Just a few days in the past, UK tech retailer Currys posted an air fryer pancake hack on its TikTok channel.
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 cook dinner abruptly. The video then cuts to an ideal pile of pancakes.
A lot of web sites jumped on the bandwagon, embedding the video, dubbing it the ‘Currys air fryer hack’ and giving imprecise and doubtful ideas as to the best way to replicate this excellent pancake triumph.
As you may need guessed, within the time because it was posted, the unique video has been extensively debunked as nonsense.
However is it? As a service to culinary science, we determined to try to make pancakes in an air fryer to seek out out the reality.
Pancake batter
We used a BBC Good Meals pancake recipe. For that, you’ll want:
- 100g plain flour
- 2 giant eggs
- 300ml milk
- 1 Tbsp oil
- Pinch of salt
To be clear, this can be a crêpe recipe. For those who favor American-style pancakes, you need to use this Martha Stewart recipe as an alternative. Both approach, good luck to you. Whether or not or not you add a pinch of baking soda or a bit roughly milk or flour, it received’t provide help to within the wars forward.
You’ll additionally want:
Add the substances to a bowl and whisk gently. Pour right into a jug.
Now you might have 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 believe the easiest way to explain the ensuing pancake is unhappy. I really feel responsible for bringing it into this world. It had a pallid, flabby look however I used to be reluctant to cook 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 believe lots of people simply wouldn’t eat this.”
Pancake 2
The distinction right here was that I laid down a sheet of greased parchment paper and poured the pancake combine on that. I wished to know what would occur if you happen to cooked a pancake the way in which they do within the TikTok video.
Because it turned out, my thirst for data had a excessive value.
It’s arduous 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. For those who had 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”.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
I did, nonetheless, serve this misshapen pancake to our tester.
Tester’s verdict: “Barely worse than the earlier one. This isn’t nice. That is sort of horrible. It’s liquid within the center. Why am I consuming this?”
Pancake 3
This time round, I minimize the baking paper right into a circle, to keep away from a repeat of the sq. pancake debacle, and cooked it in the identical approach because the earlier pancakes.
It was at this level that the air fryer rebelled in opposition to getting used for a goal so wildly in opposition to its nature.
An air fryer is only a mini convection oven, and convection ovens work by circulating sizzling air. After 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 an entire new strategy. Maybe, I theorised, at this level, the issue was that exact air fryer. I’m additionally testing the sensible Ninja Speedi in the intervening time. 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 4 minutes at 180°C.
Ninja could be pleased with the truth that it didn’t stick in any respect. Nonetheless, no-one could be pleased with the rest in any respect on this experiment. The perfect we will 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.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Tester’s verdict: “It tastes leathery. It tastes like consuming material. Why? No, don’t do that.”
Verdict
Not solely is making pancakes in an air fryer a horrible thought, however making pancakes in a pan is so easy it’s one thing that basically doesn’t want a hack.
Methods to (really) use an air fryer when making pancakes
Pancakes are fast and simple to make in a pan – and that’s truthfully the easiest way to cook dinner them. Nonetheless, what typically occurs is that you find yourself making and consuming pancakes as you go, reasonably 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 sizzling earlier than dishing them up. Pre-heat your air fryer when you’re making your pancakes after which deposit the pancakes into the air fryer one after the other as they’re performed, 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 perfect air fryers for not cooking pancakes.