Air Fryer
Air Fryer Chocolate Chip Cookies
Crisp edges and soft middles in 6 minutes. Why the basket must be lined, why the temperature is lower than an oven, and why they should look underdone when you take them out.
Ingredients
- 150g butter, softened
- 175g soft brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 225g plain flour
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 150g dark chocolate, chopped into chunks
Method
- Beat the softened butter and brown sugar together until pale and fluffy.
- Beat in the egg and the vanilla until smooth.
- Fold in the flour and bicarbonate of soda until it just comes together into a thick dough. Do not keep working it.
- Fold the chopped chocolate through.
- Roll the dough into 18-20 golf-ball sized pieces and flatten each into a slim disc.
- Line the air fryer basket with baking parchment. This is not optional — raw dough drips straight through the basket holes.
- Air fry 3 at a time at 170°C (340°F) for 6-7 minutes, until the edges are just firm. The middles will still look soft.
- Leave them in the basket for 5 minutes to firm up, then lift them onto a wire rack with a spatula.
Notes
- The parchment is essential. Without it the raw dough drips through the holes and burns onto the element.
- Air fryers run hotter on the surface than an oven because the fan is right above the food, so cookies brown on top before the middle is done. That is why the temperature is lower than a normal cookie recipe.
- They come out looking underdone in the middle. That is correct — they firm up as they cool. Bake them until they look right in the basket and they will be hard by the time you eat them.
- Three at a time. They spread, and crowding them gives you one large joined-up cookie.
- Sources range from 163°C (325°F) to 180°C (355°F) and 5 to 8 minutes. Start checking at 5 — this is the recipe on the site where a minute matters most.
- Air fryer models vary. Treat the times as a guide, go by colour and crispness, and adjust the seasoning to your taste.
Watch it
More Air Fryer Desserts
Air fryer models vary in power and basket size, so treat the times here as a guide — go by colour and crispness rather than the clock, and adjust the seasoning and glaze to your taste.
Recipe source: Quantities and method from Lidl UK (recipes.lidl.co.uk): 150g butter, 175g brown sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla, 225g plain flour, 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda and 150g dark chocolate, making 18-20 cookies at 180°C (355°F) for 5-6 minutes. Corroborated against Cookies and Cups (cookiesandcups.com), who use 325°F (163°C) for 6-8 minutes. The 170°C (340°F) given here sits between the two. Both line the basket with baking parchment — Cookies and Cups explain it is to stop the raw dough dripping through the basket holes — both cook 3-5 at a time, and both rest the cookies in the basket before moving them.