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You will be obsessed with these air fryer apple cider donuts! They are the most delicious fall treat.
Donuts are probably one of our favorite foods ever! Every time we travel somewhere, we always have to find the best donuts and coffee. At the end of the day, there’s just nothing like a delicious, soft donut.
So many people love eating apple cider donuts during the fall, and we are right there with them! They are such a delicious treat to have for breakfast, or for dessert after dinner.
We noticed that there were so many baked apple cider donut recipes. However, we thought we would take it up a notch and air fry our donuts, because we wanted to keep that light, doughy inside that’s reminiscent to an old fashioned donut.
When we say these air fryer apple cider donuts are next level, we aren’t kidding! The apple cider infused dough is filled with delicious, warm spices, “fried” in the air fryer and coated in apple pie cinnamon sugar. You’ll want to go back for seconds or thirds—they’re that good!
This post is all about air fryer apple cider donuts.
Air Fryer Apple Cider Donuts
What’s in the Recipe?
All Purpose Flour: Some traditional doughnut recipes call for cake flour, but since we went with a biscuit dough, all purpose flour works just fine for this recipe!
Unsalted Butter: We chose to go with a biscuit recipe because we felt it would make a fluffy doughnut in the air fryer. Cold butter is essential for creating the nice layers light texture.
Milk or Milk Alternative: The liquid that helps to being the dough together. You can use cow’s milk or a milk alternative, either work great.
Apple Cider: The key ingredient to these yummy doughnuts!! We made an apple cider reduction to enhance the flavor of the apple cider in the doughnuts and also brushed the doughnuts afterwards with a little apple cider and butter. You won’t miss the flavor
Apple Pie Spice: Apple pie spice is combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice ginger and cardamom. They’re all those yummy spices that taste like fall. We were super generous with the apple pie spice in this recipe by adding it to the dough and the sugar spice coating . We wanted to make sure the spices to come through, and they do!
Baking Powder and Baking Soda: Baking powder and soda help to leaven the doughnuts and produce a nice texture and height to the cooked doughnuts while helping to keep the flavor profile.
Sugar and Spice Mixture: We opted for a sugar and spice coating rather than a glaze because we wanted to keep it simple and let the flavor in the doughnuts to shine though!
How to make flakey layers in the donuts…
In order to make the dough nice and flakey, you will need to make layers. This is done by doing two things. One, using COLD butter and two, folding the dough to create the layers.
Once you have made you dough, you will need to use a certain folding technique to get the layers in the dough that you want. Start by rolling the dough in a rectangle shape until it is 1/2 an inch thick.
Next, fold one side of the dough into the center. Grab the edge of the opposite side and fold over. It is like you are making a tri-fold. Roll out the dough until it is 1/2 inch thick and repeat these steps 3-4 times.
Make sure your dough is not getting too tough, work gently with the dough. We felt our dough was getting tough after the 3rd fold and roll. You do not want to overwork the dough. Once you have made several layers, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes in the freezer. Working the dough has made the butter warm, so for best results, it will need to chill!
How to Make the Perfect Donut Shape
We used round cookie cutters (these are the cookie cutters we used) to make the perfect donut shape. If you don’t have different sized cookie cutters, your can use biscuit cutters as well.
We cut the large circle cookie cutter and then places the smaller cookie cutter in the center. We set the holes of the donuts aside and make donut holes with them.
Air Fry the Donuts…
Once the dough is chilled and cut, it’s time to air fry the donuts! Turn the air fryer on 350°F and fry 2-4 donuts at a time. You don’t want to overcrowd the air fryer, otherwise they won’t cook evenly. Cook the donuts for 7 minutes total, flipping them half way through the cook time.
Roll in Apple Pie Spice Cinnamon Sugar…
After the donuts have been removed from the air fryer, brush the donuts with melted butter and roll them in the apple spice cinnamon sugar mixture.
These air fryer apple cider donuts are best enjoyed warm right out of the air fryer!
Air Fryer Apple Cider Donuts
- Total Time: 1 hour 7 minutes
- Yield: 10 donuts 1x
Description
Soft cake donuts with a strong apple cider flavor, coated with a sugar and spice. A yummy fall treat!
Ingredients
- 3 cup All Purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 12 tbsp butter ((1 1/2 sticks))
- 3/4 cup milk/milk alternative
- 1 1/2 cup apple cider ((for reduction))
- 1 tbsp apple pie spice
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Sugar and Spice Coating
- 4 tbsp butter (melted)
- 2 tbsp apple cider
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp apple pie spice
Instructions
- Reduce apple cider. Pour apple cider into a small pan and heat over low heat and boil for about 15-20 minutes. Apple cider should reduce to ½ cup. Set aside once done to cool while you make the rest of your dough.
- In a medium bowl, add flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt, cinnamon and apple pie spice. Whisk until combined. Cut butter into cubes and cut into dough with pastry cutter or knife. If needed you can work butter into the dough with your hands.
- Add in your milk, apple cider and mix until dough is formed. Chill dough for 30 minutes in freezer.
- Remove dough from bowl and put on floured surface. Roll out your dough into a rectangle about ½ inch thick. This is how you will make layers in the dough. Fold one side of the dough into the center, then do the same for the other side. Roll out with your rolling pin to ½ inch thick and continue to repeat 3-4 more times. (see images in post for instruction)
- Roll dough out a final time and cut donut shape using round cookie cutters.
- Turn on air fryer to 350*F and fry 3-4 donuts at a time for 7 minutes, flipping over half way through. They should be golden brown and cooked through.
- Remove donuts from air fryer. Fill a small bowl with melted butter and apple cider and a plate with sugar and spice. Brush with melted butter and apple cider and roll in sugar and spice mixture. Repeat previous step until all doughnuts are cooked.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Breakfast, Dessert
- Cuisine: American
This post is all about air fryer apple cider donuts.
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