After the success of the recipe for my first air fryer tart, I have some news to share with you. 😊

The (many) cooking tests I did over the past two months have led me to some improvements, especially for the cooking of the bottom part, the Achilles’ heel of some bakes with the fryer (especially desserts).

As with all kitchen tools, it’s inevitable to go through an adaptation period to discover how to use them best, and now after the trials I’ve done, I feel satisfied because each new air fryer tart I’ve made has turned out better than the previous one. Testing and retesting something good must lead to something! 😀

So today I can share two solutions with you:

One, never give up because a workaround is always found! 💪 (I will explain this workaround in the ‘third method’ of the procedure).

Two, since I started using paper baskets specific for air fryers, the cooking problems I had in the past (which at that time I had solved with the crepe maker method, do you remember?) are now magically gone.

Well, I am ready to tell you about my experiments!

First, I will start with the right amount of shortcrust pastry to use for this small size (2.5 liters) of air fryer. For this tutorial, I made 3 tarts (equivalent to one and a half traditional tarts), so in the ingredient list, you will find the exact weights to make exactly these 3 small tarts (using coconut oil eggless pastry). In any case, the general rule that one tart for a 2.5-liter air fryer corresponds to half a traditional tart (half a slab of shortcrust pastry) remains valid.

But I won’t go on further, I’ll start writing everything down right away!

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Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Economical
Preparation time: 10 Minutes
Portions: 4 slices per tart
Cooking methods: Air frying
Cuisine: Contemporary
Seasonality: All seasons

Ingredients for 3 small tarts

3.5 cups all-purpose flour
0.33 cups coconut oil
0.54 cups rice milk
0.6 cups sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder (approximately 1 and a half teaspoons)
12 tbsps homemade fig jam (4 tablespoons for each tart)

Tools

Air Fryer
Air Fryer Paper

My 3 methods for preparing and cooking the air fryer tart

First, prepare the shortcrust pastry.

Divide the slab into 3 pieces (one for each tart).

☝ As mentioned in the introduction, I used the coconut oil eggless shortcrust pastry, the latest born among the shortcrust pastries in my house. But of course, you can use the shortcrust pastry you prefer, keeping in mind that usually with a shortcrust pastry slab (standard dose of about 300 g of flour) you get two small tarts.

👉 To prepare this first tart, apart from using the paper baskets, the procedure is basically the same as the first edition recipe. But since today’s is more a tutorial than an actual recipe, I’ll start from this first step.
Roll out the shortcrust pastry with the rolling pin, taking care to set aside a part of the dough for the edge and decoration.
After getting a disc of dough of the right size for the paper basket (6.3-7.1 inches), place the dough disc in the paper basket.
Then insert the paper basket (with the pastry base inside it) into the air fryer basket.
Prepare a rolled dough cord with your hands and use it to create the tart edge. Press well with your hands to adhere it to the dough.
Spread 4 tablespoons of jam on the shortcrust pastry (I used fig jam that we produced in abundance during the summer, but of course, use whatever you prefer).
Decorate as desired with the remaining dough.
🌸 If you want to recreate the flower, it’s very simple: roll small dough cords, close them into a droplet shape, and arrange them around a dough ball flattened with the palm of your hand.
Close the basket and operate the air fryer, first at the highest temperature (392°F) then after 5 minutes lower it to 356°F. Continue for another 10 minutes.
👉 If you are like me always looking for practical and quick solutions, I think this suggestion may be useful to you. Which in truth is trivial, but since it came to my mind only with air fryer tart number 5 😅 … I thought maybe it might not have come to mind to other people yet. In the series… an idea when it comes, it comes!
Roll out the shortcrust pastry (one-third of the slab prepared by following today’s recipe), without worrying too much about the size.
Then, using an inverted paper basket as a template, cut out a dough disc using the point of a knife or a wheel. If you want a higher edge, just cut the dough a bit larger than the paper basket.
Place the dough disc inside the basket. The edge will be high enough to contain the jam.
After distributing the 4 tablespoons of jam, decorate the surface as desired using the remaining dough scraps.
For cooking proceed as described in the previous step.
And here we are at what to me was the egg of Columbus, the unexpected solution.
Therefore:
– after trying (successfully, I do not deny it) to brown the base on the crepe maker,
– and after rejoicing for the excellent cooking I obtained using paper baskets (for use in the fryer, I find them better than classic parchment paper),
– with this workaround, I think I’ve tried them all and found all possible solutions to cook the tart in the air fryer in the best way.
Proceed as follows:
Roll out the dough disk. As in the first method, that is, without a border.
Insert it into the basket (with or without parchment paper, here in the photos you see I used the paper basket, but for this third method it is not essential).
Operate the air fryer at 392°F for 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes, remove the basket, take out the shortcrust pastry base, and turn it upside down.
Spread the jam on the pastry (thus on the side that was previously underneath), leaving a gap on the circumference.
Decorate the surface as desired.
Complete the cooking for another 10 minutes at 356°F.
The only ‘drawback’ of this method is the lack of a border, as having to turn the pastry upside down to cook it on both sides requires the dough disk to be uniform, so it can rest on the bottom without breaking.
But the cooking result is optimal!
Let me know what you think of my experiments! And which of the three methods you prefer, or which one you think is the best for your air fryer.
I await your comments (here on the blog or on the fb page)!
And I look forward – I hope you enjoy sending them to me – to the photos of your air fryer tarts, which I will publish as always in the collection My recipes made by you here on the blog and in the album on the fb page. 💛
Enjoy!