How to cook frozen Toad in the Hole in air fryer

Often its the littlest of things that go unnoticed of which I nearly forgot to provide a way to air fry frozen toads in the hole, which renders better results than oven cooking.

Cook frozen Toads in the Hole in an air fryer as instructed to with the oven-cooking directions. Reduce temperature by 20°F/70°C, while setting the timer to the lowest of what the oven cooking instructions suggest. Decant the frozen block of batter to line the foil tray; returning the block to the tray for air frying.

Cooking a toad in the hole in an air fryer from frozen is easy as air frying any frozen ready meal, though you do need to keep an eye on the batter to make sure it doesn't burn - which will cause a horrible crunchy texture and burn taste.

What you should know about cooking a toad in the hole from frozen- is that you will be essentially air frying a frozen block of batter - with several pork sausages stuck in the icy block to cook along with the Yorkshire pudding batter.

Understand, as this block of frozen batter heats up, within 5-6 minutes the frozen batter will melt, thus liquefying the toad in the hole batter.

So that is why frozen toad in the holes must be baked in the foil tray it comes in; the foil tray will retain the liquid batter - which will contain the batter mix and sausages - in a dish-like foil tray for cooking runny meals.

You'll be essentially air frying a large frozen Yorkshire pudding along with pork sausages, which must be cooked until golden brown with a crispy outer casing.

Your only concern when air frying a 'cook from frozen' toad in the hole, would be to bring the internal temperature of the sausages up to a safe 155–165°F/68–74°C. All while you must air fry the batter without over doing it; if the sausages take longer to cook than anticipated, it will cause the Yorkshire pudding to be extremely crunchy and dry.

On this occasion, the internal temperature reached a better than good 207°F / 97°C with just 6 minutes remaining on the full 40 minute cooking time.

Aim for a golden brown texture on what would now be a risen Yorkshire pudding batter, while continuing to air fry the whole thing until the sausages are done.

Demonstration of how to cook a typical frozen toad in the hole, was done so using a widely available but very cheap Tesco Hearty Food Co. Toad in the Hole, weighing 300g.

Oven directions would expect me to cook it at 210°C/190°C fan, for 40-45 mins. But no way would you be able to air fry at this temp. and time without vastly over cooking it.

Frozen Toad in the Hole is easy to air fry when compared to creating your own air fryer Toad in the Hole recipe, so at least we can be grateful we don't have to go through the trouble of making a Yorkshire pudding mixture from scratch.

Frozen Toad in the Hole temp/time table

Chart for air frying commercially available store-bought frozen Toad in the Holes, which are ready to be baked in a foil tray.

Toad in the hole I used to air fry for this demonstration weighed 300g, which can be used as a reference for air frying a similar in weight toad in the hole. Generally though, time and temperature is the same for many toad in the holes, weighing in the same region with the exact cooking instructions.

Prepare

Little preparation goes in to readying a frozen toad in the hole for air frying; which mainly involves taking the frozen block of toad in the hole batter out of the foil tray it comes in, then line the tray in greaseproof paper, to prevent baked on batter sticking.

STEP 1:

Preheat for 5 minutes - Allow the air fryer to preheat for 5 minutes, then my air frying instructions will match yours

STEP 2:

Decanter Toad in the Hole; line foil tray in greaseproof paper - Simply remove the frozen block of batter out of the foil tray and line the foil tray in double-folded greaseproof paper

STEP 3:

Return Toad in the Hole to foil tray - Once the greaseproof lining is in place, return frozen block of batter into greaseproof-lined foil tray

STEP 4:

Centre Toad in the Hole in air fryer - Sit the frozen toad in the hole now sitting on a bed of greaseproof paper, in the centre of your air fryer basket

NOTE: Begin the 5 minute preheat while at the same time prepare the lining for the toad in the hole foil tray, with a greaseproof paper lining. When that's done, the preheat should be done, and the toad in the hole will be ready for air frying.

Air fry Toad in Hole in foil tray

Follow your particular frozen toad in the hole oven cooking instructions on the back of the box, and reduce the temperature by 20°F/70°C; all while set timer to its lowest. If you find the toad in the hole is unexpectedly cooking too fast - and possibly close to burning - be sure to remove it, then return it to the air fryer wrapped loosely in foil.

STEP 1:

Set temp: 340°F / 170°C; time: 40 mins - On this occasion I reduced the oven time by 5-10 mins, with a reduced temp of 20°F/70°C - CHECK the table above for Hearty Food Co. Toad in the Hole for which these cooking directions are based on

STEP 2:

Air fry for 20 minutes; check for issues - Air fry until halfway for your particular toad in the hole; all while checking for any spillages of the batter, while double checking for any potential sticking to the inner foil tray

STEP 3:

Continue to air fry rest of the way - Once the halfway mark is reached, you should be able to cook for the remaining time; although you will want to check the Yorkshire pudding batter sporadically to ensure it doesn't burn

STEP 4:

Remove foil tray with silicone tongs - When the times up, drag the foil tray out with a pair of tongs, while tipping the basket over to make it easier on you

NOTE: To introduce some colour and texture to the pale underside of the toad in the hole, gently decanter out of foil tray and lay upside down in the basket.

Retain Toad in the Hole batter in foil tray

One mistake I made when I cooked this exact Tesco frozen Toad in the Hole weeks ago, was that I decided to decanter the frozen block of toad in the hole, as I feared the fully cooked toad in the hole would essentially stick to the foil tray.

Oh what a mistake that was, as I completely forgot the frozen block of batter would melt, which caused most of the batter to spill on the underside of the air fryer basket.

I placed the frozen but unprotected frozen block of batter on parchment paper which saved enough batter to still be a reasonable size; however there was no saving the melted block of batter which spilled over the edges of the parchment paper.

With that to think about, you must never remove the frozen block of toad in the hole from the original foil tray it came in.

The foil tray will help to retain the melting batter and thus will allow it to rise up rather than look like a flat pancake.

Batter will defrost while cooking in the air fryer between 5-6 minutes, so it would be a good idea to check for spillages and leaks, which I doubt there will be.

Cook until golden Yorkshire Pudding

While its important to be sure the pork sausages are cooked thoroughly - where air frying each one close to their oven cooking directions will solve that - you don't want to over do what is basically frozen Yorkshire pudding batter.

Air frying a frozen toad in the hole will begin as a solid block of ice - as they are when taken out of the box - in which the frozen batter block will slowly melt and liquefy.

Batter once liquefied, will then begin to cook like regular Yorkshire pudding batter, and will rise over the course of its approximate 40 minute air frying time.

Now its a case of keeping an eye on the rising batter because you really don't want it to burn. You must aim for a dark golden brown risen batter which will provide a light crispy texture - as oppose to a hard crunchy bite which isn't nice to eat at all.

Cook toad in the hole to a beautiful golden/brown colour which in effect will carry over to browning the sausage exterior.

Cook Toad in the Hole underside optional

Optional step to finish off your air fried frozen toad in the hole, would be to lightly cook the underside, which will be cooked but have a taste and texture that can be improved upon, and thus we can air fry the underside of the toad in the hole.

Follow the demonstration below to give you an idea what to do when cooking the bottom side of a typical toad in the hole. But only do so when the toad in the hole is fully cooked, as handling it recklessly will break the toad in the hole.

1. STEP 1: Pull toad in the hole out of basket - Remove fully cooked toad in the hole out of basket, carefully dragging it out of the foil tray with silicone-tipped tongs
2. STEP 2: Peel off any stuck on greaseproof paper - With the greaseproof paper-incased toad in the hole sitting on the worktop/chopping board; peel back the sides of the toad in the hole to unravel the cooked sausage-filled Yorkshire pudding

1. STEP 3: Return toad in the hole to foil tray upside down - Carefully place the fully cooked toad in the hole back in to the tray; upside down so the underside can be air fried to produce a little texture
2. STEP 4: Air fry for 3 minutes; temp to 400°F/205°C - It will only take a maximum of 3 minutes to produce a light crisp, while bearing in mind the colour will remain pale

NOTE: To decanter the upside down toad in the hole on to a waiting warm plate, press the plate on top of the foil tray while holding both plate/foil tray; then tip the right way up so the toad in the hole is sitting on the plate.

Summarise

How you would quickly and easily air fry a frozen toad in the hole brought home from the supermarket, would be to follow the oven cooking instructions exactly, but reducing the temperature by as much as 20°F/70°C.

Pick the lowest suggested time and air fry to this time exactly, not a minute less or more.

Now you will have the perfect air fry cooking time and temperature for air frying all 'cook from frozen' toad in the holes.

Its vital to preheat the air fryer to ensure the instructions I laid out are accurate, but there is a little preparation to do before you can begin to air fry.

You will want to remove what would be a frozen block of toad in the hole batter from its foil tray; then line the foil tray in greaseproof paper to ensure there's no sticking. I know by experience, frozen toad in the holes can stick to the inside of the foil tray - but it can depend on what toad in the hole, and where it was bought.

Toads in the hole can stick for sure so to line the inside of the foil tray in enough grease-proof paper, will make sure the finished toad in the hole is kept intact.

Only when the frozen toad in the hole is cook as instructed, will it be a good idea to tip the toad in the hole upside down, so you can introduce a little heat to the pale underside, to produce a little texture.

Its vitally important toads in the hole are cooked until the pork sausages are fully done. While at the same time, the Yorkshire pudding batter is air fried to a golden brown, rather than to a dark but horrible flavour with hard crunchy texture.

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