Maple Glazed Donuts with Bacon – Air Fryer

These easy maple glazed donuts with bacon are ready to eat in about 20 minutes. Refrigerator biscuits are cooked in the air fryer, coated with maple glaze and sprinkled with bacon for a treat that will remind you of pancakes and bacon. Delicious comfort food that is fun for kids to make and eat!

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These easy air fryer donuts are delicious – and you can have them ready in no time at all and satisfy a donut craving!

Covered with a thick and sweet maple glaze and sprinkled with crispy bacon these warm and flakey maple glazed donuts are like eating pancakes and bacon.

Air Fryer Biscuit Donuts

These are cheater donuts, made using canned biscuits as a base. This is what makes the recipe so quick and easy!

Now donuts made with refrigerator biscuits and air fried will not be quite as tasty as yeast donuts that are deep fried. But they still taste pretty darn amazing!

And yeast is impossible to find right now, deep frying is messy and dangerous and I want comfort food! So air fryer biscuit donuts are a win for me.

These are a lot of fun for kids to help make and decorate too! If you prefer chocolate check out my recipe for air fryer donuts with chocolate glaze, which are also quick and delicious.

Ingredients

Biscuits – I usually use Pillsbury Grands original biscuits, but any kind of refrigerated biscuits will work fine. The can of 8 biscuits is the ideal size.

Using buttermilk biscuits will the donuts a more cake like, heavier texture. There are also flavored biscuits available now too, but I just stick with the original.

Bacon – Maple smoked or maple cured bacon is ideal for adding even more maple goodness to the donuts. Whatever kind of bacon you are using you need to have to cooked and cooled before making the donuts.

I like to make air fryer bacon for weekend breakfasts and it is easy to set aside a few pieces to use for donuts later.

Maple Syrup – There is no substitute for real maple syrup!

Butter, powdered sugar – These ingredients are combined with the syrup to make the glaze.

Make the Maple Glaze

I prefer to make the maple glaze before starting the donuts. That gives the glaze a few minutes to cool before the donuts are dipped in.

To make the glaze put the butter and maple syrup in a small sauce pan. Heat it on medium heat, stirring constantly, until the butter melts. This should take about 4 minutes.

Take the pan off the heat and stir in the powdered sugar. Then pour the glaze into a bowl and set it aside to cool while you make the donuts.

As it sits it will thicken slightly. A skin might crystallize on the top, but if it does just stir it again to break it up.

Make the Maple Glazed Donuts

1. Cut the Holes

Of course donuts need holes in the middle. So take the biscuits out of their can and lay them out on a cutting board.

You can use a small biscuit or cookie cutter to make the holes in the center. But if you, like me, don’t have a small biscuit cutter here are some great alternatives you can find in most kitchens:

• Medicine cup – The plastic cups included with kids medicine are good size for cutting a hole
• Shot glass – a tall, thin shot glass works
• Pastry tip – this is my favorite thing to use, since it is metal and it cuts well

Whatever you are using cut a hole in the center of each biscuit. Don’t throw out the centers, you can cook them as donut holes.

2. Air Fry the Donuts

To prevent sticking spray some oil on the air fryer basket with a mister sprayer. It is best not to use commercial aerosol spray on your air fryer basket because it can damage the finish.

If you don’t have a mister just put some oil a paper towel and wipe the basket down.

Put the donuts in the basket, leaving space between them so that the air can circulate. You can’t stack them which means you will probably have to cook the donuts in batches.

My air fryer can fit 5 biscuit donuts at once, so I usually put 5 in the first batch and then 3 donuts plus the donut holes in the second batch.

Cook the donuts at 350 F for 4 minutes, then flip them over and cook for another 4 minutes. They should be light golden brown when done.

3. Glaze the Donuts

Put the donuts on a cooling rack and let them cool for about 5 minutes, until they are cool enough to handle.

The easiest way to glaze the donuts is to just pick them up and dip them in the maple glaze. Hold the donut over the bowl to let any excess glaze drip off, and then put them back on the cooling rack.

Then crumble up the bacon and sprinkle it over the maple glazed donuts, making sure it sticks in the glaze. Kids love doing the dipping and sprinkling!

4. Donut Holes

Don’t forget to glaze the donut holes! We just dip them in the glaze and set them on the cooling racks without adding bacon.

Actually my kids usually just dip the donut holes in glaze and put them right in their mouths, skipping the cooling rack step. But whatever works for you!

How to Store

These are best eaten soon after making, because they taste best when warm. But it you are going to save them for later store them in an air tight container at room temperature.

I wouldn’t keep these maple glazed donuts more than 1 or 2 days and I wouldn’t try to freeze them.

Find More Easy Desserts

• Frozen Lemonade Pie
• Coconut Bars
• No Bake Berry Parfaits
• Air Fryer Baked Apples