Easiest and quickest way to satisfy your morning sweet tooth! Using your air fryer, these come out perfect everytime. Sure to please anyone! Feel free to get creative with your favorite donut toppings. NOTE: I am using Pillsbury Grand Original Biscuits for this recipe. Reading the ingredients list there are no dairy or egg products used in making these biscuits. These are, however, made in the same facility as pillsbury products that do contain dairy. So they can not certify it as vegan on their labels. But again, the biscuits themselves don’t have dairy or egg ingredients – so for those reasons I am comfortable making these biscuits into my version of “vegan” donuts. Use your own discretion on this recipe. It is an extremely delicious alternative take on a classic morning favorite! This is an air fryer recipe. I am sure you can successfully bake these in the oven, but it will take longer and I have not personally tried it yet.
Right before you begin preparing your biscuits to take on a “donut-like” shape, go ahead a preheat your air fryer to 350 F. I have seen a lot of recipes online suggest a hotter temperature of 400 F, which may just depend on your size air fryer. My air fryer is a larger model and I find that 400 F is simply too hot a temperature and begins to brown or slightly burn the biscuit too much, giving it more of a biscuit consistency instead of the desired donut-feel to it. That being said, I saw fit to bring the temperature down and believe this yields better results. If you have a small air fryer, you may even be fine keeping your air fryer at 325 F. The most important takeaway of this recipe is just to keep checking on your donuts throughout the 5-8 minute range that your will be baking them in the air fryer. It is nothing to stress about – just keep this in mind and peak at the donuts every minute or so until they look perfect!
The cool part about this recipe is how low maintenance it really is. The biscuits are already pre shaped into a perfect donut size. When you open your biscuit package, take out 4 biscuits (I do this in batches- my air fryer is large enough to make 4 at a time. So while 4 are baking, I prep the rest of the biscuits for the next round. You can tweak this step as desired based on the size of your air fryer/preference) and lay them out on a plate or cutting board. To poke the hole through the middle of the doughnut, I simply use a water bottle cap. I think that the size of a traditional water bottle cap is the perfect size. If you don’t have a you can use the circular cap of something different to cut out the center into that perfect circle (spice lid, or small jar/bottle lid- just be careful not to get the seasoning or sauce flavor onto the donut!). I do recommend you use something to cut out the center piece of the dough- I have tried to just use a knife to poke a hole in the center and then pull the dough back to create a hole, however the dough will want to grow back together a bit in the baking process so it you want them to look more legit you will need to actually cut out the whole center section.
Once the air fryer is pre heated and the donuts are ready to go in the oven, I opt to give each side of the donut a light spritz of oil on each side before placing them in the air fryer bin. This step is optional and can be skipped if you are looking to eliminate or minimize oil from your diet.
You will be cooking your donuts for about 6-8 minutes in total. When you first pop these donuts in the air fryer, you are welcome to begin prepping your donut toppings – just don’t forget to check on the donuts as they are baking! After about 3 minutes, I open the air fryer and flip the donuts over. After I have flipped them, I will typically check them every minute until they look lightly browned before turning the air fryer off to take the donuts out.
In this specific recipe, I lay out the steps for making a cinnamon sugar donut. I personally recommend you at least start with the cinnamon sugar and then branch out – but it is completely up to you. I have also tried using a store bought frosting that I had diluted with a non dairy milk until it reached the consistency of a standard donut’s frosting. It looked great, but I will say it did just taste a bit like a biscuit with frosting on it. Which is still delicious, but perhaps not the ideal. For whatever reason, I find that the cinnamon sugar coating creates the perfect illusion of the non-vegan donuts of my childhood. Give it a shot and let me know if you have any other topping tips!
For the cinnamon sugar coating, you will first need to melt about 3 tbsp of vegan butter in a small or medium sauce pan. Turn off the heat once the butter is melted. On a plate, add your 1 cup of brown sugar (or whatever sugar your prefer) and 2 tbsp of ground cinnamon. using a small whisk or fork, gently mix the cinnamon and sugar until combined.
For the final steps of this recipe, you will take one of your donuts that has been baked in the air fryer, dip all sides of the donut into the butter and then evenly coat the buttered donut with the cinnamon sugar mixture. I do this by dipping my buttered donut directly on to the plate and pressing the donut into the mixture on all sides. Once evenly coated, set the donut aside on a separate plate and repeat this coating process with your remaining donuts.
These donuts will be ready to enjoy immediately! How easy was that??
Under 10 Minute Vegan Donut in Air Fryer
Equipment
- Air Fryer
Ingredients
- 1 Tin Biscuits I used Pillsbury Grand Original Biscuits
- 1 tsp Cooking Oil Optional, but I used a light spritz of coconut oil spray to coat
- 3 tbsp Vegan Butter
- 1 Cup Brown Sugar amount of sugar will be more or less to taste, or depending on how many you are making or how coated you want your donuts to be
- 2 tbsp Ground Cinnamon again- more or less to taste, or depending on how many you are making or how coated you want your donuts to be
Instructions
- Open and separate out biscuits from tin. Using a bottle cap, cut out center of biscuit so the biscuit now resembles that of a traditional donut. You can discard the center dough, or use for "donut holes"
- Preheat air fryer to 350 F. Once Preheated, cook for 6-8 minutes, flipping at halfway mark (after halfway mark, I check on them every few minutes. 6 minutes works in my air fryer but timing may vary based on the size of your air fryer so just take a peek every so often until both sides are lightly browned). Depending on the size of your air fryer/how many donuts you are making, you will need to do this in batches. I could fit 4 at a time in my air fryer, but don't over crowd.
- In a small sauce pan, melt vegan butter on a low heat (keep watch on this you don't want your butter to burn). Remove from heat once butter is melted
- On a plate, combine your sugar and cinnamon together with a fork or whisk
- coat both sides of your donut in the vegan butter then immediately transfer to the cinnamon sugar mixture so it sticks to donut when you coat both sides until the whole donut is covered.
- Serve right away!
