Will it air fry? I've taste-tested 9 Christmas favorites in an air fryer here are the results

Date:
Wed, 24 Dec 2025 11:48:29 +0000

Description:
Is an air fryer really the kitchen gadget panacea? We put it to the test with some Christmas classics.

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Air fryers have been the top piece of viral kitchen tech for so long youd think the trend would have long since run out of fuel. But we have no doubt that some of the best air fryers you can buy will once again be among the most-gifted Christmas presents of 2025.

But how versatile are these things really?

I tried cooking nine different British Christmas food classics and most will be familiar to you if you're in the US or elsewhere to see if air fryers really can replace an oven and/or your other kitchen gadgets. True air fryer believers will tell you they can, even though these things are basically just tiny ovens with a more proactive fan that flings heat around in a more aggressive manner.

The rules for my challenge: no other cooking tech is allowed. If water is being heated, its getting air-fried, and were using one of the most basic air fryers out there. A word of warning though: make sure to check your air fryer's manual before cooking or heating anything unusual, as in some of the experiments below.

Weve steered away from some of the obvious culinary picks, like pigs in blankets, which these days may well come with air fryer cooking instructions. And we did not attempt to stick an entire turkey into an air fryer to see
what happened ours isnt nearly big enough, for starters.

Aside from some predictable wins and losses, there were a few surprises in
our great big festive air fryer cook-off. Heres how it went starting with something easy. 1. Mince pies Will it air fry? score: 8/10 (Image credit: Future)

An air fryer is ideal for heating up that staple of a British Christmas, the mince pie. It takes less time and less electricity than a conventional oven, and they're done within a few minutes. The question here is how much browning of the pastry we want to see in the process of heating the filling.

And this is particularly important for mince pies with an ultra-fine dusting of sugar, which will get taken out (or at least caramelized) pretty quickly under intense heat. 2. Mashed potato Will it air fry? score: 7/10 (Image credit: Future)

Air fryers are famously good at making chips and roast potatoes. But how
about mashed potato? The usual method is, of course, to boil and then mash. You can get similar-ish results by throwing whole potatoes in the air fryer, baking them, scooping out the insides and as usual chucking in a load of butter/margarine and some seasoning.

The end result tastes fantastic, but we did think this method makes it a little bit trickier to weed out the last of the lumps ,as the moisture level of the potato is going to be more variable, and lower, than when using the classic boiled method. 3. Sprouts Will it air fry? score: 7/10 (Image credit: Future)

We do not doubt that there are great sprout recipes that involve an air
fryer, but just flinging them in with a bit of seasoning is not the way to
go.

I actually tried two methods here. Half of the sprouts were placed into the air fryer, naked. The other half were wrapped in foil with a bit of water, in an attempt to half-steam them. Neither method produced fantastic results.

The naked sprouts ended up super-brown on the outside with an inconsistent cook on the inside. Our foil-wrapped sprouts ended up looking better, but again they were a little too inconsistent.

An air fryer is likely better for finishing off sprout dishes than cooking them from raw. 4. Gravy Will it air fry? score: 2/10 (Image credit: Future)

Trying to prepare gravy in an air fryer is the culinary equivalent of
watching brain-rot social media content. Its pointless and not nourishing
and you should definitely check your air fryer's instructions before attempting it.

Even at higher settings, the gravy never seems to get that hot. And you end
up with a scum of evaporated gravy solids around the edge as the process runs on. Does it work? Sure. But theres really no reason to prepare gravy this
way. 5. Yorkshire pudding Will it air fry? score: 8/10 (Image credit: Future)

For the uninitiated, Yorkshire pudding is a savory baked dish made with eggs, flour, milk, and fat that's typically served with roast meats for Americans, it's similar to a popover, but generally larger, and often bowl-shaped to
hold gravy.

The rapid heat you can get with an air fryer may make it even better than a conventional oven for Yorkshire puddings, but youre not going to fit a full platter of the things in a normal air fryer, of course.

As ever, the key is to heat the oil first in whatever receptacle you choose
to use, and then give it a good amount of time with the air fryer drawer completely closed in order to keep the heat level nice and high.

I got surprisingly good results, ending up with a fairly light and well-risen XL-size Yorkshire pudding on my first attempt. 6. Stuffing Will it air fry? score: 9/10 (Image credit: Future)

Its no surprise to see that stuffing works well in an air fryer, as they do a good job with most foods youd typically use a fan-assisted oven for. We made six stuffing balls, with slightly more water in the mix than suggested.

What we got was a crispy outer with a soft and pliant inside. Lovely stuff. And theres no reason a dishful of stuffing wouldnt fare just as well in an
air fryer. 7. Christmas pudding Will it air fry? score: 6/10 (Image credit: Future)

Another favorite of us Brits, Christmas pudding is certainly not a 'pudding' in the US sense of the word it's a steamed cake-like dessert made with dried fruits, suet, spices, breadcrumbs, eggs, and alcohol (usually sherry or brandy, or, even better, both). We expected this one to be a bust, as most of the ways you'd cook a Christmas pudding are all about retaining moisture.
And, as our cheap, single-serve pudding had to be removed from its plastic dish so we could safely place it in the air fryer, the outlook was not good.

The results were surprisingly solid, though, no doubt buoyed by the fact a tiny Christmas pudding doesnt need that long to cook. The edges were turned into a sort-of caramelized rind that were a nice contrast to the rest of the pudding and it didnt end up dry, which is the main thing I'd feared. 8. Cranberry sauce Will it air fry? score: 6/10 (Image credit: Future)

Americans enjoy cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving, and it's an equally indispensable condiment for us Brits if a turkey is the Christmas-dinner centerpiece. A bit of orange juice, a bit of brown sugar, a load of cranberries, and you can have it all done within 20 minutes or so of cooking using the traditional pan method; the cranberries contain pectin, which helps thicken out the sauce as it cools. But the air fryer method does require a
bit of extra attention.

In most air fryers, the heat filament is not actually that far from whatever youre cooking. And this risks your cranberries burning, not to mention making weird noises, particularly in the early stages. Its all doable with the occasional stir, though, not to mention making the mixture isnt boiling over. 9. Mulled wine Will it air fry? score: 0/10 (Image credit: Future)

Heres a car crash we didnt expect. Obviously an air fryer would never be the most sensible or quickest way to make mulled wine basically wine heated with spices such as cinnamon and cloves, and optional extras like orange peel and you should try this one at your own risk, after checking your model's instructions. But, my goodness, this one went awry.

We didnt try to simply heat up pre-made mulled wine. We stuck a load of red wine in some pyrex, shoved in a couple of mulled spice bags along with some slices of orange. Its not the purists way, but its something.

However, in a bizarre turn, whenever I checked on how it was doing around a quarter of the mulled wine mix had made a bid for freedom, ending up on the bottom of the air fryer. And we know how clean most of those are.

Thankfully wed cleaned it just before the mulled wine episode, but whatever turbulence the fan created with those orange slices and spice bags, it was a bad scene.

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