When a craving for chocolate-chip cookies hits, it's not easy to have the patience to make them from scratch — even if I have all of the ingredients in my kitchen.
Recently, a lightbulb went off when I had a last-minute cookie craving: Can I cut down my baking time by using an air fryer to make them?
I looked up recipes, prep information, and cook times for various kitchen appliances and put together a plan that felt easy and quick to test.
Here's how it went.
I started by gathering ingredients.
I had most of the ingredients in my pantry already.
Meredith Schneider
When I make cookies, I tend to double or triple the batch to accommodate future cravings. But since most air fryers can only bake two to four cookies at a time, I chose to stick with a simple, single batch of dough.
My standard recipe calls for 1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour, ½ cup brown sugar, ¼ cup white sugar, ½ cup unsalted butter, one egg, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, ¼ teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, and a cup of semisweet chocolate chips.
The butter and sugar went in first.
I melted the butter a little for convenience.
Meredith Schneider
Most cookie-dough recipes call for room-temperature butter, but I prefer it slightly melted to make mixing easier.
I melted my butter for about 10 to 20 seconds in the microwave.
Once it was soft and just beginning to melt, I added the white and brown sugar and creamed the ingredients together.
Room-temperature eggs are best for cookie dough.
I warm up my eggs by placing them in warm water before cracking.
Meredith Schneider
The next step was adding one egg — preferably at room temperature if you have the patience for it — and the vanilla extract to the bowl.
I beat the ingredients together until the mixture was smooth.
Once the wet ingredients are done, it's time for the dry.
I mix my cookie dough by hand.
Meredith Schneider
Once the wet ingredients were fully blended, I scooped in the flour, baking soda, and salt, and mixed until a firm dough formed.
The chocolate goes in last.
You can switch up the dough with different kinds of chocolate.
Meredith Schneider
The recipe I used called for 1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips for a single batch.
But you can choose your chocolate based on personal preferences — or even substitute butterscotch, peppermint, peanut-butter, or white-chocolate chips.
If you like less chocolate in your cookies, start with ½ cup of chips.
Then, it was time to put the air fryer to the test.
I experimented with baking three cookies at a time.
Meredith Schneider
I placed some foil on the rack in my air fryer, rolled my dough into 2-inch balls, and popped them inside. I made sure the cookies were about 1 ½ inches away from each other to account for spreading.
My air-fryer basket has space for two standard-size cookies or four smaller ones.
I set the air fryer to 325 degrees and tried baking the cookies for five, six, and seven minutes. I found seven minutes is best if you want the cookie to be well-baked but still gooey.
I don't think it was the best cookie ever, but I'm pleased with the swift results.
I prefer cookies that are fully baked on the outside and slightly gooey inside.
Meredith Schneider
The air fryer preserved the doughy interior of the cookie a lot differently than a conventional oven. Because the cooking process is faster, it almost holds the dough in place, so it puffs up without it spreading too much.
My cookies had the perfect crunch on the outside with gooey goodness on the inside. They were just what I needed.
Although I've definitely used better and more intricate chocolate-chip-cookie recipes in the past, I can't complain much about a homemade cookie that's ready in less than 15 minutes. This is probably the ideal appliance for making small batches or one at a time when the craving strikes.
I'm excited to try using my air fryer to make small batches of other kinds of cookie dough, especially around the holidays.
