Yes, we finally did it! We bought an air fryer!  We decided on a Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven which actually does quite a bit more than just air fry (yep, that’s one of the reasons we chose it).
Back in episode 259 of our podcast, we talked about air frying.
When we recorded that episode we didn’t have an air fryer of our own but asked for some input from our Peas and Carrots Society on Facebook about their experiences with air frying. We wanted to know if it was awesome…or just a bunch of hot air.
While the majority of our folks were really digging the air fryer, we weren’t exactly sold. That is, until this past Black Friday when Amazon was running a sale. 
In this episode of the podcast we discuss our new air fryer. You can listen here or scroll down for a quick summary of what we discuss.
 
Assembly
The Cuisinart Convection Toaster Air Fryer is pretty much ready to go right out of the box; there’s no real “assembly” per se. 
Parts —

Main oven unit
Toaster oven rack
Rectangular pan
Rectangular fryer basket

 
Counter Footprint
Being counter-space conscious, we are very happy with the relatively small amount of space this appliance takes up on our counter. It really doesn’t take up much more space than our toaster did (but it does so much more!). 
It fits perfectly on the countertop under the upper cabinets. When we use it, we just slide it forward a bit. 
 
Cooking with the Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven
 

 
Here’s where it gets a bit tricky. It’s taken us a bit to find the temperature settings that give the best results. For example:

Toast on the dark setting will turn your bread into a black pile of dust!  

 

Because the oven is small, you’ll find that you will need to bake at a lower temperature than packages or recipes specify. Even the instruction booklet states this.

 

If you’re making recipes specifically for an air fryer, stated cooking times and temperatures will be fine.  Basically, it just takes some experimenting to get the hang of it! Trust us…there may or may not have been a few over/undercooked foods in our house when we first got this appliance…

 
Some Recipes We’ve Tried with Our Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven

Onion Rings. These came out amazing!! 

 

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Playing with our new air fryer tonight! These onion rings were great!