You are not cooking them long enough if you have old maids. And don't eat the old maids. They will break fillings and they are not softer coming out the other end. Don't ask me how I know.

They say on the bag do not use a specific time on the microwave but watch the bag plump up. That kind of works but I find that different bags will plump up more or less than others. So it is not an accurate indicator. But it is the way to get down to a close initial time.

Set the timer on about 1:40 and watch the bag. If it quits raising in size go for two or three more seconds and stop it. Note the time. If you have old maids, increase it a couple seconds from whatever time you stopped it at. If you have burnt ones, cut it back a few seconds. I have found two seconds one way or the other can make a lot of difference.

Once you get the time down right for your specific microwave, write it on the box. Or you will forget it like I do and have to start over. Once you get the time right, even though different bags may plump up differently, the time stays about right. Like I say. 1:40 for our microwave. If you have a dinky microwave it may never work really well. We have poorer luck with small microwaves. At 1:40 once in a while I will have maybe one rind that shows a little burnt, but most of the time all perfect.

One very important thing. Unfold the bag and shake it from each end to spread out the rinds in all three sections of the bag. It is not so important to have them perfectly spread out evenly, but just make sure there are rinds in all three sections of the bag. Place the correct side up as instructed on the bag. If your microwave is too small for the bag to rotate or if you do not have a rotating turntable in your microwave it might not work so well.

Hope that helps.

John