It’s that point of 12 months once more and like final 12 months, TikTok is awash with content material claiming you can make a stack of scrumptious pancakes, unexpectedly, utilizing your air fryer. There’s now the same quantity of content material debunking the previous – however we’re nonetheless going to check it for ourselves.
You’ll be able to see the TikTok for your self however, basically, dollops of pancake batter are poured onto sheets of baking parchment in an air fryer, to make a stack of pancakes that prepare dinner unexpectedly. The video then cuts to a delicious-looking pile of pancakes, liberally drizzled in chocolate sauce.
Thus, the so-called ‘Currys air fryer hack’ was born. Numerous web sites jumped on the bandwagon, giving obscure and doubtful ideas as to replicate this excellent pancake triumph.
As you may need guessed, within the time because it was posted, the unique video has been broadly discredited.
However can it work? As a service to culinary science, we determined to attempt to make pancakes in an air fryer to search out out for ourselves.
Pancake batter
We used a BBC Good Meals pancake recipe. For that, you’ll want:
- 100g plain flour
- 2 massive eggs
- 300ml milk
- 1 Tbsp oil
- Pinch of salt
To be clear, this can be a crêpe recipe. Should you want American-style pancakes, you should utilize this Martha Stewart recipe as an alternative. Both method, good luck to you. Whether or not or not you add a pinch of baking soda or a bit kind of milk or flour, it gained’t assist you within the wars forward.
You’ll additionally want:
Add the substances to a bowl and whisk gently. Pour right into a jug.
Now you’ve gotten your pancake combine. I used this in 4 separate air fryer pancake makes an attempt, detailed beneath.
Pancake 1
I preheated the air fryer, utilizing a three-minute preheating setting, and poured the pancake batter straight onto the non-stick floor of the cooking drawer. I cooked it for round 4 minutes at 175°C.
I feel one of the simplest ways to explain the ensuing pancake is gloomy. I really feel responsible for bringing it into this world. It had a pallid, flabby look however I used to be reluctant to prepare dinner it extra because it had already taken on the feel of a gel insole.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
I delivered it to the tester who, having been promised pancakes, attacked it gamely.
Tester’s verdict: “Rubbery. This isn’t good. I feel lots of people simply wouldn’t eat this.”
Pancake 2
The important thing distinction between this try and the primary one is that I laid down a sheet of greased parchment paper and poured the pancake combine onto that. I wished to know what would occur should you cooked a pancake the best way they do within the TikTok video.
Because it turned out, my thirst for information had a excessive value.
It’s exhausting to establish all of the failures that led us to a pancake that appears like a block of halloumi. For a begin, the baking parchment folded up within the corners, creating an unappetising sq..
The pancake combine then pooled within the centre. Should you have been to promote the completed product, it might in all probability be unlawful to name it a pancake. You’d must label it as “pancake-style meals block”.
I did, nevertheless, serve this misshapen pancake to our tester.
Tester’s verdict: “Barely worse than the earlier one. That is sort of horrible. It’s liquid within the center. Why am I consuming this?”
Pancake 3
This time round, I reduce the baking paper right into a circle, to keep away from a repeat of the sq. pancake debacle, and cooked it in the identical method because the earlier pancakes.
It was at this level that the air fryer rebelled in opposition to getting used for a objective so wildly in opposition to its nature.
An air fryer is only a mini convection oven, and convection ovens work by circulating scorching air. Once I opened the cooking drawer, I found that the air fryer had flung the substances round like a possessed little one in a horror movie. It was unholy.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Given the disturbing nature of this iteration, I didn’t give this pancake to the tester. As an alternative, I made a decision to bag the entire mess up and bury it within the woods.
Pancake 4
I wanted a complete new strategy. Maybe, I theorised at this level, the issue was that exact air fryer. I additionally personal the good Ninja Speedi. It has an unimaginable non-stick floor, so I pre-heated it after which poured pancake batter straight onto the cooking base. I cooked it for round three minutes at 180°C.
Ninja will be pleased with the truth that it didn’t stick in any respect. Nonetheless, no-one will be pleased with anything in any respect on this experiment. One of the best we are able to say about this bulbous, malformed creation is that it was least like a pancake of all of the makes an attempt and due to this fact can’t actually be known as a foul pancake.
Tester’s verdict: “It tastes leathery. It tastes like consuming material. No, I don’t need this.”
Verdict
Not solely is making pancakes in an air fryer a horrible thought, however making pancakes in a pan is so easy that it doesn’t want a hack.
(truly) use an air fryer when making pancakes
Pancakes are fast and straightforward to make in a pan – and that’s actually one of the simplest ways to prepare dinner them. Nonetheless, what usually occurs is that you find yourself making and consuming pancakes as you go, somewhat than sitting down and having fun with them correctly.
The finest air fryer pancake hack is to make use of your air fryer to maintain your cooked pancakes scorching earlier than dishing them up. Pre-heat your air fryer whilst you’re making your pancakes after which deposit the pancakes into the air fryer one after the other as they’re achieved, separating them with a chunk of parchment paper.
Take a look at our round-up of the highest air fryers we’ve examined to see all the very best air fryers for not cooking pancakes.
