Easy Air Fryer Donuts from Scratch

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I have a love hate relationship with donuts. I love eating them. I hate frying them. Which is how I justified my spontaneous purchase of an air fryer*. Honestly I know I’m like 3 years late to the air fryer party but air frying donuts were a true revelation.

Who knew you could put donuts in a weird spaceship machine and 10 minutes later have beautiful fluffy donuts?  It’s a truly beautiful experience. 

This recipe is the first air fryer recipe that I’ve developed and it’s honestly such a lovely recipe. The donuts are light and fluffy and taste like real donuts (opposed to cake donuts). I used a brioche dough as the base and let them rise overnight so that I could air fry them first thing in the morning. Once they’re cooked you can glaze them with whatever you like but my favorite is tossing them in cinnamon sugar.

Why I love this air fryer donut recipe:

• From scratch: Before I developed this recipe I looked for an air fryer donut recipe and the majority used biscuit dough instead of making them from scratch. That seems really convenient but I wanted more of a TRUE donut flavor.
• Mini donuts: These little donuts are the perfect size and I strongly recommend you eat about 12 in one sitting
• Easy: The air fryer truly cuts out so much of the work and makes it so much easier to make donuts at home

How to make overnight air fryer donuts:

1) Make the dough

Combine the all of the donut ingredients except the butter in the bowl of a standing mixer and bring together with the dough hook. You’ll want to knead the dough for about 10 minutes to develop the gluten until it’s smooth and elastic. 

Once it’s smooth, reduce the speed of the mixer to low and add small pieces of room temperature butter to the dough one at a time. Once all the butter is mixed in let the mixer run for another 5 minutes until it’s smooth and soft.  Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover.

2) Rest and shape the dough

At this point you have two choices. You can either let the dough rest at room temperature for two hours. Then you shape the donuts and then let them rest in the fridge overnight. In the morning you’ll just bring them out of the fridge an hour before you want to cook them. Alternatively you can put the dough straight in the fridge and then shape them in the morning. Then you’ll just want to let the shaped donuts rise for an hour before frying them.

3) Air fry the donuts

While the donuts are rising for the last time preheat your air fryer to 350 F . Spray the inside of your air fryer basket with oil spray or brush lightly with canola oil. Gently place a few donuts into the basket and the spray with a bit more oil. Make sure the donuts have a bit of space between them and work in batches. Fry them for 4 minutes or until lightly golden.

4) Glaze or Toss in Cinnamon Sugar

At this point you can top the donuts with your favorite glaze or dip them in butter and cinnamon sugar. My favorite is definitely the cinnamon sugar but feel free to experiment!

Air Fryer Donut Recipe:

Easy air fryer donuts from scratch! These are ridiculously delicious and using an air fryer cuts out so much of the messy work involved with frying donuts. It also makes them just a little bit healthier… not that these are really a health food.

5 from 15 votes

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Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Resting time 12 hours hrs

Total Time 13 hours hrs 15 minutes mins

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine American

Equipment

• Air fryer

Ingredients

  

Dough

• 280 g all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 20 g of sugar
• 1 tsp active dry yeast
• pinch of nutmeg optional but delicious
• 1 egg ideally at room temp
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 125 g whole milk or your favorite non-dairy milk (ideally at room temp)
• 50 g room temperature unsalted butter + extra if you’re making cinnamon sugar donuts
• Oil for the air fryer spray works well but you can also use liquid

Cinnamon Sugar Topping:

• 20 – 30 g butter
• 75 g sugar You may need a little more
• 1 – 2 tsp cinnamon

Chocolate Glaze

• 50 g powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 tsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

 

Make the dough

• Combine all of the dry ingredients in the bowl of a standing mixer or in a large mixing bowl. Stir to combine.
• In a separate bowl combine the egg, vanilla and milk and then pour it into the dry ingredients.
• Set the mixer to low and, using the dough hook, combine for a few minutes until the dough comes together. If you’re working by hand use a wooden spoon or your hands to combine the dough.
• At this point either increase the mixer to medium and knead for another 10 minutes or turn onto the counter and knead by hand. Either way you want a soft dough that’s very smooth.
• Set your mixer to low and then add the soft butter one piece at a time to the dough. Make sure the dough is truly at room temperature and is nice and soft before you start adding it in! You want to work slowly at this point and make sure the butter has time to emulsify. Once the butter has all been added knead for another few minutes until the dough is soft and smooth.

At this point you have two options:

• Let the dough rest in the fridge overnight and shape it in the morning
• Shape the donuts and then let them rest in the fridge

For option 1:

• Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover it and just let it rest in the fridge overnight.
• In the morning roll the dough out on a floured surface till it’s half an inch thick.
• Cut out your donuts using a small round cutter ( I used 2.5 inches for the donut and then 3/4 inch to cut out the center hole). You can easily do this with glasses, cookie cutters, whatever other round things you can find.
• Place the cut donuts on a baking tray that’s either lightly greased or covered with parchment paper. Cover them and let them rise for 45 minutes or until when you lightly press on the dough it doesn’t immediately spring back.

For option 2:

• Let the dough rise on the counter for an hour or until it’s at least 1.5 times its original size.
• Roll the dough out on a floured surface till it’s half an inch thick. If the dough is too soft to work with place it in the freezer for 10 minutes to let the butter firm up.
• Cut out your donuts using a small round cutter ( I used 2.5 inches for the donut and then 3/4 inch to cut out the center hole). You can easily do this with glasses, cookie cutters, whatever other round things you can find.
• Place the cut donuts on a baking tray that’s either lightly greased or covered with parchment paper. Cover the tray and place them in the fridge overnight.
• In the morning let the donuts come to room temperature for about 45 minutes to an hour or until they no longer feel cold to the touch.

To fry:

• Preheat the air fryer to 350°F
• Spray or brush the donuts and basket with oil and fry for 4 minutes or until lightly golden. Make sure you give the donuts space and work in multiple batches.
• While they are frying combine the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and melt some butter in a second bowl. For the cinnamon sugar mixture you can add cinnamon to taste, I prefer 1.5 tsps but feel free to add more or less depending on your preference. If you want to glaze them instead simply stir together the glaze ingredients in a small bowl.
• For cinnamon sugar donuts, dip the hot donuts in the butter and then in the cinnamon sugar mixture before letting them cool.

  For glazed donuts just dip the donuts in the glaze and then top with sprinkles if you're in the mood.

Keyword air fryer, donuts, from scratch