Easy Air Fryer Donut Recipe
Today I modified my Mom’s French Donut recipe into an Easy Air Fryer Donut recipe. 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 other 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 small changes and create a gluten-free, easy sugar-cinnamon air fryer donut recipe.
Can I just say yum?
My Easy Gluten Free Air Fryer Donut Recipe
My mom used to make her recipe for French Donuts all of the time. My four 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.
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. 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.
If you are enjoying my blog, you can sign up to receive my blog updates here. .
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.
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 a 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, 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.
I am obsessed with how cute these donuts look on my favorite cake stands. And if you are wondering, the milk is almond milk!
Links to the Items Shown in This Post
Ninja Foodi 6 in 1 2-Basket Air Fryer 
6″ Pink Cake Stand 
Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer 
3 Piece Pink Glass Mixing Bowl Set 
6″ White Cake Stand 
13″ Round Copper Cooling Rack 
Set of 2 Silicon Baking Mats 
Kitchen Aid Hand Mixer 
Adjustable Rolling Pin 
Stainless Steel Donut Cutter 
Set of 6 Aassorted Portmerion Dinner Plates 
16.3″ Champagne Gold Cooling Rack 
6″ Gray Cake Stand 
Fresh Pies Sign 
Set of 2 Glass Milk Bottles 
Single Portmerion Dinner Plate 
Better Batter 
Set of 2 Stainless Steel Donut Cutters 
4 Piece Silicone Food Tong Set 
2 Piece Silicone Food Tong Set
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
This bakery style Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Recipe is inspired by my mom. 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.
Similar Posts
Pin the images below to your recipe boards on Pinterest (just click the Pin button in the top left corner). You can also follow along with me on Pinterest!
For more real-time updates, follow me on Instagram @My100YearOldHome
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!
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.