Why does heat from the microwave make bread floppy while heat from a toaster makes bread crispy?

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I made a toaster waffle for myself this morning. Growing impatient, I popped it out before it was all the way done. As I was buttering it, I noticed parts of the waffle were still cold. Since there was already butter and syrup on it, I couldn’t put it back in the toaster. I threw it in the microwave for 20 seconds and it came out floppy instead of crispy. What gives?

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23 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Microwaves (the electromagnetic waves) are particularly well-absorbed by water molecules.

When you “microwave” something you’re basically heating up all the water molecules really-well and the other molecules only kinda-well; if you heat things up *enough* you’ll turn more and more of those water molecules into steam.

The reason why microwave-versus-toaster is giving you different results is because you are essentially cooking by steaming (hot wet) in the microwave oven and essentially cooking by baking (hot dry) in the toaster.

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