Air Fryer Sandwich Bread

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!