It was the 23rd day of February. The outdoor temperature was in the 40’s. The snow was melting. And most importantly, the sky was clear blue. So I decided to bake a loaf of bread in my All-American Sun Oven.
The sun oven uses no electricity, propane, cow dung, or any other fuel, except the flaming hydrogen gas of the sun.
My little ball of dough growing and rising, trying to become a big ball.
I used a simple French bread recipe, but any bread recipe will do. And you don’t have to bake bread. Anything that can be baked in a regular oven can also be baked in a sun oven. Including Baked Alaska. At least that’s what the All-American Sun Oven literature claims.
But so far, I’ve only baked bread.
Proofing in the Pyrex. It still has rising power. Go dough, go!
I wanted to try this oven a few weeks ago, but then we were hit by a pox of precipitation that cut off my hydrogen fuel supply. The literature claims that it will work under partly cloudy conditions, as long as the sun is peaking in and out of the clouds. But our refractory weather wasn’t even doing that much for me.
Back view of the All-American Sun Oven.
In the wintertime you have to confine your baking time to the two hours before and after solar noon. But screw that. At 9:30 am, about two-and-a-half hours prior to the 11:59 am solar noon, my oven had pre-heated to just 260°F. I felt impatient. So I stuck the bread in there anyway, even though the recipe calls for 30 minutes in a 400°F oven. But hell, it’ll warm up, I figured.
Front view of the oven, baking my baguette. The oven will hold a pan up to 8.5”W X 12.75”L X 6.5”H.
The weird thing is that the literature claims you can leave food in the solar oven for much longer than you can in a conventional oven, and it will never burn. Nor will it dry out, due to the way the oven is sealed. Well, we’ll see.
At 9:30 am, the oven temp was only 260°F. Almost touchable.
By 10:00 am, the oven temp had risen to 350°F, with the outdoor temp at 48°F. The bread had also risen a little more, but still looked pale white. However, with these higher temperatures, I expected caramelization to occur soon, with browning of the bread top.
10:00, and 350°F. The bread should be browning soon.
About every 20-30 minutes you must go outside and rotate the oven a little, so that it tracks the moving sun. But checking on the oven can be advisable anyway, for warding off your dogs, in case you’re broiling steaks.
By 10:30 am, the oven temp had only risen to 360°F. The bread was still as white as my fanny.
10:30, and 360°F. Come on, bread, where’s your tan?
At 11:00 am, the oven temp was back down to 355°F. Steam was streaming out of leaks in the seal, carrying the heavenly scent of baking bread. That’s because I accidentally engaged only one of the two latches that seal the glass lid.
11:00, and 355°F. Still working on that tan.
At 11:30 am, the oven temp had dropped to 350°F, with the outdoor temp up to 50°F. The bread top had browned some.
11:30, and 355°F. Finally some real brown is showing up.
At solar noon, 11:59 am, with not a cloud in the sky, the oven temp had dropped to 325°F, with the outdoor temp still at 50°F. There was no breeze. So I do not understand why the oven temp had dropped at the same time the sun had reached zenith. I suspect it may have to do with steam that formed on the inside glass, blocking out some of the sun’s rays. But it may also have to do with me only latching down one of the lid latches. Oops.
11:59, and 325°F. Notice the condensation at the bottom?
At 11:59 am, the bread came out hot from the oven. It had a crisp, slightly golden brown crust, but was soft and moist on the inside. It was thoroughly cooked, and not doughy. The crust was a bit too thick for my preference, but my wife thought it was just right. I think maybe an hour less of cooking would have produced a thinner crust, better to my personal liking.
Fresh and hot, out of the oven. Looks good enough to eat.
But the most important thing, was that the bread tasted delicious. After two-and-a-half hours of baking you’d think it would be burnt to a crisp, and rock hard all the way through. But no, it was very edible.
Delicious. Especially after I zapped it in the microwave for a few seconds, to soften the butter.
If you haven’t fallen asleep yet, and you’re still interested, click this link to learn more about the incredible All-American Sun Oven.
[This post paid for by nobody. I just like this oven.]
Categories: Reviews
Chasing Unicorns 
Cool! I’ve never heard of a sun oven.
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It’s just one of those strange little unicorns I managed to hunt down. I think it might come in handy in a natural disaster, when utilities like natural gas have been interrupted.
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I’ve seen a solar oven (or something similar) sold for camping trips. Looks like you put it to good use. What are you going to cook next? Pizza?
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Would be hard to estimate the ETA on that pizza… could be 20 minutes, could be 2 hours… 🙂
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Heck, it could be all day.
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I can’t see Domino’s switching to solar ovens any time soon.
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Yeah, they’d have to close down on the very days people want to stay inside and order pizza.
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Just like a regular pizza phone order. You’re never sure when it’ll arrive. 🙂
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Yes. And the delivery person’s tips would go down on cloudy days.
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Pizza sounds great. But I haven’t decided yet.
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Keep us posted!
Literally.
Post a post to apprise us of the oven’s next production.
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I will when apropos.
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What a fun thing to have. And I’m not sure how you make a post giving a minute by minute recount of bread baking so interesting, but you did!
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Thanks. It’s a fun little toy to play with. And it’s nice to have around in case of a natural disaster, or in case we forget to pay our gas bill.
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I’ve heard these are quite popular in third world countries where they’ve exhausted the supply of wood/trees. It sounds as if this method of baking takes a lot of fussing, temp checking, etc. If I installed a bunch of solar panels on my roof, I could do the same thing with my real oven (which is electric). Your oven is portable though, and probably much cheaper. I’m glad the bread turned out good, I was starting to worry when it was still butt-white after 1.5 hours. 🙂
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I can see how they could use this in a third world country.
I think much of my fussing was for nothing. It was just my first time to use this oven. Apparently, you can’t burn anything in it, so the biggest fuss is remembering to go outside and move it once in a while to track the sun.
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Very cool! Impressive, and now you made me hungry for bread! I am glad that it turned out well, was worth the wait! 🙂
I think my sister would love to have one of these ovens.
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Thanks. Is your sister into camping?
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She is very environmentally conscious. Her son majored in Environmental science.
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Oh yeah, I can see why she’d like it. It’s an environmentalist’s dream come true.
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Exactly! 🙂
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The crock pot of the sun. Fun!
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Exactly. In fact you can treat it like a crock pot, by setting it up so that it faces due south, then leaving it alone without adjusting it. It cooks at a lower temperature over a longer period of time.
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I’ve never heard of these Sun Ovens before, but you must have the patience of Job to cook with it. You make a good point though … for when the Apocalypse comes. We’ll all be heading to your place!
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Just bring some bread flour and yeast, and we’ll have an Apocalypse cookout.
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I’m in!
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Awesome turnout! Looks delish!
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Thanks. It was delish.
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