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Air Fryer Cornish Pasties. Delicious homemade Cornish pasties made from scratch and then cooked in the air fryer. Loaded with a classic filling of beef, onion, swede and potatoes.
You will love how easy it is to make your own Cornish pasties at home in your air fryer and rinse and repeat with different fillings.
We originally shared with you how to make Cornish pasties back in 2016 and wanted to update it today for you with new photos and extra ideas.
Table of Contents
- Easy Cornish Pasties Recipe
- Can You Cook A Pasty In An Air Fryer?
- Do You Cook Cornish Pasty Filling First?
- What Is The Best Pastry For Pasties?
- How To Make Cornish Pasty Pastry?
- What Was The Original Filling Of A Cornish Pasty?
- How To Cook Cornish Pasties In The Air Fryer?
- How Long Do You Cook Pasties In An Air Fryer?
- What To Have With Cornish Pasty?
- Listen To Air Fryer Cornish Pasty
- More Pasty Recipes In The Air Fryer
- Air Fryer Cornish Pasties Recipe
- Can’t make it now? Then pin it for later!
Easy Cornish Pasties Recipe
All the time we were living in Portugal, we used to talk about how much we missed the British bakery and how much we loved Couplands and wished we could just go out and grab a Cornish pasty from Couplands.
Well, back in the UK after 13 years abroad one of our first trips out was to Couplands. I went into the bakery and ordered a Cornish Pasty.
To my shock the lady said to me that they were not allowed to be called Cornish pasties anymore, well unless they were produced in Cornwall.
And instead, would I like a traditional pasty, because it is one of the same.
With a grin on my face, with amusement, I ordered a traditional pasty for both me and Dominic and mentioned we needed to update them on Recipe This.
After all, one of the most delicious baked goods to cook in the air fryer is the Cornish pasty.
But the question we ask ourselves now, is can we call it a Cornish pasty or must we call it a traditional pasty?
Plus, as well as our free newsletter, we also have a free air fryer mini course. It is ideal for air fryer beginners or those that want to get more confident with their air fryer. The free course runs for 5 days with a new lesson delivered each day to your inbox.
Can You Cook A Pasty In An Air Fryer?
Yes, you can. You can use any homemade pasties recipe in the air fryer and mix and match with your favourite fillings.
You can also make diet pasties with Weight Watchers wraps too and then cook those in the air fryer.
They can also be sweet or savoury and apple pasties can be just as delicious as Cornish pasties.
Do You Cook Cornish Pasty Filling First?
This is up to you. If you cook the Cornish pasty filling first, then you can opt for a different cut of beef and bring down the price. Such as using braising rather than sirloin.
But you can also add sirloin and the other ingredients directly into the pasty.
My personal choice is to make Cornish pasties in the air fryer, the day after cooking and enjoying instant pot beef stew and dumplings. Then the leftovers can be mushed up and loaded into your homemade pastry.
What Is The Best Pastry For Pasties?
I recommend a shortcrust homemade pastry for pasties and I also recommend you use this flour. It’s a much better quality flour and we have it in our pantry right now.
Then making your own homemade pasty dough is incredibly simple. In fact, it is so simple, that I know the ingredients in my head without having to write them down.
Though, part of that might be because I have made this English pasty recipe so many times over the years.
How To Make Cornish Pasty Pastry?
There are JUST 4 simple steps to make your own Cornish pasty pastry and do it once and you will want to make it time and time again. Even better, you can use the same recipe for many recipes that require savoury pastry in the air fryer.
- Load flour and butter into a mixing bowl.
- Mix with your fingertips until you have breadcrumbs
- Add enough water to make a dough.
- Roll out your dough ready for the pasty maker.
What Was The Original Filling Of A Cornish Pasty?
A Cornish pasty is a simple recipe of 4 ingredients. Nothing complicated that you need to learn and remember this was often consumed during rationing when you could use some cheap beef, along with what you were growing in the allotment.
Those four simple ingredients that made up the original filling of a Cornish pasty included:
Beef – Over the years people have gone with more expensive beef such as sirloin. But an original Cornish pasty used braising that was precooked.
Potatoes – You will always taste the delicious diced potatoes in your Cornish pasty. You can use any type of white potato that you have peeled.
Onion – Onions are cheap and make a fantastic ingredient for pasties. Keep it traditional with white onion.
Swede – Also known as rutabaga in other parts of the world, swede gives that wonderful balance of flavour in a classic pasty.
You may be wondering how our air fryer Cornish pasties differ to the original filling? Well, we use these four same ingredients and like the old school method we are using leftover stew as our filling.
The best advice I can give you, is make it your own. If you have some spare beef tips then use that, just like you could use leftover roast beef.
Then for the kitchen gadgets that we have used in this English pasty recipe, it has just been our Air Fryer. We have this one and its wonderful for many types of air fryer baking recipes and perfect for getting a golden glow and crisp on homemade pastry.
We also recommend that you use a pasty maker. (I recommend this one) they are super cheap and super useful and can be used in a lot of different pasties and hand pies.
You simply add your floured dough and press down and it adds the marks just like a real pasty does.
As well as this you then have a pasty cutter that will cut the perfect size for you.
How To Cook Cornish Pasties In The Air Fryer?
- Mush. Grab your stew leftovers and load into a bowl. Mix with your hands to make it a little mushier and use a knife to cut down any lumps that are too big. As you don’t want huge potato pieces as you won’t get as much in your pasties.
- Prep. Load your butter and flour into a bowl and rub your fat into your flour until it is like breadcrumbs. Use enough water to make a dough. Then roll out the dough using your pasty maker.
- Load. Place the cut dough back into your pasty maker and add ¾ of the filling to one side. Then add a layer of egg wash around the sides and press down.
- Cook. Load two pasties into the air fryer over foil and brush with egg wash, air fry and serve.
How Long Do You Cook Pasties In An Air Fryer?
The ideal air fryer cook time for homemade pasties is JUST 8 minutes. If you want them to be browned on both sides, then I recommend you do 4 on each side. Either way, make sure you use some egg wash for a nice brown glow.
What To Have With Cornish Pasty?
Thanks to the potatoes and the pastry, I find that Cornish pasties are rather filling, and I often just want one on their own as a nice brunch.
But if I am looking for a full meal, then I want to go back to my childhood at Couplands and be upstairs at Couplands in Scarborough and be having a Cornish pasty with chips and gravy.
Do check out our air fryer chips and gravy recipe as it’s a fantastic extra for your Cornish pasties!
Listen To Air Fryer Cornish Pasty
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More Pasty Recipes In The Air Fryer
- Air Fryer Apple Hand Pies
- Air Fryer Cheese & Onion Pasties
- Air Fryer Corned Beef Pasties
- Air Fryer Diet Pasties
Air Fryer Cornish Pasties
Ingredients
Kitchen Gadgets:
Cornish Pasty Ingredients:
- 200 g Leftover Instant Pot Beef Stew
- 500 g Air Fryer Pie Crust
- Egg Wash
- 1 Tsp Mixed Herbs
- Salt & Pepper
Instructions
- Load leftover beef stew into a bowl, making sure it is drained of liquid and then season with salt, pepper, and mixed herbs.
- Roll out your pastry and then place the bottom of the pasty maker over it and cut out your circles. You might have to roll a second time to get three pasty circles. Then place the pasty circles on a clean floured worktop as you make them.
- Then once you are done making the pasty circles place one at a time into your pasty cutter. Load the stew filling into one half of the pasty, making sure you don’t overfill it.
- Push down, making sure it leaves the beautiful pasty pattern. Rinse and repeat until you have made all your pasties.
- Then place foil in the air fryer basket and cover the tops of the pasties with egg wash.
- Air fry for 8 minutes at 200c/400f before serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Can’t make it now? Then pin it for later!
Hi
Do the same timings/temperature apply if using raw ingredients from scratch i.e. not the beef stew filling?
Thanks
Steve
Hi Stephen,
No they don’t. The problem been the pastry would be cooked before the ingredients that are inside the pasty as the pastry acts as a shield for the food inside, so we found it best to used already cooked ingredients 🙂
But if the ingredients are precooked, it is not a proper cornish pasty. It is of the essence of a pasty that the meat juices are absorbed by the raw vegetables as they cook. The correct meat is beef skirt although sirloin can be used if skirt is not available. In a conventional oven, I would cook a pasty for 20 mins at gas mark 7 then turn down to gas mark 4 for 30-40 mins. What times and temperatures should be used in an air fryer?
Hi Pat,
We have not tried the traditional way as it is an air fryer and the way it cooks lends itself to cook the vegetables before, so it just quickens up the process. If you wanted to try the traditional way i would try on a lower heat 160c for the 20 minutes but getting the vegetables inside to cook using the meat juices is going to be tricky, so i would turn it down to 150c and cook for around 40 minutes, but like i said we have not tried this way, so i am just guessing with the oven times you gave 🙂
Sounds like a nice recipe, but you don’t mention the temperature to set on air fryer!
Hi Sabira,
On the recipe if you look at point number 6 you will find the temperature there 🙂
These pasties were delicious, The pastry was amazing and the filling was just delicious, the only thing i was worried about was how to cook them in the air fryer but you had that covered and they worked great 🙂