I've been using my air fryer a lot lately and experimenting with air fryer cookies. So far it's a great way to bake cookies. The air fryer's warm, dry air circulates around the dough creating thick cookies with crisp edges and chewy centers. Here's a photo of the latest one which I baked in the Instant Pot Vortex Slim fryer.
And here's a shot of the texture. It's soft and chewy, but not doughy. That is, it's soft, but still baked-through and not raw. It reminds me of bakery style cookies or some ones I had over the holiday at Chip City Cookies in Chicago.
The thing with air frying cookies is it takes a little trial and error to nail down the exact temperature and time for your particular air fryer. And you also have to take into account the size and shape of the dough. Flat pucks cook quicker than thick balls, and cold dough takes longer than room temperature. And then there's the issue of lining. If you don't line the basket, the cookie dough may seep through the cracks. That, plus most cookie doughs just have different compositions, so what works for peanut butter dough might be a little different for chocolate chip. But mostly, it depends on the model air fryer you are using.
Air Fryer Bake Times in Different Models
Now that I've baked cookies in three or four different air fryers, I figured I could at least give an approximation of how long it takes with each one. So these are my thoughts on air frying cookies in a Breville Smart Oven Pro, a Ninja 5-in-1, and an Instant Pot Vortex.
Breville Smart Oven Pro Cookies
The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro was my go-to air fryer for a while, but I am on my third Breville because they keep breaking. But I still love how they bake and feel like with the Breville, there's no need to use the built-in air fryer for cookies because the convection settings do such a good job. If you do want to try air frying cookies in the Breville, here are the times and temps for 2 oz pieces of dough.
- Air Fry setting: 375°F for about 8-10 minutes for 2 oz dough.
- Put a small piece of parchment under each cookie.
- Rotate pan halfway if browning unevenly.
Ninja Foodi
At one point I owned a Ninja Foodi, but I gave it away because it was big, bulky and harder to clean. But the Ninja Foodi works really well for cookies. They brown fast in this machine, so slightly lower heats work best, especially for larger cookies.
- Line basket with perforated parchment or put a small piece of parchment underneath each cookie.
- Air fry at 320°F for small to medium size (2 oz) chunks of dough. Check at 8 minutes, but will probably take longer.
- For extra large cookies like the ones in the photo, use 300°F and air fry for about 16 minutes. The Ninja air fryer works especially well for the Chick-Fil-A Copycat Cookies.
Instant Pot Vortex Slim
The Instant Pot Vortex Slim is my favorite air fryer so far, and works perfectly for giant, cracked-top bakery style cookies with soft interiors. This air fryer runs a little hotter, so the baking temperature for cookies is even lower.
- You can use a liner for larger batches, but I usually just put a small piece of parchment, leaving about a half inch perimeter, under each cookie when baking just a few.
- Air Fry at 325°F 7-8 minutes for 2 oz pieces dough. This temp works for flatter pieces of cookie dough and cookies that look good with extra browning such as peanut butter. Reduce to 300°F for 2 oz rounder balls of dough (like chocolate chip) and check at 8 to 10 minutes. For very large dough rounds (4 oz or more), 285°F for 16 minutes and then let the cookies sit in the off-fryer for about 5 minutes so they continue to bake internally.
- No need to rotate with this model.
Air Frying Cookies -- To Line or Not to Line
When air-frying cookies, you may want to use perforated parchment liners to keep the cookie dough from seeping through the basket. The liners also provide a nonstick surface that catches drips and crumbs while still letting air circulate around the dough. You can also use regular parchment (never preheat with it!) for larger batches or put little circles of parchment paper under each piece of dough. The bottoms of the cookies won't crisp much, but I kind of like how once set, the softer bottom makes the cookies bendable.
Giant Cookie Recipe
Well, thanks for reading all that. I didn't realize I had so much to say about air frying cookies, As your reward for reading (or hitting the jump to recipe button), here's a new recipe for giant cookies! This one, as mentioned, is modeled after the cookies from Chip City in terms of texture. They are not doughy, but almost candy-like in the center. The air fryer helps give you that quality, but if you want to bake in the oven, I've included time and temps.
Recipe
Air Fryer Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup bread flour (105 grams)
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons cake flour (75 grams)
- ½ tablespoon cornstarch (4 grams)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅝ teaspoon Morton kosher salt
- 8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (114 grams)
- ½ cup dark brown sugar (or use ½ cup light and ½ teaspoon molasses) (105 grams)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar (50 grams)
- 1 large egg (50 grams)
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla paste
- 9 oz Guittard Super Cookie chips chopped into irregular size bits or a mix of different chocolate chips
Instructions
- This dough must be chilled thoroughly for best results, so no need to preheat the oven until ready to bake. You can chill it for only 3 hours or leave it in the refrigerator for 2 days for even better tasting cookies with less spread.
- Mix together the flours, cornstarch, leavening agents and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attached, beat the cold butter until it is creamy. Add both sugars and beat until blended, Scrape sides of bowl, reduce speed and add the egg and vanilla. Scrape the side of the bowl and beat on low for 1 minute.
- Now add the flour mixture gradually, beating on low until it is fully blended. Lastly, stir in the massive amount of chocolate.
- Turn dough out onto a clean surface and shape into a log. Divide the log in half to make two logs, pressing them tightly so they are compact. To REALLY make them compact, freeze for 10 minutes so that they are easy to handle, then press again. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and chill for as long as you can stand it, but try for at least 4 hours.
- When ready to bake, slice each log into 2 or 3 so that you have six large cookies or four super giant cookies. At this point you can bake all your cookies or you may want to just bake one and keep the rest of the dough chilled.
Air Fryer Bake -- For the Instant Pot Vortex Slim
- Preheat air fryer to 285°F
- Cut out small rounds of parchment about 3 inches in diameter and set a cookie dough round on each piece of parchment. Set the cookie dough pieces and their parchment in the preheated air fryer and set the timer for 16 minutes. Check the cookies at the 12 minute mark, but plan on 16 minutes. If cookie dough is frozen, it may take 18. If you like your centers a little more set, leave the cookies in the fryer after it turns off for 5 minutes. Remove the air fryer basket and let the cookies cool.
- Sprinkle with flaky salt if you like, and cool completely (they firm up as they cool). I like to throw them in the freezer to quick-cool.
Oven Baking
- Bake the cookies on a heavy duty parchment lined baking sheet at 400°F for 10 minutes, then drop the heat to 350°F and continue baking for about 8 more minutes. Let cool completely and serve or let cool, wrap in plastic and freeze. These cookies are even better after being frozen and thawed.
Anna says
Sue, I am looking forward to hearing what you think of air fried cookies. If you don't feel like air frying, these are really good baked in the oven as well.
Sue K says
Great post! Just before Christmas I put my air fryer in the basement to free up some cupboard space. I need to use it more!!