The Light and Tasty column today addresses the topic of “alternative cooking methods,” which gives me the opportunity to write a recipe I’ve had on hold for a while, that of a sweet focaccia baked in an air fryer, which I’ve tried several times but hadn’t decided to put down in writing.

I’ve tried the recipe in various ways: with and without raisins, with more or less sugar, with sugar on the surface or without, using traditional parchment paper or specific paper baskets for air fryers.

I’ve also tried making it with two different quantities of dough, to test the cooking capacity of the air fryer, which – at least in the basket models that are the only ones I’ve been able to test so far – have one main issue: the presence of a single upper heating element. This makes for perfect browning, the great pride of air fryers, the reason they are called fryers, and why they were created, and it is their strength. But it can cause some cooking problems when used as a convection oven, especially with some inherently problematic foods to bake like leavened goods.

When I baked rolls, I solved the problem by flipping them halfway through the cooking process, but rolls, due to their nature as single pieces, were more suited to cooking in an air fryer, allowing better air circulation compared to a single piece like a focaccia or a cake. Or rather, a little focaccia or a small cake 😃 since with a 2.5-liter fryer like mine, you necessarily need to bake small portions. But this, as I have already explained in other recipes, is sometimes a positive, not everyone needs to bake huge pans every time they cook. 😄

Well, now I’ll tell you how I prepared this sweet focaccia baked in an air fryer and how I solved the little challenges it presented, and I hope that my recipe will help you solve those doubts you might have encountered as well. 💪

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Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Economical
Rest time: 8 Hours
Preparation time: 10 Minutes
Portions: 2
Cooking methods: Air Frying
Cuisine: Contemporary
Seasonality: All seasons

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2.5 oz liquid sourdough starter
0.5 cup water
0.7 oz raisins
2 tbsps sugar (+ 1 teaspoon for the surface)

Tools

Air Fryer
Air Fryer Parchment Paper

Steps

Soak the raisins for about 10 minutes.
In a bowl, mix with a spoon: flour, sourdough starter, water, and 2 tablespoons of sugar.
Drain the raisins and add them to the mixture.
Mix the mixture with the spoon. It’s a no-knead dough that will be a bit sticky.
Place the bowl in a sheltered environment (I always put it in the microwave).
Let it rise until doubled in volume.
👉 As mentioned in the introduction, I prepared this focaccia several times, and the rising time was never the same: the first dough took 12 hours (because I used a slightly tired sourdough starter), the other times, with refreshed and active starter, it doubled in 6-8 hours.
Insert a paper basket for air fryers into the fryer basket, and pour in the risen dough.
☝ Alternatively, you can use a regular parchment paper sheet cut to fit. Then at the end of the recipe, I’ll add a couple of tips (important to me) regarding the use of parchment paper and the differences I found compared to the specific paper baskets for air fryers.
Spread the dough with your fingertips.
Brush the surface with oil and sprinkle 1 or 2 teaspoons of sugar (optional).
Insert the basket into the air fryer and set it to 392°F.
Bake the focaccia for 10 minutes. Open the basket and check. If the surface is too browned (it might be, especially if you sugared the surface), lower the temperature to 356°F and continue baking for 5 minutes.
Remove the basket and turn the focaccia upside down.
👉 Flip it using a plate; be careful not to touch the inner basket as it is very hot.
As you can see from the following photo, the bottom of the focaccia is undercooked (compared to the already browned surface).
Reinsert the basket and set it to 392°F to complete baking the bottom. About 6 minutes should suffice.
Here is the well-baked bottom after 6 minutes at 392°F.
Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.
It’s a small-sized sweet focaccia, but it looks and tastes just like a real focaccia. 😃😋
1) Focaccia Size:
Among the tests I did with this sweet focaccia baked in an air fryer is also the quantity test; I tried to make a slightly larger one. Obviously, the limitation is in the size of the basket, so it turned out taller, as shown in the following photo.
It turned out good, but it is not a test I would repeat because the dough’s consistency suffered slightly: being taller, the surface was closer to the heating element and thus browned more quickly while the dough didn’t have a chance to bake well inside.
2) Important Note on Parchment Paper:
If using traditional parchment paper, you need to detach it from the focaccia (it can stick to the dough, see photo below) and remove it: do not bake the bottom (after flipping the focaccia) with the paper attached.
Use parchment paper (but this also applies to paper baskets) always making sure it stays under the product to be baked and not above so that it cannot lift due to the cooking air. The risk lies in the possibility that the paper lifts and touches the heating element (burning or catching fire).
Below are two photos that demonstrate how (in my experience) traditional parchment paper is less effective than specific paper for air fryers.
In the first photo: the focaccia photographed just after opening the basket, with a perfect surface browning…
… but then after flipping it, the ‘surprise’ of finding the base raw and the parchment paper stuck to the dough.
I repeat the warning that to complete the baking of the focaccia after flipping it, you must remove the paper and not leave it attached to the focaccia, otherwise, it will flutter in the basket and can catch fire if it touches the heating element.
I wanted to add this last photo, not all recipes turn out perfect on the first try, not even for food bloggers 😃 but then, by trying and trying again, solutions can eventually be found! 💪
Let me know if these tips were helpful to you! And send me photos of your focaccias baked with your air fryer! Come on, I’ll add them all to the album with your photos! 🤗