How To Cook Light And Fluffy Donuts In The Air Fryer

Beyond your most useful air fryer recipes for everyday meals, most of us can admit to having sweet treat cravings now and then. Since air fryers have become popular over the years for their ability to cook various foods to peak texture with less fat and cooking oil, you may be wondering how you can maximize these benefits when attempting to satisfy your next sweet tooth.

Donuts are one of those confections that can be enjoyed early in the morning or whenever your need for a sweet and sugary baked good takes over. Instead of learning how to make the world's best doughnuts by pouring over various mixing bowls and ingredients in your kitchen, you can make a delicious and simple donut recipe with your air fryer. If you're wondering how any donut recipe can be made simple, all you need to do is use a conveniently packaged product for the base and let your culinary instincts guide you the rest of the way. 

Specifically, with the help of a can of refrigerated biscuits, you can make a tasty batch of air fryer donuts in no time. Since canned biscuits are already precut and loaded with buttery layers, transforming these rounds into fluffy donuts is a delicious sweet treat alternative. Next to maintaining a clean kitchen thanks to refrigerated biscuits, cooking donuts in your air fryer also takes very little time. 

To make easy air fryer donuts, first, take some time to prep and arrange any donut toppings you have in mind like a sour cream chocolate frosting or cinnamon-sugar mix for sprinkling. Set your air fryer to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and pop open your can of refrigerated biscuits. Since canned biscuits are already cut into convenient round portions, all you need to do is cut out a circle in the center of each round. You can use a 1-inch cookie cutter or simply cut out small holes with a knife. At this point, your air fryer should already be preheated, so spray the inside basket with a neutral cooking oil such as vegetable or avocado oil. Try to avoid processed cooking oil sprays which often contain ingredients that can damage the basket of your air fryer.

Depending on the size of your air fryer, you may have to cook your biscuit donuts in batches so each round has enough space for flipping. Luckily, one basket of canned biscuit donuts should only take about 7 minutes, as long as you're taking the time to flip these bready treats halfway through the cooking process. Once all the rounds have been successfully air-fried, you can now focus on the fun part of making donuts: topping these freshly baked snacks with all your favorite toppings.

Even though you can elevate breakfast by roasting fruit in your air fryer, biscuit donuts make for an easily customizable alternative for the first meal of the day. Since refrigerated biscuits are more on the savory side, feel free to get creative when adding sweeter elements to the top of your biscuit donuts. Air fryers have a special ability to give baked goods a deep-fried appeal without the use of extra oil, so you're left with donuts that have a soft, fluffy interior with a firm, buttery exterior — the perfect surface for a delicious chocolate glaze. 

While making an easy chocolate sauce by combining sugar, water, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips is both simple and tasty, if you want a topping that's a bit milder, try dipping your air fryer donuts in melted butter and then cinnamon sugar. You can also use a pastry brush to add a very fine layer of neutral oil — or flavorful oil like coconut — and then coat them in powdered sugar. Since making air fryer biscuit donuts can be done in just a few simple steps, you have more freedom to add an array of tasty toppings to these convenient yet satisfying foods.