I made 4 classic, comfort-food sandwiches in my air fryer, and there are 2 I'll be making again

Comfort food is, well, comforting. It's usually simple, warm, filling, nostalgic, and scrumptious. So when there's a way to cut down the cooking time to achieve comfort, I'm here for it.

Air fryers can cut back time on cooking and frying, so it's a great option for serving up hot sandwiches. I own a 3-quart PowerXL Vortex Air Fryer. I'm relatively new to trying various recipes in it, but so far, dishes from chicken to homemade fries have been great.

Insider's Chelsea Davis also recently tested making sandwiches in the air fryer — and there are six she recommends — but I decided to see how some of the classics would turn out. So I made a grilled cheese, BLT, peanut butter and banana, and ham and cheese.

For this grilled cheese, I didn't use a specific recipe, and instead went off the ingredients I already had in my refrigerator.

I opted to use Sandwich-Mate's American Singles slices and Stop & Shop's brands of 4 Cheese Mexican Style Blend shredded cheese, sharp cheddar cheese, and Lorraine Swiss cheese (Swiss with smaller holes) from their deli.

In my opinion, white bread is optimal for a classic grilled cheese whether you're frying it in a pan or an air fryer.

To start, I preheated my air fryer for three minutes at 370 degrees.

After buttering my bread and after the air fryer was preheated, I laid a bread slice buttered-side down in the air fryer and started to assemble it. I figured this would cause less of a mess than if I tried to maneuver the sandwich with piles of cheese on it.

I stacked a slice of American cheese, followed by Swiss cheese, sharp cheddar cheese — which I shaved with a potato peeler beforehand — the shredded Mexican blend, and finally one more slice of American.

Thanks to a tip from Heather in her Food Lovin' Family blog's grilled cheese recipe, I stuck a toothpick in the middle of my sandwich to keep the air circulation from blowing off my top piece of bread. I followed this tip in each of my four sandwiches.

I set the temperature to 370 degrees and the timer for four minutes before taking it out and flipping the sandwich for another four minutes.

From the oozing cheese spilling out when I cut it to the bites of crispy bread and combination of cheesy flavors, this sandwich filled me with so much joy. While a grilled cheese cooked traditionally in a pan is great, the air fryer gave a more even cook in my opinion, avoiding overly burnt bits that pans on the stove can sometimes produce.

This was the perfect comfort-food sandwich that I will be coming back to make in the air fryer time and time again.

A BLT is a classic and when you throw a third slice of bread in the mix to make it a double-decker, it's even better.

For this sandwich I used all the usual fixings of a BLT recipe but with low-sodium bacon and mayonnaise. I opted for a heavy bread, Nature's Promise's classic sourdough loaf, as recommended in Laurie's Fork to Spoon blog's BLT air-fryer recipe.

I've always wanted to try bacon in the air fryer so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. But my question was: Do I assemble the ingredients on the bread before cooking, or do I cook the ingredients separately?

It turns out that some recipes suggest assembling all the ingredients and cooking them at the same time in the air fryer, while others suggest heating up the bread and bacon separately before assembling it with the cold ingredients. I opted for the latter.

I sliced the loaf of bread into three half-inch thick slices. I didn't see any recipes suggest buttering the bread, so I didn't. I preheated the air fryer to 370 degrees before placing the bread in, making sure the basket wasn't too overcrowded.

I fried them for one minute on each side. Visually, it didn't make a difference, but they were more crisp.

Then it was bacon time. Using my own judgment, I cut two slices of bacon into smaller pieces so they wouldn't run up the sides of the basket or overlap.

Then I followed Heloise Blause's tips for air frying bacon, which she previously shared with Insider. I preheated the air fryer to 360 degrees for three minutes. Then I placed a slice of bread at the bottom of the basket under the "fry plate" to soak up excess oil from the bacon and prevent smoking. This was genius and so helpful in my opinion.

I placed the bacon in and cooked it at 360 degrees for six minutes before checking it. When I did, I was in shock — the bacon had shriveled up so much. I knew I needed to make another batch. However, it was evenly crispy, just the way I like it, so I took them out then before making my second batch.

For assembly, I first spread mayonnaise and sprinkled black pepper on my three slices of air-fried bread (adding mayo to both sides of the center slice to help glue the ingredients together). Then I started the fun part: layering the ingredients. Lettuce, tomato, bacon, bread, repeat.

During my taste test, I came to the conclusion that my creation was just … alright. Yes, the bacon was outstanding. But everything else felt a little lackluster. I felt that the bread was a bit mushy despite being air fried. I think buttering the bread or, simply, just toasting it would have been better options.

After trying this, I wouldn't necessarily call it an air-fryer sandwich with just two ingredients fried in it. And while I do love a BLT, I don't think this one lived up to be a top-tier comfort-food sandwich.

Ham and cheese is a simple and comforting sandwich, and when the fillings are warmed up it's like a hug. But to separate it from my grilled cheese, I took some Cuban-sandwich influences to elevate it.

For my Cuban-ish sandwich, I used marbled-rye bread, ham and Lorraine Swiss from Stop & Shop's deli, pickle spears, and yellow mustard. No, this is not a Cuban sandwich. But it is a ham-and-cheese sandwich with some extra tang that I was excited to try.

I buttered my slices of rye bread — the largest slices I've tried in the air fryer — before flipping them and spreading on yellow mustard.

My pickle spears were too thick to serve as a sandwich filling, so I sliced them to be thinner.

Next, I added two slices of ham, two slices of Swiss, the pickles, two more slices of Swiss, and two more slices of ham before topping it with the other slice of bread. I definitely should've put the cheese down first, rather than the ham, so it could have served more as a glue. Instead I added two toothpicks to keep the sandwich together.

Since I had a meat filling, I borrowed from the BLT recipe and preheated the air fryer for three minutes at 370 degrees. Then I carefully placed my sandwich inside, just fitting it in the basket, and cooked it for four minutes before flipping it for another four.

Then it was time to eat. I cut the sandwich and, no, it was not the prettiest when compared to the BLT, but it was certainly the tastiest. The immediate tang from the pickles and mustard was inviting. Then the gooey cheese and slightly crisp ham followed. It was the perfect bite and tasted like it was served up at a diner.

This was a very successful air-fryer sandwich in my opinion. The addition of the pickles and mustard definitely elevated it to become a dish I'd be happy to make for my friends and family.

When I was thinking about the best classic, comfort-food sandwiches, Elvis Presley's favorite food did not immediately come to mind. But when it did, its simple ingredients seemed perfect for this challenge. Presley's favorite food was said to be a fried peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwich. This unique sandwich (even when recipes don't include the bacon) is often called "The Elvis."

Sans bacon, it's simple, it's sweet, and it's vegan, so I figured I'd try it out. I followed the Food Network's super easy recipe and then added my own twist of putting it in the air fryer. I used white bread, butter, Jif Creamy Peanut Butter, and a ripe banana.

I buttered one side of my slices of bread before flipping them and spreading peanut butter on. I also cut the banana into slices and layered them on one piece of bread. Then I simply joined both pieces of bread together and stuck a toothpick in.

Since this sandwich required the bread to crisp more than it required the peanut butter to melt, I decided on cooking it at 300 degrees. After a three-minute preheat, I cooked the sandwich for three minutes before flipping it over for three more.

After the first three minutes, the bread looked a little damp from the butter. Flipping it included the challenge of not getting the peanut butter to seep out everywhere. After the next three-minute cook, my sandwich wasn't looking so good.

It turned into an almost grey color, with the peanut butter seeping into the bread and creating a monochromatic mess. The bread was also not crisping nicely because of all the moisture. I let it rest for a couple of minutes before cutting into it. Again, this was not visually appealing and I was skeptical about the flavor.

To me, this was not a win. The banana took on an odd consistency and the combination with the peanut butter made it really tacky, sticking to my teeth. The bread was also not as crisp as the grilled cheese or ham and cheese, making it less than satisfactory in my opinion.

While in theory this sounded like a fun and scrumptious sandwich, it didn't fare well in the air fryer. I don't think I will be eating this comfort-food sandwich, air-fryer style, again.

Overall, I think my air-fried grilled cheese and ham-and-cheese sandwiches were the tastiest, crispiest, and brought me the most comfort. They truly made me so happy and the ham and cheese made me feel like a chef.

I wouldn't go as far as to say that you should never attempt to make a BLT or a peanut butter-and-banana sandwich in the air fryer. However, I do think you may be better toasting the bread of a BLT and frying Elvis' sandwich in a pan instead.