Air Fryer Sausage Rolls - Recipe & Tips (2024)

All your questions about Air Fryer Sausage Rolls answered in one place. How to cook, at what temperature and for how long, how to reheat and how to air fry sausage rolls from frozen. Plus a quick and simple recipe for deliciously easy sausage rolls cooked in the air fryer.

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This post is a little different to my usual recipe posts. I want to focus on giving you some useful help about making sausage rolls using an air fryer. The recipe included is an adaptation of my original Puff Pastry Sausage Roll Post.

So if you would like some more helpful information about the best ingredients to use, ways to vary the recipe and all the other usual helpful information I give for recipes, please pop over to that post for a look.

I’ve set out this post in a FAQ format so lets jump straight in. Just let me know in the comments if there are any questions that I’ve missed that I can help answer!

Frequently Asked Questions: Air Fryer Sausage Rolls

• What exactly is an air fryer and what are the benefits?
• What type of air fryer is best to use for sausage rolls?
• Is an air fryer better to use for sausage rolls than an oven?
• Do you need to pre-heat an air fryer before baking?
• How long to cook sausage rolls for in an air fryer?
• What temperature to cook sausage rolls in an air fryer?
• Can you cook frozen sausage rolls in an air fryer?
• Can you reheat sausage rolls in an air fryer?
• Do you need to line an air fryer basket when cooking sausage rolls?

What Exactly Is An Air Fryer and What Are The Benefits?

Very simply, an air fryer is a small convection oven. Also known as a fan oven. Which is exactly what most of us in the UK have in our kitchens. Fan ovens are less common over in the US so the difference between air frying and standard oven cooking can seem a bit more pronounced.

The benefit of convection or fan cooking is that the hot air is circulated all around the food being cooked which speeds up the cooking time and cooks the food more evenly.

The benefit of using an air fryer over a standard convention oven is size, time and energy usage. Heating up a space that the food just fits into requires less energy and means that the heat source is much closer to the food. Combining these two things can speed up the cooking time.

What Type of Air Fryer Is Best to Use for Sausage Rolls?

Almost all air fryers can be used for baking but there is one main exception.

The type of air fryer that is round in shape and comes with a paddle that rotates to move the food around is not ideal for baking sausage rolls. This is the type I’ve been using for years – the most common is a Tefal Actifry.

My 2 in 1 version like the one I’ve linked does have a rotating tray for things that could be broken up by a paddle, but the height clearance with the lid isn’t deep enough to use it to cook sausage rolls.

Another type really looks like a freestanding little oven, usually with a glass door. They have shelves and are really quite large. You can cook quite a decent quantity of food in them so you can absolutely use this type to make sausage rolls.

The type of air fryer type and the kind that has become incredibly popular in the UK is the pull out basket type of air fryer. This is the version that you’ll see in the images on this page.

I use a Cosori Lite (‎CAF-LI401S)with a 3.8 litre capacity. The square(ish) shaped basket is 21cm x 21cm and 24cm on the diagonal.This is the air fryer that this recipe has been tested in. It isn’t an expensive or fancy model (don’t be fooled by the fact it has some kind of mobile app, it is just a gimmick!).

There are a couple of other types of machine that also air fry. These are multicookers. Some like Ninja 11 in 1 and some of the earlier versions with a few less functions, have an air fryer option. They mostly operate the same as a basket fryer but the basket drops in the top rather than sliding in like a drawer.

Some electric pressure cookers like Instant Pots can also air fry. I don’t have any experience of this type and don’t know anyone that has one but I would be surprised if you couldn’t use them to bake sausage rolls.

Is an air fryer better to use for sausage rolls than an oven?

I don’t think either method is necessarily better than the other. The important point to note is that there is absolutely no difference in the finished product. There is no down or upside to the sausage rolls as a result of what method is used to cook them.

There are a few other factors to consider before deciding which method suits you most.

The big one for me is quantity. How many sausage rolls are you wanting to cook in one go?

To make 12 medium sized sausage rolls in my air fryer, I have to cook them in two separate batches, 6 at a time. With a 4 minute preheat and 15 minute cook time for each batch, that’s a total of 34 minutes go time.

To cook the same 12 sausage rolls in the oven, with a 10 minute preheat time and 15 minute cook time, that’s a total of 25 minutes go time. So for me, I am more likely to cook a full batch of sausage rolls in the oven.

However. If I had a bigger air fryer or if I had shelves in my air fryer where I could cook all 12 at once, I’d go with the air fryer and a total go time of 19 minutes.

The other consideration is cost which I know is important to many people. Air fryers are generally cheaper to run than ovens. Even with the longer time using an air fryer and cooking in 2 batches, it is still likely going to be cheaper to use the air fryer. So if the cost saving is more important than time saving, the air fryer wins.

For me, the time when an air fryer really comes into its own is when I’m just cooking one or two sausage rolls at a time. I’ll talk more about cooking from frozen below, but being able to grab a couple of sausage rolls (or any other pastry) from the freezer and just cook them fresh in the air fryer is the real joy.

Do you Need to Pre-Heat an Air Fryer before Baking?

The answer to this is rather annoying – it depends. It depends entirely on your model and type of air fryer. The best advice I can offer is to check your manual and follow their guidance.

My Cosori model has a preheat function. I press a button and it heats at 205c for 4 minutes. Even for an impatient fool like me, I can usually just about manage this. It is still much quicker than preheating a regular large oven.

It’s also worth noting that regardless of whether you are supposed to pre-heat or not, if you are cooking in batches, it is quite likely that anything after the first batch will cook a little quicker because of the retained heat. It is best to check on them before the cooking time is completed.

How long to cook sausage rolls for in an air fryer?

For the recipe I have written below, I use 320g ready rolled puff pastry and 450g (1lb) of pork sausage meat.

Out of this you can choose how big to cut your sausage rolls. All of the following sizes require a 15 minute cooking time as the thickness of the sausage roll stays the same, only the length changes:

• 4 extra large sausage rolls – like these vegan sausage rolls
• 6 large sausage rolls
• 12 medium sausage rolls – like these shortcrust pastry sausage rolls
• 16 small sausage rolls – like these

Once the thickness changes, so does the cooking time. I’ve tested extensively and the thinner kind requires only a 10 minute cooking time.

• 36 mini sausage rolls – like these party size sausage rolls

I haven’t yet published any recipes for thick, overfilled sausage rolls because I’m not always that big a fan of the pastry to meat ratio. This kind will definitely take longer to cook and would quite likely require a slightly lower temperature too.

What temperature to cook sausage rolls in an air fryer?

I tested this extensively and I have ended up recommending a slightly lower and slower approach here. My recommended temperature to set your air fryer at to cook sausage rolls is 180c/350f. This is 20c lower than in a conventional oven.

When cooking at a higher temperature, the cooking time needed to be reduced to prevent the pastry from burning. But this meant that the sausage meat was not cooked all the way through.

The slightly lower temperature also allowed the pastry time to puff up and expand before the outer layers crisped up and stopped this. So overall a couple of minutes more at a lower temp makes a superior sausage roll.

Can I cook frozen sausage rolls in an air fryer?

Absolutely! I think this is actually one of the best ways to use the air fryer for sausage rolls. Make a full batch of 12 or 16 then cook a few for now and freeze the rest. Then when you want more, simply grab a few rolls out the freezer and whack them in the air fryer. This way you have fresh and crispy sausage rolls every time.

To cook from frozen you need to reduce the cooking temperature and increase the time. I’ve tested this for all but my mini sausage rolls and you need to cook them for 20 minutes at 160c/320f. The mini rolls will need 15 minutes at the same temperature.

If you don’t want to cook from frozen, allow them to thaw thenthe sausage rolls can be cooked as usual.

Can I reheat sausage rolls in an air fryer?

Definitely. This is a really great way to reheat one or two for a snack while making sure they’re nice and crispy again.

To reheat the sausage rolls in this recipe, you will need to cook for 7 minutes at 180c/350f. I do not use my preheat function for this.

Do you need to line an air fryer basket when cooking sausage rolls?

I don’t. I have experimented with using baking parchment and I am not adverse to this at all. But you need to make sure that your sausage rolls are covering almost all the paper and there is none sticking up the sides. The excess paper blows around and can catch and burn on the heating element. I learnt this the hard way.

The next best thing to use is foil. I just make sure to leave a gap around the outside so the heat and air can flow properly. But I still prefer to just simply use a little spray oil and cook directly on the basket grill. It is important to use pure oil and not frylight which will strip the non-stick from your basket.

There are many air fryer liners available including quite thick silicone ones. These will affect the cooking times and possibly temperatures of your bakes. Once you have got a feel for how they affect your cooking and baking, you may need to make adjustments to the recipe accordingly.

Don’t forget to let me know in the comments if you try making this recipe – I want to know what you think and if you made any substitutions, how did it turn out?

More Sausage Roll Recipes

You can now find all of my sausage roll recipes in one place. Plus I’ve included a few extra bonus sausage based recipes too!

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