Air Fryer Donuts from scratch – these yeasted donuts are pillowy soft, delicious and cook in just four minutes! So easy to make, no need to fuss with oil and frying and just as yummy.
360g(3 cups) pasta flour or all-purpose flour / plain flour
2 ½tsprapid rise yeast(1 packet)
Oil Sprayas needed
For the Glaze
6tbspunsalted butter
250g(2 cups) powdered sugar(icing sugar)
2tspvanilla extract
3Tbsphot water, or as needed
Optional Toppings
sprinkles
freeze dried strawberry powder
Instructions
Prepare the donuts
Add the milk, shortening and sugar to a mixing bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer) and heat in the microwave until the shortening starts to melt. Stir to combine and allow it to cool slightly.
Stir in the egg, glycerine, vanilla, nutmeg and salt. Check the temperature – it should be just lukewarm.
Sift the flour and yeast into the liquid ingredients and stir to combine until you have a shaggy dough. Beat the dough using an electric hand mixer fitted with dough hooks or using a stand mixer. Alternatively rest the dough for ten minutes then stretch and fold with your hands until it becomes elastic.
Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise until doubled. The timing will depend on how warm your kitchen is – in the summer an hour should be sufficient.
Punch the dough down to deflate. Turn it out on a lightly floured worktop and roll the dough out to ½ inch thickness. Cut out the donuts – depending on the size of your cutter you will get 8-12 donuts and donut holes.
If you don’t own a donut cutter you can use any round cutter or a glass and cut out the centres using the underside of a piping tip or a shot glass.
Leave the donuts to rise again for 30 minutes. Spray them with oil or brush with melted butter.
Spray the Air fryer basket with oil and place 3-4 donuts to the Air Fryer basket spaced slightly apart. Air fry at 350F (180C) until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Repeat with remaining donuts and holes.
Prepare the glaze
You will need to make this just before cooking the first batch of donuts. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Stir the sugar in then add the vanilla extract and the water, a tablespoon at a time, until you have a glaze that drips slowly off the spoon in a steady stream.
Dip the donuts in the glaze while they are still warm and place on a wire rack to dry. Share and enjoy!
Video
Notes
To deep fry Heat the oil in a large, deep pot. If you have a candy thermometer, clip it on. The oil is ready when it reaches 190C/ 375F. (To check if the oil is ready without the use of the thermometer, drop a small cube of bread in it. It should brown within a minute.)
Lower the doughnuts into the oil using a wooden spoon two at a time. Fry until golden – about 1–1 1/2 minutes on each side using a chopstick to flip over. Drain on kitchen towels.
Dip each doughnut in the glaze while they are still quite warm. Twist the doughnut so it’s well covered in the glaze then place on a wire rack to cool.