Why People Are Skipping Ovens And Making Flan In Air Fryers

Though there are certainly things you definitely shouldn't cook in an air fryer, it's safe to say that these versatile little convection ovens have gone from novelty cooking gadgets to kitchen staples in many homes, especially in one or two-person households. Rather than dirtying a pan or preheating the oven, smaller meals crisp to perfection efficiently in a countertop air fryer. The food is often finished cooking faster, and there's much less cleanup, especially if you use paper air fryer basket liners to keep the spatter and mess to a minimum.

Air fryers may be most famous for cooking savory main dishes, such as succulently delicious air fryer roast beef, fish fillets, or marinated chicken, but they're also pretty great at making desserts — especially if you're more interested in making single-serving desserts. While most air fryers can't accommodate something like a full-sized three layer cake, they can easily churn out unexpected deliciousness like stuffed air-fried "baked" apples or even silky and delicious Mexican flan.

While flan isn't terribly complicated to make, it can be finicky, and does best with precision heat and moisture to bake without cracking. The air fryer's smaller interior and convection heat create a controlled environment, offering the perfect conditions for making individual portions of delicate foods like flan without the difficulty of its traditional baking method. You won't have to worry about the air fryer losing heat or moisture because its cooking mechanism distributes heat evenly in a self-contained space. That means you can enjoy "fancy" desserts anytime, with minimal fuss or cleanup.

As with making desserts in a conventional oven, it may take some trial and error to achieve your desired results. For instance, some air fryer flan recipes don't use a water bath, while others insist that a water bath is essential to maintaining optimum humidity inside the air fryer. Similarly, some recipes recommend covering your flan molds with a heat-safe lid to prevent water droplets from disrupting the baking process, while others don't mention this step.

Since there are lots of different sizes and models of air fryers out there, it's possible that certain techniques may work best for different machines. For instance, a water bath may help if your flan's consistency is more like cooked eggs than smooth, silky custard. When using a water bath, you may also want to cover your molds, as you can heat things like soup in an air fryer, but the convection heat may cause the water to spatter and land in the custard without protection.

What you do before your molds even make it into the air fryer also matters. Straining your mixture, even though the eggs are still raw, can remove solids that will be unpleasant to chew. Making sure your caramel is completely cool in the bottom of the molds before adding the custard mixture is also essential, as even slightly warm caramel could curdle the custard. An easy way to circumvent this is to use store-bought caramel sauce you can simply squeeze into the molds.