In December, the crew of the ISS baked the first cookies in space. They managed to thoroughly bake two cookies, which were not eaten, but were returned to earth on a SpaceX supply flight to be analyzed. That may seem disappointing, but there was no way to share those two cookies with the entire crew, anyway. The experimental baking process was time-consuming to say the least, as Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano reported.
The first cookie — in the oven for 25 minutes at 300 degrees Fahrenheit (149 degrees Celsius) — ended up seriously under-baked. He more than doubled the baking time for the next two, and the results were still so-so.
The fourth cookie stayed in the oven for two hours, and finally success.
“So this time, I do see some browning,” Parmitano radioed. “I can’t tell you whether it’s cooked all the way or not, but it certainly doesn’t look like cookie dough any more.”
Parmitano cranked the oven up to its maximum 325 degrees F (163 degrees C) for the fifth cookie and baked it for 130 minutes. He reported more success.
Additional testing is required to determine whether the three returned cookies are safe to eat.
Why did it take two hours to bake one cookie? A look at the oven's website has clues. They say convection cooking is not feasible in space. Then you remember that heat doesn't rise in microgravity the way it does on earth. A fan might help. And a maximum temperature of 325 degrees is low for cookies. But most pointedly, each cookie was enclosed in a silicon envelope to keep crumbs contained. Clearly, further research is needed. The upside of the experiment for the astronauts is that the baking session made the ISS smell better for a short time. -via Boing Boing
(Image credit: Christina H Koch)