Air Fryer Doughnuts

March 26, 2025

Air Fryer Doughnuts

These are yeast-raised doughnuts cooked in an air fryer instead of a deep fryer: an enriched dough of flour, milk, egg, sugar, and butter, given a proper rise, cut into rings, and air-fried until golden. A quick glaze goes on while they’re still warm.

The dough works the same way a bakery doughnut dough does — rich enough to stay soft, but sturdy enough to hold its shape through rising, cutting, and a second short rise before cooking. The air fryer’s dry heat browns the outside and cooks the crumb through without the oil bath a deep fryer needs, so the doughnuts come out lighter and less greasy, if a touch less glossy on the surface.

There’s a popular American shortcut that starts from a can of refrigerated biscuit dough — punch a hole in each biscuit, air-fry, and toss in cinnamon-sugar. It’s fast, but that canned dough isn’t sold in Denmark or most of Europe, and the result is closer to a fried biscuit than an actual doughnut. This from-scratch version uses ordinary baking ingredients and gives the real thing: a proper enriched, yeasted crumb.

Serve them warm, the same day they’re made. Like any doughnut, they go stale fast once they cool.

Ingredients

Serves 4 (about 10–12 doughnuts, plus holes)

The dough

240 ml whole milk, warm (40–43°C, not above 46°C)
7 g active dry yeast (1 packet)
54 g granulated sugar, divided (4 g for the yeast, 50 g for the dough)
1 large egg, room temperature
70 g unsalted butter, melted
375 g all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
3 g salt
oil spray (olive or coconut), for the basket

The glaze

240 g icing sugar
45 ml milk (or hot water)
28 g unsalted butter, melted
½ tsp vanilla extract

Directions

The dough

Warm the milk to 40–43°C (105–110°F) — no hotter, or the yeast will die — and whisk in the yeast with a teaspoon of the sugar. Set it aside for 5–10 minutes until it turns foamy on top; that foam means the yeast is alive and working.

In a separate bowl, whisk the melted butter with the egg and the rest of the sugar until smooth, then stir in the yeast mixture.

Add the flour and salt and mix to a shaggy dough, then knead for about 5 minutes, by hand or with a stand mixer’s dough hook, until it’s smooth, elastic, and just slightly tacky. Resist adding more flour than the recipe calls for — a tacky dough makes a lighter doughnut.

Put the dough in an oiled bowl, cover it, and leave it somewhere warm (24–26°C / 75–79°F) until doubled in size, about 1–1½ hours.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll it to about 1.5 cm (½ inch) thick. Cut rounds with a 3-inch cutter, then stamp a smaller hole from the centre of each with a 1-inch cutter — keep the centres, they cook into doughnut holes. Set the rings and holes on a floured sheet of baking paper, cover loosely, and let them rise again for 15–30 minutes, until visibly puffy.

Preheat the air fryer to 350°F (175°C) and lightly oil the basket. Arrange the doughnuts in a single layer with space between them and spray or brush the tops lightly with oil. Air-fry for 6–8 minutes, and the holes for about 6 minutes, until golden — no need to flip. Work in batches so nothing overcrowds the basket.

The glaze

While the doughnuts cook, whisk together the icing sugar, milk, melted butter, and vanilla for the glaze until smooth.

To serve

Dip the warm doughnuts and holes in the glaze, set them on a wire rack, and let the glaze set for 5–10 minutes before serving.

Notes

Air fryers vary a fair bit — check the first batch at the low end of the time range and adjust from there.

Cinnamon-sugar is a quick substitute for the glaze: brush the warm doughnuts with melted butter, then toss them in a mix of sugar and cinnamon instead of dipping them in icing.

A chocolate glaze also works: replace some of the icing sugar with cocoa powder and thin with a little extra milk.

These stale quickly, faster than deep-fried doughnuts. Eat them the day they’re made.