Air fryer yeast donuts filled with a delicious homemade grapefruit curd! These yeast donuts are lovely and soft with a crunchy sugar coating on the outside.
You can also fill the donuts with jelly, chocolate ganache or just leave them plain!
Combine all 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. 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. 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 round cutter (I used a 3-inch cutter). 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 lined 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 round cutter (I used a 3-inch cutter). 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 lined 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 an hour or until when you lightly press on the dough, it doesn’t immediately spring back.
While the donuts are raising, make the grapefruit curd using this recipe
To air fry:
Preheat the air fryer to 350 F
Spray or brush the donuts and basket with oil and fry for 6-8 minutes or until lightly golden, flipping after 4 minutes. Make sure you give the donuts space and work in multiple batches.
While they are frying, combine the sugar, cardamom and nutmeg in a bowl and melt some butter in a second bowl.
To finish
Dip the hot donuts in the butter and then in the sugar mixture before letting them cool.
Use a chopstick or skewer to poke a hole through to the center of the donut.
Transfer the grapefruit curd to a piping bag fitted with a small piping tip and pipe curd into each donut. You can also use a filling injector if you have one!