. Oatmeal is usually ready by the time I’ve finished my morning routine; casseroles take longer and are best for week-ends. Solar cooked oatmeal tastes so good even my porridge hating husband will eat it.

Breakfast for two, oatmeal in the covered mug and and eggs in the other.

Now if only I can figure out a way to get my espresso maker to run on solar power.