The best and most delish air fryer yeast donut recipe that will make EVERYONE in your life so happy to know you! :)
Melt 4 tbs of butter and mix together with 5 ounces (just under 2/3 cup of butter milk and 1 egg. (If you don’t have buttermilk, mix just over 1/2 cup of milk with just under 1 tbs of lemon juice. Let sit for 3-5 minutes to thicken. Place all of these wet ingredients in the center of the dry ingredients along with your activated yeast.
Remove the dough from the mixer, sprinkle a thin layer of flour onto a flat surface and kneed 100 times. Then coat the sides a mixing bowl with some flour and place the dough in the bowl. Use saran wrap (press and seal works amazing) to tightly seal off the bowl (make sure that there are no drafts in order for the dough to rise as much as possible)! :)
Turn on your oven to 350* for exactly 2 minutes, then turn off. Fill an oven safe bowl with boiling water (from a tea kettle) and place into the hot oven (the steam from the water will help with the 2nd rising AND prevent the donuts from getting crust on them)
Remove the dough and cut in 1/2. Place one 1/2 of the dough back into the tightly sealed bowl (you don’t want it to get a crust from sitting out….it won’t rise again properly). Roll out 1/2 of the dough about 1/2 inch thick and cut with a round cookie cutter (no more than 2 1/2” in width….if the donuts are too big, the center will not finish cooking before the outside is too crispy). Take the remaining dough (from what you just cut) and pinch off chunks to roll into smooth donut holes measuring about 1-2” . (You can try and re-roll out the rest, but I have found that those don’t rise as well again AND the shape is always SUPER wonky, so donut holes work very well).
Then carefully (without squishing) place the cut donuts onto a lightly floured baking sheet and place into the oven until they rise again and are double in size.