I want to start with the thing most donut recipes skip past, because it will save you a disappointment. A donut is defined by deep frying. Hot oil cooks the outside in about sixty seconds while the inside stays soft and steamy, and it leaves behind a thin sealed shell that keeps the whole thing tender for hours. An air fryer cannot do either of those things. It cooks with moving hot air, which is slower and dries surfaces rather than sealing them.
So what you get from an air fryer is a baked donut. Once I stopped chasing the fried texture and started treating these as their own thing, they got a lot better, because I stopped over-baking them trying to force a crust that was never going to appear. They come out soft, light, faintly cakey, and genuinely lovely with a glaze on them. They are also ready in twenty-five minutes with no oil to dispose of and no yeast to wait for, which is why I make them and almost never deep fry.
Quick answer: Mix a soft vegan dough, roll it to half an inch, cut rings, then air fry at 350°F (175°C) for 8 to 10 minutes, flipping at 5. Brush both sides with melted coconut oil before they go in, which is the single thing that gets you color and keeps them from drying out. Glaze only once they are fully cool. Makes 6 donuts plus holes.
What an air fryer donut actually is
Two mechanisms make a fried donut what it is, and it is worth knowing which one you are giving up.
- Speed. Oil at 350°F transfers heat to the dough far faster than air at the same temperature, because oil is dense and air is not. A fried donut is done in a minute and a half, so the middle barely has time to dry. A baked one needs eight to ten minutes, and that is eight minutes of moisture leaving.
- The seal. Frying sets a thin, fat-saturated shell on the surface almost instantly. That shell is what makes a fresh donut feel slightly crisp outside and pillowy inside, and it also slows staling. Hot air produces no such layer.
Neither of those is fixable with a setting. What you can do is compensate: keep the bake short, add fat to the surface yourself, and glaze generously, since a glaze is a moisture barrier as well as a flavor. All three are built into the method below.
If crisp is what you are really after from this machine, our guide on making bakes crispy in an air fryer explains what it can and cannot deliver, and why a soft dough like this one is not the place to chase it.
Three different recipes wear the same name
Search vegan air fryer donuts and you will land on three genuinely different things. Knowing which one you want saves a lot of confusion about times, because the numbers are not interchangeable.
| Style | Time & temp | Total effort | Texture |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rolled and cut (this recipe) | 350°F, 8 to 10 min | About 25 min | Soft, light, biscuit-like |
| Piped into a donut mold | 340°F, 8 to 10 min | About 25 min | Cakey, very even, needs a mold |
| Yeast raised | 380°F, 4 to 6 min | 2 to 3 hours with proofing | Chewy, closest to a real donut |
This page is the rolled and cut version, which is the one I make on a weekday. It uses baking powder rather than yeast, so there is no proofing, and it needs no special equipment beyond something round to cut with. The yeast version is better if you want that pull-apart chew and have an afternoon. If you own a silicone donut mold, the piped version gives the neatest shape, and our guide on using silicone molds in an air fryer covers the timing adjustments those need.
Ingredients
Six things, all of them likely already in the cupboard.
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup almond milk
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Extra melted coconut oil, for brushing
No egg replacer needed here, and that is deliberate. Plenty of vegan donut recipes reach for flax eggs or applesauce. This dough does not need one, because it is a soft biscuit-style dough held together by gluten and lifted by baking powder rather than by egg structure. Adding a flax egg makes it heavier, not better. That is one of the nice things about this particular style: the vegan version is not a substitution exercise, it is just how the recipe works.
On the milk: any unsweetened plant milk works. Soy has the most protein so it browns slightly better, oat is the creamiest, almond is the most neutral. Avoid canned coconut milk, which is too rich and makes the dough greasy.
On the coconut oil: melted, not solid, and measure it after melting. Refined coconut oil is neutral; virgin will taste faintly of coconut, which is nice with a chocolate glaze and odd with a lemon one.
How to make air fryer vegan donuts
- Preheat to 350°F for 3 minutes. Baking powder starts working the moment the wet meets the dry, so a hot basket is doing real work here. Skipping it gives you flatter, denser rings. Our guide on preheating an air fryer for baking explains why leavened doughs care about this more than anything else.
- Whisk the dry, then the wet. Flour, baking powder and salt in one bowl. Almond milk, maple syrup, melted coconut oil and vanilla in another.
- Combine into a soft dough. Pour the wet into the dry and stir until it just comes together. It should be soft and slightly tacky but not sticky enough to coat your fingers. Too wet, add a tablespoon of flour. Too dry and crumbly, add a teaspoon of milk.
- Do not knead it. Bring it together with about ten seconds of gentle pressing and stop. This is the difference between a light donut and a tough one, and it is the mistake I made the first three times.
- Roll to half an inch. Thinner and they bake into crisp rings rather than donuts; thicker and the middle stays doughy. Half an inch is the number.
- Cut rings. A donut cutter if you have one, otherwise a glass or round cutter about 3 inches across for the outside and a bottle cap or piping tip for the hole. Save the holes, they bake in half the time and are the cook's snack.
- Brush both sides with melted coconut oil. Do not skip this. It is covered in detail below and it is the biggest single improvement to this recipe.
- Air fry 8 to 10 minutes at 350°F, flipping at 5. Space them so they are not touching. They are done when both sides are golden and a skewer comes out clean. Holes need only 4 to 5 minutes.
- Cool completely before glazing. Warm donuts melt glaze straight off, and you end up with a sticky puddle and a bare donut. Fifteen minutes on a rack.
The oil brush that changes everything
If you make one change to how you have been doing this, make it this one.
A vegan dough with a single tablespoon of oil in it has very little fat at the surface, and fat is what browns. Without it, hot moving air just dehydrates the outside, and you get a pale, slightly leathery ring rather than a golden one. Brushing melted coconut oil over both faces before baking gives the surface something to brown with, and it partially stands in for the fat a fryer would have supplied.
Then brush again the moment they come out. That second coat does two jobs: it makes cinnamon sugar actually stick, and it slows moisture loss while they cool. It takes ten seconds and it is the difference between a donut that is good for an hour and one that is good for five minutes.
Which fat to brush with:
- Melted coconut oil. My default. Browns well, sets slightly as it cools.
- Vegan butter. Best flavor and the deepest color, since the milk solids in it brown. Watch it a little more closely.
- Neutral oil. Works, browns least. Fine if it is what you have.
- Cooking spray. Acceptable in a hurry, though aerosol propellants pit air fryer nonstick over time. A refillable mister is better.
The hole is not decoration
Worth a short section because it explains a failure people blame on the recipe.
Donuts have holes for a structural reason. A solid round of dough this thick has a center that heat has to travel a long way to reach, so by the time the middle is cooked the outside is overdone. Cutting a hole removes the slowest-cooking part and turns one thick mass into a ring where nothing is far from a hot surface.
Which means: if you skip the hole, expect a raw center. If you want filled donuts with no hole, you need to bake them longer at a lower temperature, around 325°F for 12 to 14 minutes, and check the middle before you trust them. And make the hole bigger than looks right, because these puff up and a small hole closes over entirely.
Vegan glaze, and the sugar most people miss
Glaze is easy, and there is one genuinely vegan-specific catch in it that I did not know about for years.
Simple vegan glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 to 3 tablespoons plant milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
Whisk to a thick pouring consistency. Dip the top of each cooled donut, twist as you lift, and set on a rack for 15 minutes to firm up.
The powdered sugar catch. Not all sugar is vegan. Some cane sugar in the United States is filtered through bone char during processing, which does not leave anything in the sugar but does mean it was not produced without animal products. If that matters to you, look for sugar labeled organic, unrefined, or explicitly vegan, or use beet sugar, which never involves bone char. Most recipes tagged vegan skip past this entirely.
The same thinking applies to sprinkles, which frequently contain confectioner's glaze (shellac, from insects) or carmine. Vegan sprinkles are easy to find, but the standard supermarket ones often are not.
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How many fit, and why donuts are worse than most bakes
Donuts are flat and wide, which is the shape air fryers handle worst. A muffin is tall and takes up little floor space; a three-inch donut ring monopolises it. Three in a standard basket is realistic, four if you are lucky, and they must not touch, because where two donuts meet you get a pale steamed seam instead of a browned edge.
| Machine | Donuts per batch | This recipe takes |
|---|---|---|
| 3 to 4 quart basket | 2 | 3 batches |
| 5 to 6 quart basket | 3 | 2 batches |
| 8 quart or dual zone | 4, or 3 per zone | 1 to 2 batches |
| Oven-style air fryer | 6, more across two racks | 1 batch |
This is one of the few bakes where the machine format genuinely changes the experience rather than just the timing, because donuts are best in the first hour and running three batches spreads that hour thin. If you are weighing up which machine suits your baking, our comparison of basket vs oven-style air fryers for baking goes through exactly this kind of flat, wide bake and where each format struggles.
Working from a baked donut recipe written for the oven? Run its temperature and time through our air fryer calculator first, then treat the result as a starting point rather than gospel. Donuts finish fast and unevenly compared to a tray of muffins, so check at the earliest time the calculator gives you and flip halfway regardless of what the original recipe said, since an oven heats from all sides and your air fryer does not.
Fixing the five problems people actually hit
They came out pale
Almost always no fat on the surface. Brush with melted coconut oil or vegan butter before baking. If they are pale and you have already brushed, your machine may run cool; add a minute and check color rather than the timer. Soy milk in the dough also browns better than almond if pale donuts are a recurring thing for you.
They are dense and heavy
Overworked dough. This is a biscuit-style dough and it wants the lightest possible handling: mix until it just comes together, press it out rather than kneading, and re-roll scraps only once. Every extra fold develops gluten and costs you lift. Tired baking powder is the second suspect; it loses potency after about six months open.
The middles are raw
Either the dough was rolled thicker than half an inch, or the hole was too small and closed up during baking. Both leave you with a mass the heat cannot reach in time. Roll thinner, cut a bigger hole, and if a batch is already out and doughy inside, put them back at 320°F for 3 minutes rather than at full heat.
The glaze slid off
Glazed too warm. Wait until they are completely cool, not just cool enough to touch. If your glaze is also thin, add powdered sugar a tablespoon at a time until it coats the back of a spoon without running off.
They were dry by lunchtime
Expected, unfortunately, and the reason is in the first section: there is no fried shell holding moisture in. Brush with oil coming out, glaze them, and store them airtight as soon as they are cool. Our guide on avoiding dry air fryer bakes covers the general principle, and it applies harder here than to almost anything else because a donut is nearly all surface.
Flavors and toppings
- Cinnamon sugar: the classic. Brush with melted coconut oil straight out of the basket and toss in a mix of ¼ cup sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon while still warm. This is the one topping that wants a warm donut.
- Chocolate glaze: melt ½ cup vegan chocolate chips with 1 tablespoon coconut oil and dip.
- Lemon: swap the vanilla for lemon zest in the dough, and use lemon juice instead of plant milk in the glaze.
- Maple: replace the milk in the glaze with maple syrup and add a pinch of salt. Best with the virgin coconut oil version.
- Pumpkin spice: 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice in the dry ingredients, plain glaze on top.
- Filled: skip the hole, bake at 325°F for 12 to 14 minutes, then pipe in jam with a long nozzle once cool. Check the center is cooked before filling.
If you like the canned-dough shortcut for this sort of thing, the same logic applies to air fryer cinnamon rolls, though check the tin, since most refrigerated dough contains dairy and is not vegan.
Storage, and the staling clock
- Best within an hour. That is not me being precious, it is what a baked donut is. They are very good warm, good at an hour, and merely fine after that.
- Room temperature: 2 days in an airtight container, once completely cool. Glazed ones will go slightly tacky, which is normal.
- Do not refrigerate. It accelerates staling in baked goods and these are already fighting that battle.
- Freezer: up to 2 months, unglazed, wrapped individually. Glaze after reheating.
- Refreshing a day-old donut: 300°F for 2 minutes brings it back surprisingly well. Brush with a little oil first if it is unglazed.
Frequently asked questions
QWhat temperature do you cook vegan donuts in an air fryer?
350°F (175°C) for 8 to 10 minutes, flipping at the 5 minute mark, for rolled and cut donuts like these. Yeast-raised donuts want hotter and faster, around 380°F for 4 to 6 minutes. Donuts piped into a silicone mold do best a little lower, around 340°F for 8 to 10 minutes.
QDo air fryer donuts taste like fried donuts?
Not quite, and it is worth knowing why before you make them. Frying cooks the outside in about 90 seconds and leaves a thin fat-sealed shell that keeps the inside soft. Hot air is slower and dries surfaces instead of sealing them, so an air fryer donut is really a baked donut: soft, light and slightly cakey rather than crisp-shelled and chewy. Brushing with oil and glazing generously closes most of the gap.
QDo I need an egg replacer for vegan donuts?
Not for this style. A rolled and cut donut is a soft biscuit-type dough held together by gluten and lifted by baking powder, so there is no egg job to replace. Adding a flax egg or applesauce makes them heavier rather than better. Cake donuts piped into a mold are the ones that sometimes need a binder.
QWhy are my air fryer donuts pale instead of golden?
There is not enough fat on the surface to brown with. A vegan dough with one tablespoon of oil has very little at the outside, so moving air just dries it rather than browning it. Brush both sides with melted coconut oil or vegan butter before baking, and brush again as they come out. Soy milk in the dough browns a little better than almond.
QIs powdered sugar vegan?
Not always. Some cane sugar in the United States is filtered through bone char, which leaves nothing in the finished sugar but does involve an animal product in processing. Look for sugar labeled organic, unrefined or vegan, or use beet sugar, which never involves bone char. Check sprinkles too, since many contain confectioner's glaze made from shellac, or carmine.
QCan I make air fryer donuts without a donut cutter?
Easily. Use a drinking glass or round cookie cutter about 3 inches across for the outside, and a bottle cap, piping tip or apple corer for the hole. Cut the hole larger than looks right, because the dough puffs and a small hole closes over completely during baking.
QWhy are the middles of my donuts still raw?
The dough was rolled too thick, or the hole was too small and sealed shut. The hole is structural: it removes the slowest-cooking part so heat reaches everything. Roll to half an inch, cut a generous hole, and if a batch is already doughy inside, return it at 320°F for 3 minutes rather than at full heat.
QHow many donuts fit in an air fryer at once?
Three in a standard 5 to 6 quart basket, two in a small one, four in an 8 quart, and six or more in an oven-style. They must not touch, because the point where two donuts meet steams instead of browning. Donuts are flat and wide, which is the shape air fryer baskets handle worst.
QCan I use a silicone donut mold instead?
Yes, but it changes the recipe. A mold wants a thinner, pourable batter rather than a rollable dough, and silicone insulates so it needs a little longer at a slightly lower temperature, around 340°F for 8 to 10 minutes. You get a neater, cakier donut. The trade is that you need the mold and the dough has to be reformulated wetter.
QWhy did my donut glaze slide off?
The donuts were still warm. Residual heat melts the glaze straight back to liquid and it runs onto the rack. Wait until they are completely cool, not just cool enough to handle, which takes about 15 minutes. If the glaze itself is thin, whisk in more powdered sugar until it coats the back of a spoon.
QCan I make air fryer vegan donuts gluten free?
Yes, with a 1:1 gluten-free baking blend that contains xanthan gum. The dough will be more fragile and harder to roll, so chill it 15 minutes first and handle it gently. Expect a slightly more crumbly donut, since there is no gluten holding the ring together.
QHow long do air fryer vegan donuts keep?
They are at their best within the first hour and good for about 2 days in an airtight container at room temperature. Do not refrigerate, which speeds staling. Freeze unglazed for up to 2 months. A day-old donut refreshes well at 300°F for 2 minutes.
If you make these, I would like to know whether you brushed them with oil, because that is the step people skip and it is the one that decides whether they come out golden or beige. For more air fryer baking, try our cinnamon rolls, banana muffins, or oatmeal cookies. New to baking in the machine? Start with how to bake in an air fryer and keep the times and temps chart nearby. If a batch goes wrong, troubleshooting air fryer baking is the catch-all.
You can also follow me on Instagram and Pinterest for more easy air fryer recipes.
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