How to make American pancakes in the air fryer five minutes (and there’s no flipping required!)

You can prepare your batter perfectly and have all your toppings ready and raring to go – but if you mess up that all-important flip, there’s usually no way back for your pancake.

So if you’re looking for a risk-free way to make fluffy American pancakes this Shrove Tuesday, then you might want to give this viral TikTok method a try.

Earlier this week, Currys’ official TikTok account shared a tutorial for making a whole stack of pancakes in an air fryer in just five minutes.

To begin with, the team created a batter mix by combining melted butter, self-raising flour, baking powder, egg, milk and caster sugar. 

Next, they lined their Power Airfryer XL with some baking paper and poured a small amount of batter in the centre.

Following on from this, they then popped another layer of baking paper over the top and poured in some more batter – amounting to roughly one tablespoon – in the same spot.

The user repeated this process until they had created six layers – ensuring that no baking paper had gone over the sides of the basket.

They recommended setting the air fryer to 200C and allowing the pancakes to cook for five minutes. 

The video then jumps to a clip of the home chef pulling out the basket to find their perfectly-circular pancakes, which have been cooked to perfection.

The viral TikTok ends with the user drenching their stack of pancakes in chocolate sauce and extra sprinkles. 

What’s more, Currys also says the recipe can be adapted by placing a slice of banana in the very centre of each pancake – without needing to adjust the cooking time.

Since it was posted on Sunday, the TikTok has amassed over 7.3m views and sent users into a frenzy.

While one impressed viewer labelled it ‘witchcraft genius’, another added: ‘Oh my goodness. Thank you!’ 

The tutorial showed how to make six perfectly-circular pancakes in just five minutes – by lining the air fryer basket with layers of baking parchment

The video ends with the home chef covering their stack of pancakes in chocolate sauce and sprinkles 

‘Wait,’ a third replied. ‘WHAT!!!!!’

‘Gotta love an air fryer,’ a fourth said.

Meanwhile, a fifth said: ‘OMG! I’m trying this.’

Last September, Hometree released results of its tests which found that air fryers were considerably more energy efficient than an oven.

Its findings show that using an oven, whether it’s gas or electric, is the most costly option.

The average oven uses around 3kW, meaning it costs around 34p to run for 20 minutes.

This works out at around £1.02/hour, according to Hometree.

An electric hob was the second most expensive option, coming in at around 17p per 15-minute use, with an average wattage of 2kW, or 68p/hour.

The air fryer came in third place, largely due to the fact that it can cook food much faster than an oven. 

Hometree’s tests showed that the average wattage of an air fryer is 1kW, so using it for 10 minutes would cost around 5p. This works out at 30p/hour.