Pillsbury Cookies in an Air Fryer

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An air fryer is a small convection oven with an aggressive fan. That fan is why it cooks faster, and it is also why following the packet instructions gives you cookies that are dark on top and raw underneath.

Drop the temperature by about 20°C and cut the time roughly in half. For refrigerated cookie dough that means 160°C for 7–9 minutes instead of 175°C for 12–14.

Why the fan changes things

Moving air strips away the thin layer of cooler air that sits against food in a still oven. Heat transfers faster as a result, and the effect is strongest at the surface facing the airflow.

In a cookie that means the top sets and browns well before the heat has reached the middle. The cookie stops spreading early, so it also comes out thicker and more domed than an oven cookie.

The heating element is right above them

In most air fryer baskets the element sits a few centimetres above the food. Cookies placed too high — on a raised rack, or piled up — burn on top regardless of temperature.

Use the basket floor with a liner, not a raised trivet.

Parchment, and the hole problem

Loose parchment gets picked up by the fan and blown onto the element. Two ways around it:

Cut it smaller than the basket and let the dough hold it down.

Use perforated air fryer parchment, which is designed for this and lets air through so the bottoms still crisp.

Do not put parchment in an empty preheating basket. That is how it ends up against the element.

Method

1. Preheat the air fryer to 160°C for 3 minutes. An unpreheated basket adds several minutes and the first batch comes out pale.
2. Cut the parchment slightly smaller than the basket and lay it in the base.
3. Place 4 pieces of dough at a time, well apart. They spread and they need airflow between them.
4. Cook 7–9 minutes. Start checking at 6.
5. They are ready when the edges are set and the centres still look soft and slightly underdone.
6. Leave them in the basket for 3–4 minutes before moving them.

The four-minute rest is not optional

Air fryer cookies come out considerably softer than oven cookies because the inside is less cooked. Lift one straight away and it folds in half.

Left in the basket, residual heat finishes the middle and the structure sets. This is also why they should look underdone when you stop cooking.

Four at a time, not eight

The temptation is to fill the basket. Cookies with no gap between them merge, and more importantly they block the airflow that the whole appliance depends on.

Four in a standard basket. Two batches is still faster than one oven bake.

Storing

Four days in an airtight tin. They stay softer than oven-baked cookies for longer, which is a genuine advantage of the method.

Unused dough goes back in the fridge for its use-by date, or freezes for three months.