Pancake Day: I cooked pancakes in an air fryer - and it was an unmitigated disaster

Videos have been circulating on TikTok and Instagram of people cooking pancakes in an air fryer, using baking sheets to separate each pancake. As air fryers have skyrocketed in popularity, home cooks have realised you can cook all types of food in them, from eggs to doughnuts.

Now on Pancake Day, social media influencers and national news outlets are claiming that you can cook pancakes in the air fryer, cooking them at 160 degrees celsius in less than 10 minutes. So, with an empty stomach and a sense of intrigue, I thought I would give it a go myself. After all, what’s the worst that could possibly happen?

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Following a recipe for one, I whisked together one egg, 45 grams of flour and 45ml of milk into a batter, then poured the first pancake out – which promptly spilled out into a flat, mis-shapen mess. Undeterred, I placed the second sheet of baking paper on top and poured out the rest of the mixture, which formed more of a scalene triangle shape. I cranked up the temperature, set a time for six minutes (so I could flip the pancakes halfway through) and went back to work until the timer went off.

When I returned to the kitchen, lemon and sugar at the ready for the perfect topping, I saw just how badly it all had gone.

The mixture had leaked out of the tower and ended up at the bottom of the air fryer, as a sticky, disappointing pulp at the near side of the appliance. What was left between the paper was nothing more than a thin paste, not even worth the trouble of flipping to try and finish cooking.

My advice to everyone making pancakes this evening is quite simple – this TikTok trend is nothing but a fad, and it makes no sense to try and change something that isn’t broken.

Tonight, my partner and I will be cooking our pancakes in a frying pan, where they belong.