Air Fryer Donuts created with yeast dough taste just like the real thing. Better than baking and lower in fat than frying! Discover how simple it is to cook beautiful doughnuts in the Air Fryer! Homemade Air Fryer Donuts are silky, fluffy, and tender. They make a terrific breakfast or dessert when dipped in a buttery donut glaze or sweet cinnamon sugar and taste like your favorite donut shop. Many Air Fryer Donut recipes call for the canned biscuit dough, which is more convenient, but the donuts will taste like biscuits with sugar on top rather than original doughnuts. So, instead of being disappointed, make them from scratch. They do take some time, but it’s much easier than you think, and the end product is well worth it.
How to Make Air Fryer Donuts?
Begin by activating the yeast by sprinkling it over lukewarm milk, adding a pinch of sugar, and gently stirring with a fork. Allow the mixture to settle for 10 minutes. The tiny yeast particles can be seen exploding if you look closely. If nothing happens after 15 minutes, your yeast is probably no longer active, either because it is too old or because the milk was too hot.
Knead the dough in a stand mixer with the remaining dough ingredients until it is elastic, smooth, and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 5 minutes.
Spray a bowl with nonstick spray and transfer the dough to it, no matter how sticky. Move the dough around in the basin gently to coat it in oil. Cover the bowl with a piece of plastic wrap sprayed with oil spray.
Allow it to rise in a warm, draft-free area until it has doubled. Make an indentation in the dough with the tip of your finger; if the indentation stays, the dough has been proofed long enough.
Roll out the dough to 1/2 inch on a lightly floured work surface. Cut out the donuts with a 3-inch and 1-inch biscuit cutter. I have a set of biscuit cutters that has a variety of sizes.
If you don’t have biscuit cutters, use a shot glass and a wide drinking glass or wide-mouth canning ring. Look around your kitchen and pantry; you’ll find something useful.
Ingredients
- 1 cup lukewarm (approximately 100°F) milk
- 2 1/2 teaspoons dry active yeast or instant yeast
- 1 tsp plus 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- One egg
- 3 cups all-purpose flour 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
- Coconut oil works best as an oil spray.
For The Glaze
- 6 tbsp butter (unsalted)
- 2 cups sugar powder
- a teaspoon of vanilla extract
- Four tablespoons boiling water, or as needed
Instructions
- Gently combine lukewarm milk, one teaspoon of sugar, and yeast in the stand mixer bowl fitted with the dough hook. Allow 10 minutes for the foam to form (If nothing happens, your milk is too hot, or the yeast is too old, so start over).
- Add the sugar, salt, egg, melted butter, and 2 cups of flour to the milk mixture. Mix on low speed until incorporated, then gently add the remaining cup of flour while the mixer runs until the dough sticks to the bowl. Reduce the speed to medium-low and knead the dough for 5 minutes, or until it is elastic and smooth.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap after placing it in a greased basin. Allow rising until twice in size in a warm location. If you make a dent with your finger and the indentation persists, the dough is ready.
- Turn the dough onto a floured surface, punch it down, and roll it out to approximately 1/2 inch. Using a 3-inch round cutter and a 1-inch round cutter to remove the center, cut out 10-12 donuts.
- Cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap and place donuts and donut holes on lightly floured parchment paper. Allow 30 minutes for the doughnuts to double in size. Preheat the Air Fryer to 350 degrees.
- Spray the Air Fryer basket with oil spray and carefully place the donuts in a single layer. Spray doughnuts with oil spray and bake at 350°F for 4 minutes, or until golden brown. Rep with the rest of the donuts and holes.
- Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat while the doughnuts are in the Air Fryer. Until smooth, stir in powdered sugar and vanilla essence. Remove from heat and add one tablespoon of hot water until the icing is thin but not runny. Place aside.
- To soak hot donuts and doughnut holes in glaze, use forks to dip them in. Allow excess glaze to drip off on a wire rack positioned over a rimmed baking sheet. Allow 10 minutes for the glaze to harden.
How Long is Air Fryer Donuts Good for?
Donuts are best served fresh. Allow 10 minutes for the glaze to set after dipping them in it. Because they are not deep-fried, they use less oil. Donuts cooked in an air fryer dry up quickly. You might be wondering how to keep doughnuts fresh. The easiest way to preserve them is in an airtight container and keep them at room temperature for 1-2 days.
Some people soften their doughnuts in the microwave for 5 seconds, but I’ve never tried it. Refrigerating glazed donuts will cause the glaze to melt and absorb into the donut, resulting in a sticky mess. These donuts are best eaten fresh, although they can be frozen unglazed. Once out of the oven, reheat them in the Air Fryer and glaze them immediately.
Do Air Fryers Work with Donuts?
I coat the doughnuts with coconut oil before cooking them in the air fryer at 350°F. After some trial and error, I’ve determined that yeast-raised doughnuts require about 4 minutes and cake-style doughnuts require about 7 minutes. Preheat the Air Fryer to 350 degrees. Spray the Air Fryer basket with oil spray and carefully place the donuts in a single layer. Spray doughnuts with oil spray and bake at 350°F for 4 minutes, or until golden brown. Rep with the rest of the donuts and holes.
Heat roughly 2-3 inches of oil in a medium, heavy-bottomed pan to 375 degrees F. Lower a few donuts into the oil, carefully scraping them from the parchment paper before heating. Cook for 2-3 minutes on one side or until browned. Cook for 1 minute or less on the other side until browned.
Do you Need a Deep Fryer to Make Donuts?
If you don’t have a deep fryer, you may fry your donuts. If you want to correct this process and make excellent donuts, keep an eye on the oil temperature and ensure it stays between 350 and 360 degrees Fahrenheit. It would help if you also drained the donuts twice. Canola and sunflower oils are two of the best possibilities because they are neutral oils readily available and supplied at a reasonable price.
Canola oil is one of the most excellent options because of its light color, mild flavor, and high smoke point, making it ideal for frying donuts. Is a recipe for baked donuts healthier than one for fried donuts? They most certainly are. A regular fried, glazed doughnut contains roughly 269 calories, and however a baked donut contains significantly less. The difference is that when you bake, you won’t be dealing with any extra fat from the frying oil.
Are Air Fryer Doughnuts any Good?
Homemade Air Fryer Donuts are silky, fluffy, and tender. They make a terrific breakfast or dessert when dipped in a buttery donut glaze or sweet cinnamon sugar and taste like your favorite donut shop. They were simple to make (with my KitchenAid stand mixer) and exceeded my expectations. Moist and reminiscent of a donut shop doughnut, but without the excess oil used in regular fried donuts. I did add a pinch of nutmeg powder, and I was highly disappointed because they didn’t taste very well.
The texture is more compact, the flavor of deep frying is absent, and the hue is also lighter. Overall, the taste was decent, and if you don’t want to deal with the calories and hassle of deep-frying, these are a good alternative. Balled-up donuts If the dough isn’t let to rest long enough (particularly doughnuts cut from the second re-roll), it will shrink (in width, not height) and ball up when fried.
In an Airfryer, How do you Reheat Donuts?
Your air fryer is fantastic at keeping crispy meals crispy even after reheating. Preheat your air fryer to 350°F to 400°F to reheat your donuts. Place your unglazed doughnuts in the oven for 3 to 4 minutes. Preheat your air fryer to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Wrap the doughnuts in parchment paper before serving (if you want to reheat powdered sugar donuts or any donut with a topping).
Before removing the donuts from the air fryer, allow them to warm for about 5 minutes. If your doughnuts have become hard, the best way to soften them is to microwave them. Greif suggests nuking them for 15 seconds at a time. Microwaving your doughnut to reheat or revive it is the industry standard.
Conclusion
Refrigerated biscuits are used to make Air Fryer Donuts! It only takes four ingredients and 5 minutes to prepare. These delectable doughnuts will quickly become your go-to Air Fryer recipe! Our Easy Canned Biscuit Donuts, baked in the oven, is one of our most popular dishes. Every one adores them, and it’s as simple as that. This is simply a variant version with a shorter cooking time. I highly recommend trying our baked version if you don’t have an Air Fryer.
