The Simplest Method To 'Bake' Cookies Without An Oven

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We have developed countless cookie recipes your family will love, and all of them are oven-baked. But what if you wanted to make cookies without an oven? We consulted Jerrelle Guy, a recipe developer and the author of "Black Girl Baking," a James Beard Award-nominated cookbook about the possibility of bakeless cookies. Her baking expertise and creative projects like The Dinner Ritual, a newsletter exploring cooking and spirituality, inform many ideas for bakeless cookies.

"Dough can be cooked in an air fryer, on the stovetop, in a waffle iron, microwave, and even [in] an Instant Pot — they all work, just with different cook times and textural outcomes," Guy says. While not every household has waffle irons, air fryers, or Instant Pots, most modern kitchens have microwaves. Consequently, Guy also notes that, "[T]he easiest method would arguably be the microwave, but it comes with caveats — you'll need to use a microwave-safe dough (one without raw eggs or untreated flour)."

Microwaves aren't hot enough to kill the potential pathogens hiding in raw eggs and untreated, raw flour. Luckily, baking powder is the only leavening agent you need to get microwave cookies to rise. Plus, creamed butter and sugar are sticky and fluffy enough to serve as binding agents for the rest of the ingredients. You can find bleached or treated all-purpose flour, like this one from White Lily, at most grocery stores. That said, Chef Guy also proposes "us[ing] alternative flours like almond or oat flour, and egg substitutes like milk or applesauce."

While microwaves are the easiest and probably the quickest way to make cookies without an oven, there are a few more caveats that Chef Guy talks about with regard to execution and the final result. "Because microwaves don't use dry heat, you'll get a softer, more cake-like cookie that spreads more and lacks the crispy, golden edges you get from oven baking," she advises. "If you're making cookies this way, treat them more like mug cakes: put the dough in a ramekin or mug, microwave for about 30–60 seconds, and anticipate a soft, chewy, or cakey cookie — not a crisp one."

We have a few mug cake recipes like this lemon mug cake that mix the batter directly in the microwave-safe mug or ramekin, which you can also do with microwave cookies. That said, cookie dough is generally thicker than cake batter, and the proportion of dry ingredients is thus higher for microwave cookies. A ramekin like this porcelain Dowan ramekin will make for a more evenly cooked cookie and an elegant presentation. While the microwave may not be ideal for a crunchy sugar or shortbread cookie, a fudgy chocolate chewy cookie or a classic chocolate chip cookie are great choices. You can upgrade their flavor by using browned butter or top them with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, like we do in this recipe for skillet chocolate chip cookie cake.