Best Way to Cook Pizza Rolls: Toaster Oven, Air Fryer, or Microwave?

What’s the best way to cook pizza rolls? Funny you should ask. I recently picked up a big ol’ bag of Totino’s Pepperoni Pizza Rolls and prepared them using three different countertop appliances: a toaster oven, an air fryer, and a microwave. I’ll admit that I almost never buy pizza rolls. They take way too long to cool down, and I’ve quite literally been burned one too many times by their molten insides. That said, these oily little pizza dumplings are annoyingly delicious. So greasy, so good, so crispy—but only if you cook them the right way. After making three batches, I think I can say for certain I’ve found the best way to cook pizza rolls.

Microwave

1 min on high + 2 min standing

If you like your pizza rolls to have a nice chewy wrapper, the microwave is the best way to cook pizza rolls, hands down. I actually kind of love them like this. And it really only takes a minute to cook them—in our microwave, these cooked through in 60 seconds without getting send-you-to-the-hospital hot. Even in the microwave, these do crisp up a little bit, especially around the edges, though they look a little pale and sad. But is this the very best way to cook pizza rolls? I don’t think so.

Toaster Oven

15 min at 425 degrees

I’m a toaster oven freak. I don’t have a microwave at home, so I use my countertop oven (an absolutely stunning Breville Smart Oven) for pretty much everything. Our office toaster oven is way less nice (no offense, little guy), but I still thought that toaster oven was going to win this pizza rolls challenge. And, let me tell you, they are definitely good out of the toaster oven. I cooked them for 15 minutes at 425 (the bag suggests between 14 and 16 minutes), and they browned up beautifully and got nice and crispy-crunchy. Maybe too crispy-crunchy? 

Air Fryer

4 min

Full disclosure: Our toaster oven and our air fryer are one in the same, but cooking the pizza rolls on the airfryer setting for four minutes created the platonic ideal of a pizza roll—crispy but not crunchy, still a little bit chewy, and piping hot inside. The airfryer seems to bring out the best in the pizza rolls’ wonton-like wrappers—the oils activated and the skins got all bubbly. As a busy adult who still eats pizza rolls for some reason, I gotta say that I think 15 minutes is way too long to wait for pizza rolls. I’ve got bills to pay and younger people to quietly denigrate and episodes of Seinfeld to stream for the 8,000th time! Four minutes is about what I’m willing to spend for browned, bubbly pizza rolls. So …

Conclusion

… the air fryer is the best way to cook pizza rolls. It’s fast. It crisps them without making them too crunchy. And it heats them all the way through without overdoing it. I hope this information serves you well the next time you get a hankering.