Muffins in an air fryer
Fresh — the short answer
160°C (320°F) for 13 min
- For
- 40g per piece, 6 pieces
- In
- Dual-basket air fryer
- Published for
- Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer with Steam NA555
- Preheat
- Not needed
- Check
- Risen and domed
Thirteen to nineteen minutes at 160°C to 200°C, depending on the manufacturer.
Manufacturer figures with no state given — 8 from named machines, listed further down this page.
Questions people ask about muffins — 1 answered further down this page.
Fresh
The quick answer
160°C (320°F) for 13 min
A single published time for six muffins of around 40g each.
- Assuming
- 40g per piece, 6 pieces
- In
- Dual-basket air fryer
- Published for
- Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer with Steam NA555
- Preheat
- Not needed
- Result
- Just cooked
Preparation
Muffins of around 40g each, which is all the row says. Its note cell is empty.
How to tell it is done
- Risen and domed
- A skewer comes out clean
- Tops springy under a finger
Other figures for this state
Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer with Steam NA555 — dual-basket air fryer: 160°C for 18 min
Small pan: a single published time for five muffins of around 40g each. The big pan's table prints 13 minutes for six.
Where these figures came from — fresh
- Applies to
- Specific to this model
- Why this rating
- A published row from the food table for this machine's 6-litre big pan. The manual says above the table that its cooking times are guidelines for fresh ingredients, and states that preheating is not necessary.
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-13
What this does not cover
- Published by the manufacturer for this model. It is evidence about this appliance and is not general advice.
- The word fresh is the table's and not the row's: the manual prints above this table that its cooking times are guidelines for fresh ingredients, and this row's own title names no state.
- This machine's two pans are not interchangeable. The figure is for the big pan; the small pan has its own table.
Sources (1)
Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer with Steam NA55x — User Manual (PDF)
Versuni Netherlands B.V. (Philips Domestic Appliances) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom and European Union)
Relied on for: The temperature, time and quantity for muffins.
States this directly
Passage read and verified
Retrieved 2026-10-09 from dam.versuni.com
Leftover (reheating)
Before anything else
From national food-safety authorities, not from us. These take precedence over any cooking time below.
Requirement — Food safety (microbiological)
Cool cooked food and get it into the fridge within one to two hours, keep the fridge between 0 and 5°C, and eat leftovers within 48 hours.
How to tell, without a thermometer
- There is no sensory test for this rule, and that is the point: food held too long at the wrong temperature does not necessarily look, smell or taste different
If it has not got there: Throw it away. This is the one rule in this catalogue where the remedy is not 'cook it longer', because cooking does not reverse it.
Important: Cooked rice is the sharpest case: Bacillus cereus toxins form at room temperature and survive reheating. Rice left out for more than an hour goes in the bin.
Requirement — Food safety (microbiological)
Reheat leftovers until steaming hot all the way through, and only reheat them once.
Target: 70°C in the thickest part, or an equivalent from the table below.
How to tell, without a thermometer
- Steam rising from the centre, not just the edges
- The middle is hot to the touch, tested after removing it from the appliance
If it has not got there: Keep going, and break dense food up or spread it out so the heat can reach the middle. If it will not heat through evenly, a microwave to get the centre hot followed by the air fryer to crisp the surface is a better tool for the job than the air fryer alone.
Important: Cooked rice and pasta left at room temperature can develop Bacillus cereus toxins that reheating does not destroy. If cooked rice has been out of the fridge for more than an hour, discard it rather than reheating it.
| Temperature | Held for | Measured at |
|---|---|---|
| 70°C | 2 min | the centre of the food |
| 75°C | 30 sec | the centre of the food |
The quick answer
150°C (302°F) for 2–4 min
Muffin size. This is warming rather than reheating.
- Assuming
- 60g per piece, 4 pieces, From the fridge
- In
- Basket air fryer
- Whose figure
- AirfryerHQ's own, not one manufacturer's chart
- Loaded
- Single layer, pieces not touching
- Preheat
- Not needed
- Result
- Heated through
Preparation
In one layer. Nothing added.
How to load the basket
Single layer, pieces not touching. The reference condition. Air reaches every surface, and times are the shortest the food will achieve.
How to tell it is done
- Warm through when broken open
- The top has not darkened further
Change the result
Each of these moves the outcome in a known direction, and most cost you something. The trade is stated so you can decide whether you want it.
- To be sure it is safe rather than just warm
- Go by the food and not the clock. It has to be steaming hot the whole way through, and the middle of a dense portion lags a long way behind its surface in an air fryer.
Where these figures came from — leftover (reheating)
- Applies to
- Specific to this type of appliance
- Why this rating
- The bottom of the published band. Sugar and butter brown further on a second heating and a muffin needs almost nothing. The time is AirfryerHQ's estimate.
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-13
What this does not cover
- THE TIME GIVEN HERE IS NOT SOURCED. Five manufacturers publish a reheating temperature and not one names a food, a quantity or a time for a named dish. The temperature sits inside their band; the time is AirfryerHQ's estimate and has not been measured.
- Reheating is governed by the food-safety rule above rather than by this figure. Steaming hot throughout is the requirement; the time is a guide to getting there.
Sources (4)
Tefal Easy Fry Max EY245B40 5L Air Fryer — Instruction Manual (PDF)
Groupe SEB (Tefal) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: That this manufacturer's published reheating instruction is 160°C for up to ten minutes, with no food named.
States this directly
Passage read and verified
Retrieved 2026-08-13 from argos-support.co.uk
Retrieved from Argos's manual library for Argos product 328/8568.
Tower T17023 2.2 Litre Air Fryer — Safety and Instruction Manual (PDF)
RKW Ltd (Tower Housewares) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: That this manufacturer publishes 150°C for up to ten minutes for reheating.
States this directly
Passage read and verified
Retrieved 2026-08-13 from argos-support.co.uk
Retrieved from Argos's manual library for Argos product 745/2194.
Cookworks 5L Digital Air Fryer KDF-596D — Care & Instruction Manual (PDF)
Argos Limited (Cookworks) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: That this manufacturer publishes 180°C for up to ten minutes for reheating.
States this directly
Passage read and verified
Retrieved 2026-08-13 from argos-support.co.uk
Retrieved from Argos's manual library for Argos product 148/6623.
AirfryerHQ analysis of published manufacturer cooking and reheating guidance
AirfryerHQ — Calculated or inferred by AirfryerHQ (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: The reading that six published reheating positions across five manufacturers span 150-180°C, that three cap the time at ten minutes, and that none names a food — so the time given here is AirfryerHQ's estimate.
AirfryerHQ's interpretation of what it says
Citation checked — the document exists and is described correctly
Manufacturer figures with no state given
Each of these is a published figure for one named machine. The manufacturer does not say whether this is fresh or frozen. So they are kept apart from the figures above, and not used as the answer for any of them.
Russell Hobbs SatisFry Air Fryer & Grill Multi Cooker 5.5L: 180°C for 15–18 min
Published range. No size, number or tin is printed.
Tower T17067 4L Digital Air Fryer (under a safety recall: check the recall before using this machine): 200°C for 15–18 min
Published range for a stated 400g, using a baking tin.
Philips Airfryer Series 5000 XXL HD9285/93 7.2L: 160°C for 17–19 min
Published for one to nine muffins of around 50g each, in muffin cups.
Tefal Easy Fry Dual Drawer 8.3L Air Fryer & Grill — Drawer 1: 160°C for 16 min
A single published figure of sixteen minutes in drawer 1 of the Tefal Easy Fry Dual Drawer, for a count it prints as 'up to 6/8 pieces', not a range.
Tefal Easy Fry Dual Drawer 8.3L Air Fryer & Grill — Drawer 2: 160°C for 16 min
A single published figure of sixteen minutes in drawer 2 of the Tefal Easy Fry Dual Drawer for up to four muffins, not a range.
Tefal Dual Easy Fry Flex 9L EY9228G1 — Zone 1, with the divider in: 160°C for 16 min
Tefal Dual Easy Fry Flex, zone 1, the larger side, with the divider in: up to 6–8 muffins.
Tefal Dual Easy Fry Flex 9L EY9228G1 — Zone 2, with the divider in: 160°C for 16 min
Tefal Dual Easy Fry Flex, zone 2, the smaller side, with the divider in: up to 4 muffins.
Tefal Dual Easy Fry Flex 9L EY9228G1 — The whole drawer, with the divider out: 160°C for 18 min
Tefal Dual Easy Fry Flex, the whole drawer, with the divider out: up to 12 muffins.
Questions people ask about muffins
- Can I use paper muffin cases?
- Filled ones, set in a tin or silicone mould that holds them. An empty paper case is light enough to be blown into the element, and a filled one with nothing around it spreads. Check your manual first: some forbid paper in the chamber outright.A general cooking principle, not a measurement. Paper in an air fryer
What usually goes wrong
Burnt tops and pale sides. A muffin in a drawer sits close to the element with its top fully exposed and its sides shielded by the case and the tin, which is the opposite of what happens in an oven. The 180°C figure is the safer of the two published answers for this reason.
Running the appliance safely
The rules for the machine are the same whatever is in it: plug it straight into a wall socket, leave clear space round it, do not overfill it, do not leave it running unattended, and unplug it at black smoke or an electrical smell. They are set out once, each with its source and what to do if it has already happened, and not repeated on every food. Every rule for running an air fryer safely.
Cakes and bakes in fast-moving hot air
A cake batter is a liquid that has to set into a foam, and moving air is hostile to that in two ways: it dries and sets the top surface before the middle has risen, and it can physically disturb a wet batter. Both are why the published temperature is thirty to forty degrees below what the same appliance uses for chips, and why the manuals insist on a tin — the tin shields the batter from direct airflow and turns the appliance into a small convection oven. A cake baked directly in a drawer is not a cake baked slightly worse; it is a different and much less successful thing.
Where to go from here
The pages that answer the questions this one tends to raise.
- Using a thermometer, and where to put itThe times above are for a piece that is not the one you are holding. A probe measures yours, which is what the safety rule on this page asks for.
- How food actually gets crispyWhy patting it dry, spacing it out and a little oil are all the same instruction — so you can apply it when a page runs out.
- Reheating leftoversA different question governed by a different rule — steaming hot throughout, and only once.
- Why published timings differIf another chart says something else, this is usually why — and which one to believe.
Easily confused with
- Cake in a tin — A different cooking problem with a different answer.