Make This Cheesy Snack With Just 2 Ingredients And Your Air Fryer

Many hot, cheese-based snacks require dirtying a bunch of dishes or perfectly executing multiple steps. However, with nothing other than egg whites, parmesan, and an air fryer, you can create puffy, protein-dense food that is ready in less than 10 minutes — if you don't count freezing everything.

The beauty of this recipe is its use of egg whites to hold everything together and create a perfect texture. Egg whites contain tons of ovalbumin, a powerful binding protein that turns into a gel-like substance at high temperatures. Not only does it add a bit more protein to your snack, but it also gives the end product a texture similar to a yeast roll — delicate, chewy, and with a baked or roasted flavor so good, you won't believe it's essentially a frozen food prepared in an air fryer. While you'll want to keep your air fryer clean with a coffee filter or some parchment paper to catch the oil from your cheese, this recipe is great to supplement a light lunch or when you want a quick snack.

To ensure your balls don't melt into puddles of goo, it's vital that you freeze them for at least two hours. For the exteriors to develop good browning, they need a bit of structural support from a cold center. While two hours is a minimum time, you can make and freeze huge batches ahead of schedule and just toss them in your air fryer whenever you get a craving.

While this recipe is dead simple on the surface, it's heavily reliant on complex chemical interactions that occur once you start applying heat. While you may be tempted to mix together every cheese in your fridge drawer, picking ones with the right amount of moisture is the best way to give you that perfect, bread-like texture.

A lot of classic Italian cheeses are great choices, but only if they're low in both moisture and moderate in fat. Too much of either, and your balls end up deflated, leaking oil, and pale on the bottom while roasted on the top. The original recipe calls for parmesan, which has about 4 grams of fat per ounce, and once you start to exceed this, your food begins to suffer. However, parmesan also has quite a low moisture content, so even though some mozzarella cheeses may contain less fat, their excess of water means your snack ends up wet and flat.

As a general rule of thumb, anything that you can grate into a fine powder is a great choice. However, if you have shredded cheese, that powdered substance on it could work to your advantage. It's commonly either cellulose or potato starch, which are both great at absorbing liquid while keeping this recipe gluten-free. So, even if your blend is a bit higher in fat or moisture, that added bit of anti-caking agent can help you achieve the right texture without having to buy a whole block.