Its Pancake Day and what this means for me, a home tech writer, is that it’s time for my annual warning not to try making pancakes in an air fryer.
Yes, it looks cool, but those TikToks that show someone pouring batter over squares of baking paper and opening the air fryer later to reveal a perfect stack of pancakes are a filthy lie. And I’ve done the homework to prove it.
I’ve previously made crêpes in an air fryer – or at least, chunks of matter that were constitutionally the same as crêpes. This year, I’m making American-style pancakes.
Why? Well, American pancake batter is different to crêpe batter. It’s not as runny and, as it uses self-raising flour, the pancakes might spread less as they rise. So it may be technically possible to make American pancakes in an air fryer, right?
Wrong!
In this experiment, I used the Ninja FlexDrawer air fryer. It’s a brilliant appliance and shouldn’t be blamed for my crimes. The FlexDrawer has the unique ability to be used with two separate cooking drawers, or one giant cooking “megazone”, so you can fit in many more pancakes (kidding – don’t do it).
You can read our FlexDrawer review to find out more about it, see how it stacks up against Ninja’s other models in our round-up of the best Ninja air fryers, or see our top recommendations for dual-drawer air fryers, air fryer ovens or browse the best air fryers we’ve tested across all types and brands.
Control subject pancakes
First off, I prepared the batter according to a BBC Good Foods recipe and then made pancakes in a pan, just the way a normal person who isn’t overly influenced by social media might.
The control subject pancakes were perfect: airy, fluffy and delicious. I’m not an idiot. I can make pancakes. (I just feel the need to state this, given the unpleasantness that follows.)
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Air fryer attempt one
I thought I’d start off by being clever (as clever as someone trying to make air fryer pancakes can possibly be – there’s a ceiling) and poured batter into a small, spring-form baking tin, with the idea that this would, at least, create a perfectly round pancake.
I put this directly onto the crisper plate and set the air fryer for 5 minutes at 200°C.
When it was time to release it, it did look somewhat like a pancake. But it also looked somewhat like a crème brûlée, with a crunchy shell you could crack with a spoon, and a soft, unsettlingly eggy middle.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
I gave it to my tester-slash-husband, who gamely attacked it, chewed silently for a long time and returned the plate to me with an air of betrayal. No words were exchanged.
When I used the same method and adjusted the time and temperature down, I was able to get something slightly more pancake-like but suspiciously spongy? I’m not sure how to describe it but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you hate the people you’re making pancakes for.
Air fryer attempt two
Okay, so perhaps the baking tin was a bad plan. For the second test, I placed a sheet of baking paper over the entire base of the air fryer cooking drawer and poured pools of batter straight onto it.
Then I went off to check my emails.
Hands up: this was my bad. The crucial thing to remember about an air fryer is that it cooks by circulating hot air around your food. The second I walked away, the hot air started whipping the baking paper around the pancake batter and when I returned, it was a mummified mass of food, with all the appeal of a rain-soaked kebab abandoned on the pavement.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
I did present…portions… of this mass to my legally-beholden tester, who said: “The texture is almost rough. Why is it gritty in the middle?”
I was unable to provide a satisfying answer.
Air fryer attempt three
This time, I wrapped the baking sheet around the crisper plates, and tried out two different forms of pancake-cooking.
On one side, I placed the ring from the spring-form baking tin and poured batter into it. On the other side, I poured batter straight onto the baking sheet.
I then shut the air fryer drawer and walked away without a backward glance – much like a movie cool guy ignoring an explosion. Was the heat too high? Very probably. But by this point, I was over it.
The problem with cooking pancakes in an air fryer is that it’s so much less efficient and so much less fun than cooking them in a pan. And if you have any idea of making them healthier by avoiding frying them – have you seen what goes into pancake mix? Just eat a carrot instead.
If you tinker with settings, you may get something vaguely edible, but attempt number three was absolutely not it.
Nothing this bad has come out of a machine since David Cronenberg’s The Fly. When I opened the air fryer drawer, I started laughing wildly, like a mad scientist viewing the horrors of his creation.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
The final pancakes had a disturbingly fungal quality. If you found them in the woods, you wouldn’t eat them. And why should standards be any lower in your kitchen, where you actually make food that shouldn’t hospitalise you?
Interestingly, these were not the worst of the batch according to my now quite queasy tester, who descried them as “displeasing”, but went on to say: “It’s not as eggy as before, which I appreciate.”
How to use your air fryer when making pancakes
In fact, an air fryer can come in very handy when pancake-making. If you want to make your pancakes and serve them all at once, instead of individually as they come out of the pan, place them in a warm air fryer as they’re cooked.
Separate the pancakes in the stack with baking paper so they don’t stick and voila! you’ll have a stack of perfect pancakes. In fact, I bet that’s how the TikTokers did it.
