Mom found a book of healthy
recipes for the Air Fryer. Coincidentally, it is by the author of the Air Fryer
cookbook I bought after we got our little magical appliance. This prompted some
research—because I’m a nerd and I research for fun. After some reading, it
became clear that anything made in a conventional oven can be recreated in an
Air Fryer. There are limitations, of course, because our Air Fryer is a small
model—though perfect for us.
So far, one of the things I
love the most about it is that I can have roasted chicken in the summer without
having to turn the oven on—we have no AC and turning the oven on in summer is
suicidal. A 2 ½ to 3 pound chicken fits the little basket and it generally
means dinner, lunch, and a soup (so about three meals from one chicken).
Of course, the faster cooking times are a great plus too!
So far, we’ve also made lemon chicken (breast), turkey breast, turkey legs and turkey wings, pork
tenderloin, and a small pork shoulder. There are at least
two dozen other things we want to try out—including cupcakes.
A turkey wing is almost a meal in itself.
A few weeks back I was toying
with the idea of making a tiny pizza in the Air Fryer. My plan was to make a tomato sauce with
lamb and topping it with Feta cheese. We ended up making lamb burgers instead,
but the idea danced in my head for days.
Then we hit a couple of
days when we were rained in and had run out of rolls. I’d just made a pernil in
the Air Fryer and was looking forward to the leftover sandwiches. And I got it
in my head that I should be able to make rolls in the Air Fryer. None of the
books had bread recipes and trying to find one in the Internet turned into a
comedy of errors. I found a video and a recipe for dinner rolls. Neither was
quite right but they helped guide my choices.
I wanted a substantial roll,
crusty but airy and soft inside. And the solution was fairly simple: ciabatta!
I made a basic pizza dough but added powdered garlic and Greek seasoning. I let
it rise for 45 minutes to an hour and it doubled in size. I cut the dough in
half and divided again so that I ended up with four rolls.
More blonde than golden, but for emergency bread it was perfect!
I shaped two as baguettes
and the second batch as rectangles. I scored them differently too—the baguettes
got scored twice along the width and the rectangles got a vertical score across
its length.
After preheating the Air
Fryer, I placed two rolls in the basket and cooked at 360-degrees from 15
minutes on one side and 7 minutes on the other side (it could have stayed in
for 9 or 10 minutes for a darker crust). The interior temperature should reach
between 190-200 degrees.
Photos
of my first attempt. I’ll do it again!
