Air Fryer Donuts From Scratch

Ready for more donut recipes? Try my mochi donuts, protein donuts, donut holes, and breakfast donuts next. If you’ve been wondering how to incorporate your air fryer into your favorite desserts, I have one word: donuts! But not just any donuts. I’m talking light and fluffy, yet crisp and enveloped in a delicate glaze. Best of all, you only need four ingredients and your handy air fryer.

Why I love this recipe

Shortlist of ingredients. All you need is my famous Greek yogurt dough and powdered sugar for the glaze. They’re fast to make. A few minutes of prep time and no more than 8 minutes in the air fryer! Healthy. Each one is oil-free, low-fat, and has only 115 calories each! Plus, they’re easy to make vegan and or gluten-free. Totally scratch-made. There’s no frozen biscuit dough or pre-made dough here. Just simple, good-for-you ingredients. Trust me, you can taste the difference.

Ingredients needed

Self-rising flour. A combination of all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. You can skip the store-bought kind and make my homemade self rising flour. Vanilla yogurt. I used full-fat vanilla Greek yogurt, but any flavored plain yogurt works. If you use a flavored Greek yogurt, you must add 2 tablespoons of maple syrup or sugar to compensate for the tartness. Powdered sugar. Mixed with water to create a glaze. You can cut the calories and sugar by using a powdered sugar substitute. Sprinkles. Optional, but adds a fun pop of color! Water. To mix the dough.

How to make air fryer donuts

I’ve included step-by-step photos below to make this recipe easy to follow at home. For the full printable recipe instructions and ingredient quantities, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Arman’s recipe tips

Save time. Make the dough in a stand mixer with a dough hook. Only have plain yogurt? Add 1/4 of sugar or maple syrup to give the dough a sweet flavor. Don’t add more flour to the dough. The dough is supposed to be a little sticky, so resist the temptation to add more flour. Let the donuts cool completely before adding the glaze. Otherwise, it will glide off the donuts.

Storage instructions

To store: Leftover donuts can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to five days.

Vegan donuts. Use vanilla-flavored coconut yogurt. Gluten-free donuts. Use gluten-free self-rising flour. Make a chocolate glaze. Melt chocolate chips and fold them into the glaze mixture along with 1-2 tablespoons of melted unsalted butter. Or swap the glaze. Brush the donuts with melted butter and toss them in a cinnamon-sugar mixture or dust them with powdered sugar.

To freeze: Place the donuts in an airtight container and store them in the freezer for up to six months.