Scribble Cookies Part II: Microwave Method

{Palm Tree Microwave Scribble Cookies}

Materials:

• paper cups
• microwave safe plate
• broken crayon bits

Optional Materials:

• plastic or silicone molds
• cooking spray

Directions:

{Fresh from the microwave}

1. Remove paper from old broken crayons and break them into smaller pieces, if possible.
2. Place crayon bits in paper cups (we used small kitchen/bathroom cups).
3. Put cups on a microwave safe plate and heat on high power for 4-6* minutes, until wax is melted.
4. If desired, pour hot wax into a mold. (We used plastic ice cube trays to make palm tree-shaped crayons.) Or, you can leave the wax in the paper cups.
5. Allow wax to cool. This takes about 40 minutes to an hour, but you could also try putting it in the freezer to speed things up.
6. Remove from molds or tear away paper cup. (You may need to do a bit of excavating around the bottom since the cup sticks to the wax a bit.)

Notes:

{After being removed from the paper cups}

• *I found that time online, but it took 8 minutes for our crayons to melt. I just put the crayons in and checked them every 2 minutes until they were melted.
• Be careful pouring wax into molds. This may be best left to an adult. It gets extremely hot! (I learned this firsthand.) Also, the plate gets hot, and even the paper cups seemed hot.
• When using the molds, I sprayed one with cooking spray, and left the other alone. The shaped crayons came out of both without breaking, but they were much easier to get out of the ice cube tray that I had sprayed before hand.
• The smell of microwaving wax is not exactly pleasant, and it seemed worse than when we made scribble cookies in the oven.
• The palm tree crayons ended up broken quickly (trunks completely removed from leaves) so if you are making a shape, I would recommend a "sturdy" one without smaller parts. 
• The round scribble cookies that came from the paper cups work fine. Some turned out about 1/4 inch thick and some were more like 1/2 inch thick. Like oven made scribble cookies, thicker is better, in my opinion.



{"Original Recipe" Vs. Microwave Recipe}

• Here are some other things to do with old, broken crayons (and my source of info).