Warning! Don't Try This At Home........

[kaneohe]

Over the years I have been successful at rejuvenating stale food like cereal, cookies, crackers and other similar things by plopping them in a toaster oven at 350 degrees F. for 15-30 min. They come out crunchy and tasty, as good as new.

Recently I thought I should update the process into a microwave oven for faster cycle time. We had a open package of Biscoff cookies which had gone past its prime. Stuck it in for 10 seconds a few days ago and it was marginally better so decided on 1 min for the second try.

Can't remember now why I tried to open the microwave door early.......but when I did a thick white foul-smelling cloud of smoke poured out into the kitchen. Fortunately nothing caught on fire and the smoke alarm did not go off. One of the 2 cookies had a little black on it but the other was completely charred and stuck firmly to the plate. I had to soak the plate in water get the cookie loose and the microcracks on the plate appear to be permanently filled w/ a dark residue.

Not sure if this is because of the Biscoff composition or more widespread but I certainly have a bit more fear of experimenting now.

Don't let your kids/grandkids do this either.

 

[Newventurer]

Interesting, near the bottom info on cookies and sugar crystallization:

https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2002/jan/10/what-happens-when-things-go-stale/

Safe this one for the kids:

Use Peeps for even more fun

 

[H2ODude]

Over the years I have been successful at rejuvenating stale food like cereal, cookies, crackers and other similar things by plopping them in a toaster oven at 350 degrees F. for 15-30 min. They come out crunchy and tasty, as good as new.

Recently I thought I should update the process into a microwave oven for faster cycle time. We had a open package of Biscoff cookies which had gone past its prime. Stuck it in for 10 seconds a few days ago and it was marginally better so decided on 1 min for the second try.

Can't remember now why I tried to open the microwave door early.......but when I did a thick white foul-smelling cloud of smoke poured out into the kitchen. Fortunately nothing caught on fire and the smoke alarm did not go off. One of the 2 cookies had a little black on it but the other was completely charred and stuck firmly to the plate. I had to soak the plate in water get the cookie loose and the microcracks on the plate appear to be permanently filled w/ a dark residue.

Not sure if this is because of the Biscoff composition or more widespread but I certainly have a bit more fear of experimenting now.

Don't let your kids/grandkids do this either.

My guess is that these were really stale to the point of negligible moisture in them. I've forgotten my physics but I'm pretty sure microwave works almost exclusively on the water molecules in your food. If it's totally dried out then I guess you'll get some weird interactions with sugar and other substances but not the typical heating up you get from a bunch of water molecules made frisky by the microwaves.

 

[travelover]

I found out the hard way that if a hard boiled egg is underdone, you can't just microwave it a little to finish it off.

 

[candrew]

Can't remember now why I tried to open the microwave door early.......but when I did a thick white foul-smelling cloud of smoke poured out into the kitchen. Fortunately nothing caught on fire and the smoke alarm did not go off. I certainly have a bit more fear of experimenting now.

Don't let your kids/grandkids do this either.

Oh man! Glad to hear that you're taking a more circumspect approach going forward. You don't want to end up a Darwin award recipient.