The Parchment Paper Hack To Make Quick Pancake Breakfasts In The Air Fryer

The air fryer is a fashionable appliance that quickly cooks and crisps a broad range of vegetables, proteins, and breads. As far as air-fried breakfast foods go, hash browns and French toast are perfect candidates, but the one dish we have advised against putting in the air fryer is pancakes. Well, now we've found a way to make the impossible possible by using parchment paper to cook a batch of pancakes in your air fryer.

While liquid batter usually creates a goopy, burnt mess to scrub off of the bottom of your air fryer, layers of parchment paper act like a series of mini baking sheets to maintain the form of each pancake, while also allowing you to bake a whole stack of them at once. To execute the hack, line the air fryer basket with a folded sheet of parchment paper, topping it with around two tablespoons of reasonably thick pancake batter. Using a squeezy bottle, like one of these inexpensive Brightform squirt bottles will help you make perfectly formed pancake mounds. Once you've doled out the first pancake, top the batter with a second sheet of parchment paper and a second pancake. Repeat this process up to six times — or however many you can stack in your air fryer — before sliding the basket into the appliance. Bake your stack of pancakes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 7 to 8 minutes. Depending on the air fryer you're using, you might need to adjust the temperature to a slightly lower temperature like 360 or 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Stacking pancakes in the air fryer renders a large batch to feed a breakfast crowd. That said, air fryer pancakes may be thinner than their griddle cooked counterparts because stacking them weighs them down and stops them from rising fully. The parchment paper also prevents the ones lower in the stack from browning. So, if you want a browned pancake with a more fluffy consistency, you can make one pancake at a time, spooning or pouring pancake batter over a parchment paper-lined air fryer basket and baking the pancake for 2 to 3 minutes per side at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Another way to get browned edges is to spread butter or coconut oil over freshly air-fried pancakes, adding them back to the air fryer basket, uncovered, for another 2 minutes to crisp up. If you want to cook multiple pancakes at a time while still getting them to rise and fluff, you can pour batter into mini disposable pie tins like these Stock Your Home disposable ones that come in various sizes. Depending on your air fryer, you can fit between two and six tins in the air fryer basket.

Thick pancake batter is key to ensuring it doesn't run off the parchment paper or flatten into a sad crepe. So whether you're using a store-bought pancake mix (such as this Whole Food organic buttermilk pancake and waffle mix) or an easy homemade pancake batter, you can thicken it as necessary by adding more flour, ground oats, or a thickening agent like corn or potato starch.