Bacon Onion Roly-Poly Pudding (Air Fryer Recipe)

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Bacon Onion Roly-Poly Pudding (Air Fryer Recipe)

Bacon Onion Roly-Poly Pudding is a classic British suet pastry dish which is traditionally steamed and occasionally baked. I've adapted it to cook slightly quicker in the air fryer with no loss of the soft texture, crisp outer or simple but delicious flavours. And no chance of the pot boiling dry whatsoever! This is proper old school comfort food at it's best.

5 from 2 votes

Prep Time: 15

Cook Time: 1 10

Total Time: 1 25

Servings slices

Author Chloe

Equipment

Baking Paper/Parchment

Frying Pan - Medium

Sharp Knife - Large

Ingredients

200 g Onion
1 tsp Vegetable Oil
1 tbsp Salted Butter
6 tbsp Water
450 g Suet Pastry - click for the recipe
Plain Flour (All Purpose) - for dusting
400 g Thick Cut Back Bacon
1 Beef Oxo Cube - optional - see notes

Instructions

Prepare the Onions

Peel and finely slice around 200g Onion. Try to keep the slices fairly thin so they cook quickly.
Put the sliced onion into a frying pan/skillet along with 1 tsp Vegetable Oil and 1 tbsp Salted Butter.
Fry over a medium heat for a minute or two until the onions start to heat, the oil is hot and the butter has melted.
Add around 6 tbsp Water to the pan and continue to cook the onions. The water will help them to soften but evaporate off after a few moments.
Continue to cook and regularly stir the onions until they are soft and a light golden brown. They don't need to be caramelised unless you want to cook them further so this should only take around 10 minutes.
Remove the onions from the heat and set aside.

Roll the Suet Pastry

Take 450g Suet Pastry and make sure it has had a chance to rest for at least 5 minutes and it is still relatively cold. Put it in the fridge for a few minutes if needed.
Roll the pastry into a rectangle. Try to keep the corners fairly square, you can stretch them out with your hands if needed.
Turn the pastry over after each roll so it doesn't stick. Dust some flour onto the board if needed but try to keep it minimal.
You will need to check that the pastry is being rolled to a size that will fit in your air fryer. Use your crisper rack or basket to check the size remembering that you can put the roll in to cook on a diagonal if using a square basket.
A rectangle about 25cm wide by 35cm long – roughly 1cm thick. (10"x14"x½") was perfect for my 4.7l air fryer.

Assemble The Roly-Poly

Optional - Crush 1 Beef Oxo Cube up between your fingers and sprinkle this over the whole of the pastry. You can use some or all. Personally I prefer not to as I think it makes the pudding overall too salty.
Lay around 400g Thick Cut Back Bacon over the pastry. You want to cover all the pastry without big gaps. A little overlap is fine. If you are using thinner rashers then you may want to double layer them.
Evenly spread the cooked onion mixture over the bacon. Make sure to spread it right to the edges and try to be even so all the slices contain a good amount of the onions.
Fold over the bottom edge of the pastry over the filling then continue to roll.
Continue rolling right to the end of the pastry. Use your fingers to stretch the last bit of pastry and make a bit of a seal.
Pinch and tuck each end so the filling doesn't have chance of escape.
Wrap the roll in baking paper. Don't roll too tight to allow the pastry chance to expand. Twist the ends to secure them.
Take a piece of kitchen foil that is a similar size to your baking paper was. Place the pudding on top. Again, loosely wrap the pudding and crunch the ends to secure.

Air Fry the Pudding

Carefully place the pudding into the air fryer basket and air fry for 60 minutes at 160c/320f.
You can carefully unwrap the pudding and see if it is fully cooked though. It will be firm to the touch and a little browned on the outside. You need to trust the process and your gut with this one!

Notes

The air fryer version of this recipe is tested in a 4.7 litre capacity Cosori 4.7L (CAF-L501). I cannot fit roly poly of this size in my Cosori Lite 3.8L (‎CAF-LI401S) which has a square(ish) shaped basket of 21cm x 21cm and 24cm on the diagonal unless it is a little crushed in or rolled narrower and thicker. You will need to add to the cooking time if you do this.
Not all models advise preheating is required. Please follow the recommended instructions for your model. Mine has a specific preheat setting which is 4 minutes at 205c.
Required cooking times and temperatures can also vary between models and brands. If you know that your air fryer runs a little hotter than most recipes suggest, use a lower temperature. And vice versa. Equally if you find that food cooks more quickly in your machine than instructions usually state, reduce the cooking time (or check it earlier) and vice versa.

Nutrition (Approx)