This Air Fryer Suet Jam Roly Poly takes an ultra traditional recipe using a classic suet pastry and updates it to use the most modern of cooking techniques. The pudding steams in a foil parcel to perfection in the air fryer in a fraction of the time that it would take to steam in the old fashioned way! Just add custard...
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 with the size 20x30cm/8x12" was perfect for my 3.8l air fryer.
Prepare some baking paper by tearing a section off a portion that is both longer and wider than the pastry. For me this was roughly 40x45cm/15x17".Use a piece of folded kitchen paper to grease the centre of the paper with a little margarine or butter. Grease an area just a little larger than the pastry.
Move the suet pastry onto the greased paper.
Take roughly 150g Jam and give it a stir in a small bowl so it is pliable and easy to spread.
Use a spatula to gently spread the jam on the pastry.
Try to spread it evenly but leave a small margin around the edges including a larger gap at the top. The jam will spread as the pastry is rolled so this is to account for that. Note: If you are working in a hot environment and the pastry and jam are on the soft side, it might me a good idea to put the jam spread pastry into the fridge before rolling. Allow at least 10 minutes or longer if needed. 5 minutes in a freezer would also do the trick.
Fold over the bottom edge of the pastry over the jam.
Continue to roll the pasty doing your best to lift it rather than push it so the jam doesn't get pushed out.
Fold the top edge over the rest of the roll towards you. This will again help the jam stay in the roll. Tuck the ends in a little, again to prevent any jam spillage.
Very loosely roll the pudding in the greased baking paper.
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.
Carefully place the pudding into the air fryer basket and air fry for 40 minutes at 160c/320f.
Once cooked, carefully unwrap the foil and paper to expose the pudding. Be very careful of the foil and any escapee hot jam as this will be very hot. If you can bear to be patient, letting it sit for 5 minutes is a good idea before slicing and tucking in.
Notes
The air fryer version of this recipe is tested in a Cosori Lite (CAF-LI401S) with a 3.8 litre capacity. The square(ish) shaped basket is 21cm x 21cm and 24cm on the diagonal.
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.
As all air fryer models are a little different, you may find that you can fit in only a smaller or a larger pudding. Or just have plenty of spare room.
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.