Like many other great appliances, the Air Fryer. has spun the world of cooking on its head with its multi-purpose use, oil and fat-free cooking, and let’s not forget the fast turn-around times of your snacks, dishes and meals.
If you’re looking at purchasing your first-ever Air Fryer, want to upgrade or get another one for your kitchen, you’re in the right place! In this blog, we’ll outline all the Air Fryer functions you need to know, and how they can help you master the art of home cooking, snack making and entertaining.
- 360˚ Air: powerful all-around 360˚ air circulates in the Air Fryer’s cooking cavity for even cooking results. Since air moves all-around, there’s less need for turning and tossing of your food.
- Dehydrate: this function dries food and can be used to dry a variety of fruits, vegetables, meats, flowers and herbs without the need for preservatives. The Dehydrate function is typically used for drying fruits and vegetables to make veggie chips or dried herbs to add to your cooking and roasts.
- Effortless Control: you can easily control this air conditioner by using the touch LED display, or alternatively, with the included remote control.
- Proof: the low temperatures of the Proof function is best used for proofing bread dough, which involves the activation of yeast and rising of bread before baking. A Proof function can fast-track this process when compared to traditional proofing methods.
- Bake: ideal for roasting meat and baking a range of baked goods like bread, cakes, and biscuits.
- Roast: great for roasting meat and vegetables, if the Roast function is available in the Air Fryer, this is the preferred method compared to ‘Bake‘.
Air Fryer Benefits
How an Air Fryer makes cooking easier and healthier….
Easier
Cooking is much simpler when you use an Air Fryer – this is because there’s less need for tossing and turning of food, the same applies for keeping a watchful eye the whole time. This frees up your time so that you can spend more time chatting with loved ones or preparing another dish as the Air Fryer cooks. Cooking with an Air Fryer looks like this:
- Prepare your ingredients
- Pop them into the air fryer to cook, applying the right conditions and temperatures
- Take them out and enjoy
Healthier
Unlike pan or deep-frying, the fast, air circulation of Air Fryers cooks and crisps food without the need of excessive oil and fat. What this means is that a simple spray of cooking oil or a light brush of oil over your ingredients will do the trick. Many pre-coated frozen items like hot chips, chicken nuggets and fish fingers do not even require oil when cooking in an Air Fryer.
Our Top Pick Air Fryers
Sunbeam DiamondForce™ 3-In-1 Digital 5L Air Fryer
- Three cooking functions: Air Fry, Proof & Bake, and Dehydrate
- 5L cooking capacity
- Can fit and cook a whole chicken or 800g of pork belly
- Features 6x pre-sets including ‘Fries’, ‘Bacon’ and ‘Seafood’ for optimal cooking conditions and times
Sunbeam 4-In-1 Air Fryer + Oven
- Ultra large family-friendly 10L cooking capacity
- 360° air circulation
- Four cooking functions: Air Fry, Bake, Roast and Dehydrate
- Four cooking pre-sets including ‘Fries’ and ‘Veggies’
Russell Hobbs 5.7L Brooklyn Air Fryer
- Family-friendly 5.7L capacity
- Seven pre-set functions including ‘Chips’, ‘Chops’ and ‘Bake’
- Easy detachable crisping plate
- Cool touch carry handle
Recipes We Love
EASY DINNER FOR 2
SOY-GLAZED STEAK WITH CRISPY SESAME BROCCOLI
This effortless and delicious steak recipe can be made using Russell Hobbs’ 5.7L Brooklyn Air Fryer.
Serves 2
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 10+ minutes
Air Fryer Function: STEAK
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp canola oil
- 2 tsp honey
- 1 clove garlic, peeled & finely chopped
- 2 x 200g porterhouse (sirloin) steaks
- 200g broccoli, cut into flowerets
- 2 tsp sesame oil
Method:
- Combine the soy sauce, oil, honey and garlic in a shallow bowl. Add the steaks and marinate 10 minutes.
- Place the marinated steaks in the Russell Hobbs Air Fryer basket. Select the STEAK function and cook at the preset 200°C. Stop at 10 minutes for medium rare steak, cook the full 12 minutes for medium, or cook a further 2-3 minutes for medium to well done steaks.
- Transfer the steaks to a plate to rest. Toss the broccoli in the sesame oil. Add to the Air Fryer basket, and cook at 200°C for 2-3 minutes, until crispy all over.
Recipe by Russell Hobbs
QUICK & EASY SNACK
MEXICAN STEAK NACHOS
This filling snack is set to delight and it can be easily created with Sunbeam’s DiamondForce™ 3-In-1 Digital 5L Air Fryer.
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Servings 2
Ingredients:
- 400g scotch fillet steak
- Drizzle of olive oil
- 1 tablespoon taco seasoning
- 100g corn chips
- ½ cup tasty cheese, grated
Toppings
- 1 tomato
- 1 spring onion stalk
- ¼ cup sour cream
- ¼ red onion
Method:
- Trim the scotch fillet steak and cut into bite sized pieces (around 2cm sized chunks). Add to a medium bowl with a drizzle of olive oil and the taco seasoning. Toss to coat.
- Add the steak bites to the bowl of the Sunbeam DiamondForce™ 3-In-1 Digital 5L Air Fryer and cook on 200°C for 8 minutes.
- While the steak is cooking, prepare your toppings. Dice the tomato, slice the spring onion and onion thinly.
- Remove the steak bites to a small bowl and allow to rest. Place a small sheet of foil in the bottom of the air fryer basket and top with corn chips. Sprinkle with the grated cheese and return to the air fryer for 2 minutes at 200°c, until the cheese is melted.
- Remove the foil to a plate and top the corn chips with the steak bites, tomato, spring onion, onion and sour cream to serve and enjoy!
Recipe by Sunbeam
COOK’S TIP
Most supermarket brand taco seasoning packets are around 30-35g which is around 2 tablespoons, so this recipe uses ½ a packet!
BAKE WITHOUT USING THE OVEN
AIR FRIED CINNAMON DOUGHNUTS
Satisfy the sweet tooth cravings with these doughnuts that can be baked in Sunbeam’s 4-In-1 Air Fryer + Oven.
Preparation time: 1½ hours
Cooking time: 12 minutes
Servings: 18
Ingredients:
- 490g plain flour
- 55g caster sugar
- 3 tsp yeast
- Pinch salt
- 1 cup milk, lukewarm
- 100g butter, melted
- 3 egg yolks
- Oil spray
- ¼ cup milk
- 2 Tbsp cinnamon sugar
Method:
- Place flour, sugar, yeast and salt into a large bowl. Using dough hooks, mix on low speed. Add milk, butter and egg yolks, mix until dough comes together and elastic or about 4 minutes.
- Grease a large glass bowl with oil spray and place dough in bowl. Cover with cling wrap and place in a dry warm place for 1 hours, until risen to double the size.
- Punch the dough and roll together forming a ball. Using a rolling pin roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 1 – 2cm thickness. Using 7cm round pastry cutters, make rounds. Then, using a 2cm round cutter, create holes in the middle of the rounds. Set aside to rest for 20 minutes.
- Press POWER. Press AIR FRY. Adjust temperature to 200°C. Adjust time to 12 minutes. Press START/STOP. Allow oven to pre heat. Oven will ‘beep’ when preheated.
- Spray three Air Flow Racks with oil. Place doughnuts on racks. Place in oven and press START/STOP. Once the top rack of doughnuts are golden brown on both sides, after 1 to 2 minutes, swap the middle rack to the top rack and cook for 1- 2 minutes each side. Swap bottom rack to top rack and cook 1 -2 minutes on each side until golden.
- Remove from oven, brush with milk and dust with cinnamon sugar.
Recipe by Sunbeam
Featured Products
DiamondForce 3-in-1 Digital Air Fryer - Dark Blue
View Product