Muffins in an air fryer
Fresh — the short answer
200°C (392°F) for 15–18 min
- For
- 400g in total, 6 pieces, At room temperature
- In
- Basket air fryer, single layer, pieces not touching
- Preheat
- Not needed
- Check
- Risen and domed
- Safety
- Plug an air fryer directly into a wall socket. Do not run one from an extension lead. Full rule below.
Fifteen to eighteen minutes, at 180°C or 200°C depending on the manufacturer.
Fresh
The quick answer
200°C (392°F) for 15–18 min
Published range for a stated 400g, using a baking tin.
- Assuming
- 400g in total, 6 pieces, At room temperature
- In
- Basket air fryer
- Loaded
- Single layer, pieces not touching
- Preheat
- Not needed
- Result
- Just cooked
Credible sources disagree
What the published guidance says about muffins
Two manufacturers publish muffins at 15–18 minutes, one at 200°C and one at 180°C. The 200°C figure also sits forty degrees above the cross-manufacturer consensus for cake at 160°C.
RKW Ltd (Tower Housewares)
Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
15–18 minutes at 200°C, using a baking tin.
Spectrum Brands (Russell Hobbs)
Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
15–18 minutes at 180°C.
Why they differ
A muffin is smaller and deeper than a cake and is usually shielded by a case and a tin, so a higher temperature is defensible. Forty degrees above the same manufacturer's own cake figure is harder to defend, and AirfryerHQ has not established a reason for it.
What can safely be concluded
The lower figure is the safer starting point. A muffin in a drawer sits close to the element with its top fully exposed, which is the opposite of an oven, and burnt tops are the characteristic failure for this form.
Preparation
Use a muffin tin or silicone cases that fit with air space around them.
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
- Risen and domed
- A skewer comes out clean
- Tops springy under a finger
In a different appliance
Basket air fryer: 160°C for 17–19 min
Muffin count, for one to nine published muffins of around 50g each in muffin cups.
Where these figures came from — fresh
- Applies to
- Specific to this model
- Why this rating
- Marked disputed because a second manufacturer publishes the same time band twenty degrees lower, and because 200°C is forty degrees above the temperature four manufacturers agree on for cake — which is the same batter chemistry in a different shape.
- 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.
Sources disagree
Two manufacturers publish muffins at 15–18 minutes, one at 200°C and one at 180°C. The 200°C figure also sits forty degrees above the cross-manufacturer consensus for cake at 160°C.
- RKW Ltd (Tower Housewares): 15–18 minutes at 200°C, using a baking tin.
- Spectrum Brands (Russell Hobbs): 15–18 minutes at 180°C.
Why they differ: A muffin is smaller and deeper than a cake and is usually shielded by a case and a tin, so a higher temperature is defensible. Forty degrees above the same manufacturer's own cake figure is harder to defend, and AirfryerHQ has not established a reason for it.
What AirfryerHQ does: The lower figure is the safer starting point. A muffin in a drawer sits close to the element with its top fully exposed, which is the opposite of an oven, and burnt tops are the characteristic failure for this form.
Sources (1)
Tower T17067 4L Digital Air Fryer — Safety and Instruction Manual (PDF)
RKW Ltd (Tower Housewares) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: Muffins, 400g, 15–18 minutes at 200°C, use a baking tin.
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 947/6769. The document carries no revision code.
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
- 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 ON THIS RECORD 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 Sprint 5 analysis of published guidance across twenty-one manuals
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 on this record is AirfryerHQ's estimate.
AirfryerHQ's interpretation of what it says
Citation checked — the document exists and is described correctly
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
These apply to every food and every air fryer, so they are here once rather than repeated under each state above. They come from Electrical Safety First, from UK product-safety notices and from the manufacturers’ own manuals.
- Plug an air fryer directly into a wall socket. Do not run one from an extension lead.
- An unusual smell, an unusual noise, or scorch marks on the plug mean stop using it and contact the manufacturer.
- Do not overfill. Food touching the heating element is a fire risk, not a cooking problem.
- White smoke from fatty food is usually normal. Black smoke means unplug it immediately.
- Do not leave an air fryer running unattended.
- Leave clear space above and around the appliance, and never cover the air intake or the outlet.
- Aim for a golden yellow colour or lighter on starchy foods such as chips and roast potatoes, rather than a darker brown.
- Buy from a reputable retailer rather than a third-party marketplace seller.
- Clean the drawer, the plate and the element after use. Accumulated grease is what smokes, and then what burns.
- Register the appliance with its manufacturer. It is how a recall reaches you.
- Do not rely on the appliance's own thermal protection. A UK recall was issued because it did not operate.
Each links to its own page, with what it means in practice, what to do if it has already happened, and the source it comes from. Every safety rule AirfryerHQ holds.
Why cakes and bakes behaves this way
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. This measures yours — and it is the single change that fixes most dry muffins.
- 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.