Tony Jackman’s pizza cooked in an air fryer oven in under 10 minutes. (Photo: Tony Jackman) 
This January has been a monster. Moving house in early December – and the frightening costs that go with that – followed by a family Christmas, cleaned us out, as anyone with the JanuWorry Blues can understand.
So I shopped deftly and put lots of things in the freezer so there’d be something that could be defrosted each day. This included a pack of two simple pizza bases. There was a slim layer of Italian-style tomato sauce on them but nothing else. This may not be my first choice for a pizza supper, but needs must when the miserly devil drives.
The new air fryer oven that my family bought me for Christmas has seen lots of use in these belt-tightening weeks. And it has a pizza setting, which I’ve been wanting to try out. These settings are programmed, obviously, and this one is for 12 minutes at 230°C. That’s this oven’s highest temperature.
Both elements, above and below, come on when you set it to “pizza”. But this does not mean that you will need all of those 12 minutes.
All I did was add some chorizo I had left over, which I sliced and dotted all around. I grated the remaining little chunk of Cheddar and there you go.
I preheated the oven to 230°C for about 5 minutes, so it was really hot when the pizza went in.
After 5 minutes I took the pizza out and turned it around 180°, because I could see that the far side, at the back of the oven, was browning more intensely.
After 9 minutes in total it appeared to be pretty much done. I took it out and checked. The underside was golden in patches and firm all over. Just how you (well, I) want a pizza base to be.
Bear in mind that if this had been a thicker pizza base it might have taken the full 12 minutes. So keep an eye on it and accept that you are the one who needs to decide when it’s done, not the machine’s timer.
If doing more than one, you’ll have to cook them one at a time.
The following recipe is for a sizeable air fryer oven such as the 25l Kenwood I am lucky to have. Essentially, it’s a miniature countertop oven about the size of a large microwave oven. It has a “window” door and oven light, which is helpful when cooking a pizza in it.
Google tells us that an air fryer with a basket/drawer can cook a pizza as long as it is big enough to hold one. If that’s what you have, have a go, but I would lower the temperature to about 190°C since the space is smaller than the oven I used.
Tony’s air fryer pizza, straight from the freezer
(Per 1 standard pizza)
Ingredients
1 pizza base with a simple margarita topping
Grated mozzarella, Cheddar or other cheese of your choice
Toppings of your choice – I used sliced chorizo
Method
Preheat the machine to 230°C – or its highest setting – for at least 5 minutes so that the pizza will start to cook immediately.
Prepare any toppings you want to put on, and grate some cheese.
Remove the pizza base from the freezer, remove its packaging and top it in any way you want to.
Place it in the machine and set it to cook for 12 minutes at 230°C or the highest temperature your machine has.
Watch the pizza through the window, or open the door to check how it’s doing. Stop when you are happy that it’s done, or when the 12 minutes has expired. DM
Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the Year award.
Follow him on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.