Viral Tiktok recipe for air fryer oranges makes for a pretty gross, hot fruit breakfast

Welcome to AirFryDay, where — you guessed it — every Friday Mashable covers the latest trends, dispenses advice, and reviews recipes for your air fryer.

When I test viral recipes for AirFryDay I do my best to go in with an open mind. These things surprise you. Just last week I was kind of surprised that air fried cheese — literally just cheese in the air fryer — was pretty dang tasty.

That said, going into this week I had to really try to go in with an open mind. Hot oranges did not sound good to me.

The TL;DR: It was not good. Not good at all.

The recipe comes from @thejenjones on TikTok and has racked up nearly 6 million views. Here’s how the process looked, in three pics, via @thejenjones.

Hot oranges.
Credit: Screenshots: TikTok / @thejenjones

Here’s how you make it, via the TikTok from @thejenjones.

Ingredients

• Orange(s)

• Ground cinnamon

• Maple syrup

• Yogurt

• Granola

Directions

1. Cut your orange(s) into thick slices, then using a knife, carefully remove the circular rind from the fruit.

2. Rub the orange slices with maple syrup then season with cinnamon.

3. Preheat your air fryer to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

4. Air fry the oranges for 4 minutes at 400 degrees.

5. Place a cooked orange slice on a plate. Top with yogurt, then another orange slice. Spread yogurt on the top orange slice and top with granola. Enjoy.

The details

One thing this recipe definitely has going for it: It’s easy. The most difficult part of the whole thing is cutting the orange slices into circles. Frankly, I found it easier to just chop the rinds off than trace interior circles with my knife, as @thejenjones did in her TikTok.

Regardless, here’s how my circles looked after cutting. They’re a bit small but that’s what my grocery had.

Orange circles. Neat.
Credit: Mashable

Once the oranges were cut, I gave each one a dousing of maple syrup and then a heavy sprinkle of ground cinnamon. Here’s how that looked.

Mmmm, cinny orange.
Credit: Mashable

From there, I preheat my air fryer to 400 degrees, dropped the oranges in, and cooked them for four minutes. When I took the oranges out they were lightly caramelized and scorching to the touch. Here’s how they looked.

Hot oranges.
Credit: Mashable

The final step, again, was pretty simple. I stacked oranges with yogurt, then topped with granola. The TikTok from @thejenjones used plant-based yogurt — they create lots of plant-based recipes — but all I had was plain, nonfat Greek yogurt, so I used that. My granola was a crushed up Nature Valley bar I snagged from my local bodega because I needed only a tiny bit.

Stacking the deconstructed parfait of sorts wasn’t difficult, really, except for the fact that the hot oranges began to liquify the yogurt almost immediately. Still, my end product wasn’t bad looking.

Doesn’t look awful, right?
Credit: Mashable

The taste, however, was a different story. There is something uncomfortable about the taste of an air fried orange. The bright tang is lost. The texture loses its snap. It’s both dried out and soft and juicy. And it’s hot. I don’t know how else to describe it but as a hot orange. A hot, hot orange.

Sometimes, less is more. This would actually be a fine enough breakfast if you just didn’t cook the oranges. Sure, it would feel like doing less, but a bright, juicy citrus, paired with cold, tangy yogurt, and crunchy granola? That would be a nice combo of temperatures, textures, and flavor profiles. But the hot oranges turn the cold yogurt soupy and overpower everything.

Still, feel free to give the air-fried oranges a whirl. After all, it went super viral, which seems to imply at least some people like it. As for me? I’ll be eating oranges at room temp.