Air Fryer Chocolate Doughnuts
Servings 6 donuts
These Air Fryer Chocolate Donuts are amazingly soft and fluffy and packed full of rich chocolate flavor! Made from scratch and just as good as deep-fried!
Ingredients
Doughnuts
- ½ cup whole milk warmed to 100-110°F
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast 1 packet
- 3 tablespoons salted butter melted
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Icing
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- Sprinkles, nuts, or oreo crumbs optional topping
Instructions
Doughnuts
- Add the milk, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and yeast to a large bowl. Allow the mixture to sit for fivtennutes, or until the yeast becomes foamy. If it doesn’t foam and smell strongly like yeast, I recommend dumping it out and starting over.
- Add the rest of the sugar, melted butter, egg, and vanilla and mix until combined. My favorite tool for making doughs is a danish dough whisk, but if you don’t have one, a regular whisk would work at this point as well.
- Next, add the flour and cocoa powder (if using a whisk, switch to a rubber spatula or wooden spoon). Mix just until combined.
- Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead it gently for 2 to 3 minutes, or until it forms a soft and slightly tacky dough.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and set it in a warm place to rise until almost doubled in size - about 1 hour.
- Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface until it is about ¼-½” thick, depending on how thick you’d like your doughnuts.
- Use a round cookie cutter (make sure to flour it first) to cut doughnuts out of the dough. I used a 2.5” cookie cutter and the large opening of a piping tip to cut out my doughnuts.
- Place the doughnuts onto a sheet pan and place them in a warm spot to rise for an additional hour.
- Carefully transfer 4 to 6 doughnuts (depending on the size of your air fryer) to the air fryer basket. DO NOT PREHEAT OR GREASE AIR FRYER! Cook at 300°F for 7 to 8 minutes, or until the doughnuts are soft on the inside and slightly crisp on the outside. Transfer the doughnuts to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.
Icing
- Combine the powdered sugar and cocoa powder in a small bowl.
- Add the heavy cream slowly (1 tablespoon at a time) and whisk until your desired consistency-- I like a pretty thick icing (about the consistency of pudding).
- Dip the cooled doughnuts in the icing and top with sprinkles, nuts, oreos, or even flakey sea salt. Serve immediately.
- Store any leftover doughnuts in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.
Notes
- This recipe was retested and updated in July 2021 to fix the bitter flavor of the donuts. More sugar and flour were added and the cocoa was reduced.
- Make sure to use unsweetened baking cocoa - not a hot cocoa mix. I used Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa, which gives the donuts and icing a darker color.
- This is a small batch donut recipe, only making 6-8 donuts. If you'd like to make more, simply double the recipe EXCEPT for the yeast. The amount of yeast in this recipe is good for up to 4 cups of flour and a double batch of this dough would only have 3 cups.
- This is a quick and easy icing that tastes nostalgically like Chocolate Fudge Pop-Tarts - for a richer, more elevated doughnut, I recommend topping with chocolate ganache (equal parts heavy cream and chopped chocolate).
- This is also not an overly sweet doughnut (because the icing is pretty sweet). To add more sweetness to the doughnut itself, use 3/4 cup of granulated sugar instead of 1/2 cup.
- Make sure not to overcook the doughnuts - they’ll dry out and turn hard. The doughnuts should be soft and fluffy on the inside and barely crisp on the outside.
- If you don’t want to use icing, you can also dip with doughnuts in melted butter followed by cinnamon sugar.
- You can also coat them in powdered sugar.
- Proofing is an important step that allows the yeast to release the carbon dioxide, this causes the dough to stretch and hold in air bubbles! As a result, this gives you perfectly risen, airy donuts! Here are a few easy ways to proof your dough!
- Place the lightly oiled bowl with the dough in a warm spot and cover it with a damp dishcloth.
- Cover a heating pad set to low with a towel and then place the dough bowl on top of it.
- Set your crockpot filled halfway with water to low heat and turn the lid upside down. Then put a dishtowel on top of the lid and place the bowl on it.
- Use your oven by heating it up for 5 minutes, shutting it off, and then putting the bowl of dough in.
- Fill a baking dish with boiling water and then put it on the oven rack below the bowl of dough.
- If your oven has a “proof” setting you can simply just use that!
- This recipe works great with a slow proof! After transferring the dough to a bowl, simply place the bowl in the fridge overnight and then finish the process in the morning.
Nutrition
Calories: 355kcal | Carbohydrates: 57g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 58mg | Sodium: 79mg | Potassium: 288mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 25g | Vitamin A: 393IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 55mg | Iron: 3mg
Find it online: www.sugarandsoul.co/air-fryer-chocolate-donuts/