baking Christmas cookies is one of my all time favorite holiday activities. it just brings back memories of being in the kitchen with my family, my parents + my grandma telling me not to eat raw cookie dough, me doing it anyway, decorating cookies in either the most perfectionist or most haphazard way - you get the picture.

air frying cookies is perfect for smaller batches, making a variety of cookies at the same time, or if your oven is occupied with other holiday goodies! cookies come out delicious each time, with perfect edges and soft middles. honestly, I prefer baking the pillsbury cookies this way now - they just come out fluffier and I personally think they taste better!

a coworker introduced me to this idea, which of course I had to try out for myself! I’ve tried it with the pillsbury shape cookies, sugar cookies, and gingerbread cookies. I don’t like to change up how I do my chocolate chip cookie recipe, so those will forever be a made-from-scratch, oven-baked treat.

for the gingerbread and sugar cookies, I followed the instructions on the mix packages, and set my air fryer to the recommended temperature. the thing that changes is how many you can bake at once (obviously air fryers are small than your regular oven), and the bake time changes quite a bit. even though the quantity is smaller, the quality is *chef’s kiss* - and I love that I can just make a few here and there instead of making a big batch that may go to waste! we have great ovens in the house, so don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that the air fried way is better- i’m just also not not saying it either. do with that what you will.

click HERE for our air fryer (affiliate link - meaning that at no cost to you, I make a tiny commission if you make a purchase!)

for the pillsbury cookies:

bake at 350 - you don’t need to line the basket with parchment paper here in my experience. but it won’t hurt!

baking 4-6 at a time: bake for 6 minutes. as the air fryer gets hotter after the first batch, you can lower time to 5 minutes.

they come out with nice and dense (not too tough) edges, and a perfectly gooey (but not underbaked) center!

to get them, out of the fryer easily: wait about 1-2 minutes to let them cool, then gently tap the bottom of the fryer basket with a spatula. nothing gets stuck to the bottom, and the cookies should now be easy to get! (or just use parchment paper)

for baking mix cookies:

*you will need to use parchment paper to line the basket*

bake at 350 unless your mix states a different temperature

I don’t recommend baking more than 4 at a time, simply because of the nature of these cookies and how they expand. if you have a larger air fryer though, then go for it!

for 4 cookies: bake for 7-8 minutes. you’ll have cookies with a nice golden outside, but nice and soft in the middle!