Easy Air Fryer Donut Recipe
Today I am sharing how I modified my Mom’s French Donut recipe into an Easy Air Fryer Donut recipe. And they turned out amazing.
This no-yeast recipe is made from scratch, is gluten-free, and cooked in my Ninja Foodi air fryer. These sugar-cinnamon donuts (and donut holes) are delicious.
Today I have joined some of my favorite bloggers and we are sharing some treasured family recipes. I thought it might be fun to pull out my Ninja Food fryer and make a few minor changes and create a gluten-free, easy sugar-cinnamon air fryer donut recipe.
Can I say yum?
My Easy Gluten-Free Air Fryer Donut Recipe
My mom used to make her recipe for French Donuts all of the time. All four of my siblings and I used to fight over them and somehow my brothers always managed to eat the most.
Mom’s donut recipe is a family favorite and I knew I wanted to make them gluten-free. I also decided to convert them to an air fryer don’t recipe, instead of baking them in the oven. Of course, you can cook these sugar-cinnamon muffins however you would like.
I loved using my donut cutter. It is the best way to get the same-sized donut every time. And that means they can be stacked for a great presentation.
Of course, donuts are always best with milk, so I added a bottle of milk when I served these air fryer donuts to my boys.
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How to Make My Air Fryer Donut Recipe
In order to make these gluten-free and vegan, I substituted Better Batter for regular flour (you can use either one). Better Batter is a cup-for-cup alternative to ordinary flour. Any 1 to 1 gluten-free flour would work too.
I also used Country Crock Plant Butter. It tastes just like butter and is so much healthier for you. You can use regular butter if you want but I think you should try it. We use Country Croc Plant Butter every day.
My mom’s recipe calls for margarine, which should give you an idea of how old the recipe is. Can you still buy margarine? I hope not.
As you can see below, the batter is pretty thick.
Roll the batter to about 5/8″ thickness and cut with the donut cutter.
See how great these look? they are so uniform.
And of course, you get donut holes too.
I used my Ninja Foodi Air Fryer to “fry” these donuts. I love that they taste fried but they are healthy. And they take about ten minutes per batch to cook so I can make four air-fried donuts as my machine has double drawers.
This is what the air-fried donuts look like when they are cooked.
If you don’t have an air fryer you can make these in a cupcake pan. That’s how my mom used to do it.
When they come out of the oven or air fryer, dip the donuts (on both sides) in melted butter (or plant butter).
Dip them again in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.
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Easy Air Fryer Donut Recipe
Ingredients
- For Donuts:
- 1 cup butter (or plant butter) softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup milk
- 3 cups flour (or gluten free flour)
- 4 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- For Glaze:
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup cinnamon
Instructions
- Cream 1 cup softened butter and sugar in a mixer or in a bowl until smooth. Add milk and dry ingredients alternately. Mix in vanilla.
- Once mixed, roll out the dough until it is about 5/8" thick. Cut with a donut cutter to make donuts and donut holes
- Preheat the air fryer to 360 degrees. Bake two donuts in each compartment for 8 - 10 minutes. Cook the donut holes together but separately from the donuts as they will cook for approximately 5 minutes.
- If you don't have an air fryer, add the batter to greased muffin tins. Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees. (Dip the tops of the muffins in the butter and sugar/cinnamon mixture.)
- Melt the 1/2 cup butter. In separate dish, mix the sugar and cinnamon together. Place the butter and the sugar/cinnamon mixture onto separate flat plates.
- Once fried, dip each side of the donut into the melted butter. Next, dip the donut in the sugar mixture, on each side.
- Serve warm.
Frequently Asked Questions
There are a lot of options. You can use biscuit dough from a can or make your own from scratch. My recipe is a French version of a cake-style donut. It is delicious.
The preference is up to you. But the air-fried donuts are really delicious. They are light, and air fried but healthy.
Yes. I made a batter for my air-fried donuts and cut the dough with a donut cutter. I cooked them in the air fryer and they came out perfectly.
It’s probably true to assume I am obsessed with how cute these donuts look on my favorite cake stands. And if you are wondering, the milk is almond milk!
Four Other Family Recipes
My blogger friends are also sharing their favorite Family Recipes.
Make this easy Butter Mochi Recipe using Mochiko flour. This delicious Hawaiian cake has hints of coconut, custard, and butter. It is a chewy, dense dessert that you probably have never tasted. It is the best recipe!
Bakery Style Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
My mom inspires this bakery-style Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Recipe. Chewy, buttery cookies filled with spices and delicious flavor. Grab the easy recipe!
Chocolatiest Chocolate Banana Bread
Using both cocoa powder and chocolate chips really takes this banana bread over the top!
Martha’s Mom’s Blue Berry Buckle
This streusel-topped fruit-filled dessert is a crowd-pleaser, perfect for a family celebration.
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We’re you reading my mind? We love doughnuts on saturday morning and was on the fence about an air fryer. Not any more! Ordered.
Oh my gosh Mary, my air fryer is my new most favorite appliance. The Ninja one I use is key, it has 2 baskets so that you can make 2 different things at the same time or 2 batches at the same time! Happy donut mornings to you!
For the flour do you use a general gluten free blend or cup for cup gluten free flour?
Thank you!
Laurel, I use Better Batter (cup for cup) or King Arthur (measure for measure). Happy baking!
Hi! Can I substitute the butter with margarine instead, since we don’t have any butter left? Also, I’m actually surprised at how you mentioned that margarine is hard to find. Here, we have tons of margarine products whereas butter is mainly imported (and expensive).
Yes, you can definitely do that!
This recipe does not work. So disappointed. Woke up craving donuts found this and it cokes out like cake batter. Not rollable in anyway!
I had the same problem. It was easily fixed by adding flour until the desired consistency was reached.
Great tip, thanks Rose! 🙏
Disaster! Dripped through air fryer basket, didn’t rise at all, dough was very hard to handle. A complete mess! What was salvaged tasted like pancakes, not doughnuts.
Did not work. I had to add at least an extra cup of flour to work make the dough workable and then because if the extra flour they came out more like biscuits. Would make for a good drip biscuit recipe but not donut unfortunately.
Yum! These sound delicious. I definitely need to. make these.
I can’t to try this thank you!
Oh yay! It’s a great recipe- enjoy ☺️
Pretty confused here…margarine and plant-based butter are the same, except no dairy in the latter.
I googled thus question. Try it
Seems we’re repeating past delusions of what is healthful.
Thank you for sharing your Mother’s recipe (I love old family recipes especially in the original handwriting) as well as the way you modified it. Can’t wait to try it. Thanks again!
It is just so special and I was so happy to share it 🥰 Please let me know how they turn out for you if you do- enjoy!
Thank you for sharing your Mother’s recipe (I love old family recipes especially in the original handwriting) as well as the way you modified it. Can’t wait to try it.