Once slightly cooled, the edges fully crisp and the centers gel into a soft cookie fudge. This is often achieved by baking semi-flattened balls of cookie dough until they spread and puff, then removing them from the oven before the centers collapse. However, when it comes to chocolate chip cookies, there's one textural profile that is universally loved by most: crispy edges and fudgy center. It’s the intensity of this hot air that dries out and crisps the surface area of food so quickly, somewhat approximating the results of frying.ĭifferent cookies require a variety of baking times and temperatures to yield their ideal texture. Food is placed in a slotted basket surrounded by heating elements and high-powered fans that circulate heat around a small chamber. They're tiny but mighty, which speaks to me as a personality trait in general. I quickly realized that air fryers are basically countertop convection ovens with a new look and PR push. Why the air fryer is the perfect cookie-baking appliance Warm chocolate chip cookies, fresh out of the. ![]() ![]() It was on this night that my love for air fryer cookies was born. What I found instead were several bags of prepped and portioned chocolate chip cookie dough waiting patiently for oven season to return. Was an air fryer like an Easy-Bake Oven on steroids?Īfter dinner one night, a sweet craving struck and I peered into my freezer, hopeful for the last vestiges of an ice cream pint or a stray popsicle. It was while thumbing through Ben’s Air Fry Every Daythat I came across his baking sections: “Savory Breads” and “Sweets.” In these chapters, he makes rolls, empanadas, cakes, crumbles, and beignets. But hadn’t they seen the frozen food wonderland of “Will It Air Fry?” that James Park was sharing on Instagram? Even cookbook author and food journalist Ben Mims published an entire book’s worth of air fryer meals. “It’ll be my little secret,” I thought, since my industry friends tend to be highly skeptical of most home kitchen appliances. I’d been living in tiny apartments without a microwave for so long that it felt like part of my personality at this point, and an air fryer seemed microwave-adjacent but with more textural possibilities that appealed to my deep love for all things crispy and crunchy. Even though my baking was flourishing, I was falling into a rut with my cooking and was ready to embrace anything that would streamline the dinner process. It was around this time that I fell prey to a targeted online ad for an air fryer. A professional baker falls in love with the air fryer Any use of my oven made the apartment (and anyone inside) miserably hot. I live in an ancient building in the East Village that sags in the middle and boasts an “inner window” as a form of interior air circulation. Surprisingly, in a matter of weeks I was finding my home baking groove: overcoming my fears! Feeling inspired! Comforting those around me with warm baked goods! And then: enter NYC summer. ![]() I used to tell myself it was a “separation of church and state,” but the real truth is that I was scared I might only be good in my ideal environment: bulk-sourced ingredients, optimal tools, and high-powered ovens.īut then the pandemic hit New York and I was out of a job, stuck at home, and found myself looking around my tiny kitchen and sizing things up. I’d been coping with an unrelenting fear of baking in my own kitchen, and my own oven, for years. The difference with me, though, is that I’ve been a professional baker for over a decade. Like countless others during the pandemic, I picked up home baking. That includes learning to embrace the air fryer, and a surprisingly great use for the appliance: perfectly baked chocolate chip cookies. Professional baker and James Beard nominee Zoë Kanan is known for her stunning pastries and breads, yet she only recently discovered the joy of baking at home.
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