Howdy folks, let’s have some fun today! Can we make classic recipes in an air fryer? By that I mean, pretty much everything, the prep and all, then cook it in the same appliance? Well this was a really enjoyable experiment! I hope you enjoy the video, if you liked it you may want to try check out the air fryer hacks video, this was a really beneficial video for me to pick up some hints from that I have used in this video and beyond! Anyhow, here are the recipes to try!
Air Fryer Cauliflower Cheese
To make the cauliflower cheese, add warm water to your air fryer bucket, enough to cover the cauliflower and warm for a good 15 minutes, or until softened in blasts at around 180c, checking regularly. Drain and put to one side once you are happy with the consistency and that it is softened enough.
Make the rough by adding butter to the air fryer bucket, melting it quickly in blasts for say 20 seconds at time, stirring in the flour, then keep blasting and stirring, until foaming, say 4-5 minutes, be careful to not burn it. Add the mustard, cream and milk to the air fryer bucket, stir and return to the heat, removing and stirring regularly for approx. ten minutes at 180c whilst it thickens, once thick take off the heat and stir through the cheddar cheese until melted.
Sprinkle the cheese mix on top and blast again in the air fryer to melt through and blister, there we go, cauliflower cheese in an air fryer!
Air Fryer Pizza
The most important thing here is to pre-heat your air fryer and part cook your base to make it taste good, not doing so will leave you with a soggy bottom on the dough. Shape your pizza onto the rack to get a decent shape, line with baking parchment and pre-heat it to 180c, let it warm up in the oven for 3 minutes while your prepare your toppings.
Quickly remove the bucket with the air fryer grate that is lined and now warmed, place down the dough, coat in sauce, and your toppings, then air fry for approx. 5 minutes, cook until the cheese is blistered and the crust is puffed up and crust, essentially cook it for as long as you can to really get that colour in there and a nice crunchy crust. Remove, slice and gobble up!
Chocolate chip Cookies in an Air Fryer
Now these are fun to make, they also taste slightly more caramelised I think due to the way we melt the butter rather than cream it, they were very popular with the family!
In your air fryer bucket, melt the butter at 160c in 20 second blasts until fluid, add in the sugar (both types) in the bowl and stir through so the butter and sugar absorb together, add in the vanilla, egg and egg yolks, stirring well, then fold in the flour, do this all in the air fryer bucket, you should have a dough. Add in the chocolate chips, mixing through to scatter them evenly. Leave the dough to stand for a few minutes or if you want it easier to shape you can place it in the fridge.
When ready to cook, line your rack of the air fryer with baking parchment, roll the dough into ball shapes, slightly flatten onto the rack well spread apart, you may find you can only do 2 at a time potentially! Bake (oops I mean air fry!) at 160c for 10 minutes, but they may need slightly less, aim to get a nice golden colour on them and please let them rest for a moment to cool before attempting to remove them as they get stronger / easier to handle as they cool down like normal cookies do too.
I would say out of all the recipes, this was one of the tastiest, but the least efficient due to the amount of space you are restricted to in an air fryer unfortunately.
Air Fryer Filet-O-Fish
I loved this, something about making the tartare sauce from scratch was a lot of fun indeed and it’s probably my favourite for the reward / effort out of all these recipes.
First up lets toast the buns to stop the tartare sauce soaking into the bread. So air fry the burger bun, cut side facing up for approx. 3-4 minutes, watching it like a hawk so it doesn’t burn at about 160c, keep going until lightly toasted, put to one side.
Mix together all of the tartare sauce ingredients in the air fryer bucket, tweak to your liking by adding more lemon juice etc, scrape out and clean ready for the fish. You can probably do this in a bowl with a lot less hassle of cleaning if you want.
Now get your frozen breaded cod fillet, air fry for approx. 20 minutes (or according to package instructions) turning halfway during cooking. 160c should be fine.
Serve by placing a cheese slice on the bottom toasted bap, adding the cooked fish fillet on top, then topping with the tartare sauce and the lid. Warm optionally in the air fryer for a moment to melt the cheese if you wish, this will not need long at all, maybe 30 seconds, but does bring it all together nicely.
Air Fryer Apple Pie
This is pretty fun but you need to shape the pastry to the size of your air fryer bucket ideally, if you want to follow the way I did it. Easier of course is to just get a silicone liner for the air fryer. I lined the bottom of the air fryer with a big fold of foil (video shows this well) to help getting the rack out easier. Grease the air fryer bucket all over, then cut and shaped a piece of dough into a disc, creating a border for the sides with more dough, which is joined to the base, make sure there are no gaps. Prick the base with a fork and then fill with baking beads.
Air fry fry for approx. 10 minutes, but do keep an eye on it, at 160c to blind bake the base and sides. Remove carefully using the foil to lift and help you, gently remove the baking beads when it is safe to do so. Whilst it’s cooling you can make the filling, mix together the apple slices with the lemon juice, cinnamon, sugar and vanilla extract, coating all over evenly.
Pour this mixture into the baked pie base, spread evenly to make a nice level filling. Drape over another slice of ready made pastry, using letters if you wish, push in neatly to cover the apples fully but just bite the sides. Brush with egg yolk all over, add a sprinkle of sugar, then bake for approx. 20 minutes, until golden brown all over. The apples will be slightly softened, if you prefer them to be softer you could cook them independently before putting them in the pie, again using the air fryer bucket. This was delicious!
Air Fryer Spaghetti Bolognese
First thing to say is depending on the size of the air fryer bucket capacity, you may have to snap your spaghetti as it won’t close! I halved mine and it was fine, but for pasta etc it would work great!
Add beef mince to the pan, with a little spray oil, warm to 160c and cook, removing and stirring in the air fryer bucket every few minutes, until golden brown. Drain off any excess fat, leave to one side.
In the air fryer bucket add the spaghetti, top with warmed water just enough to cover it, then air fry for a good 20 minutes at least at 160c until cooked through, test it’s cooked before moving to the next step, or continue to cook and check on 2-3 minute blasts. Remove and keep in the warm spaghetti water.
Heat the tomato sauce with the garlic clove in the air fryer bucket, warming up for a few minutes at 160c just to cook through and get hot. Bring the spaghetti & meat into the pan and stir through to coat fully in the sauce, generously top with parmesan and serve! Extremely good!