Air Fryer Fail | Sweet Potato Chips | Queer Cooking | Clara & Cole
The Ability to Make Chips Escapes Me
I thought an air fryer would solve this problem. It seems to have increased the difficulty.
I read recipes in preparation, and even purchased a Dollar Tree mandolin. After waiting a year from purchasing our air fryer, I was finally ready to take the plunge and try chip making.
When the mandolin caught and bent on the potato, I figured a plantain might be just soft enough to cut. I was wrong.
Rounds 1 & 2
I use a vegetable peeler in place of a mandolin.
My confidence returns when my use of the vegetable peeler provides me with thin and even strips of potato.
When the cutting board fills with potato strips, I toss them in a bowl of cold water to soak for at least 30 minutes. Each time my cutting board fills, I add slices to the bowl of water.
Every recipe I read told me to use oil, but I go out on a limb and just toss a few in the air fryer to experiment with cooking time.
Every minute or so I open the fryer to take a look. After 3 minutes, I take one out and test it. Rather uncooked with slightly burnt edges. After another minute, they’re all charred and burnt.
At this point, I should have tossed some in oil. Instead, I put more in and turn the temperate down to 300. This time they take a solid five minutes and in the last 30 seconds go brown and burnt.
I cut my losses, grab a pot, and toss my remaining potato slices (water and all) in the pot to cook into mash.
After my slices all soak for a good 30 minutes, I lay them out on a clean towel to dry before I dunk each side of every slice in oil.
Rather than dump the whole lot in the air fryer at once, I start with a single layer in the bottom of the air fryer. The first peak I take reveals a pile of folded slices.
7 minutes in at 300 F, they are still a huge clump. I grab a test chip and it comes apart from the pack quite easily so I set the temp to 400 F for 3 minutes for a final crisp. After about a minute, I do a final check and decide to call it a win.
Just shy of perfectly crisp.
The 3rd and Final Round
With the success of my second batch, I barrel ahead with confidence.
My trial batch I did as a single layer in the air fryer. Satisfied with their crisp and cook, I take the liberty of haphazardly laying the remaining potato slices in multiple layers in the air fryer.
Within the first minute, they also clump. This time I decide to separate them out, assuming that the increased number of slices will require additional intervention. I repeat this routine five times, every minute or two, for seven minutes total.
They turn for the worse so SO quickly.
I was very wrong. I’m thinking 400 F for 3 was too high and too long. Next round I am going to go for 375 for 2 min.
“Chips turn for the worse so SO quickly.”
This all reminds me of meringues and the delicate nature of whipping egg whites. I still have yet to reliably make meringues. Every once in a while I bake a great batch.
Quality over quantity?