Easy Air Fryer Cronuts Recipe 

It's no secret cronuts are delicious. With their sweet buttery taste and flaky texture, they are sure a guilty pleasure treat. With this air fryer cronuts recipe, you can indulge in the sweet and buttery goodness guilt-free! Made with canned biscuits or crescent rolls, these easy-to-make treats are crispy on the outside and airy on the inside. Plus, they contain fewer calories, fat, and sugar than traditional cronuts. Read below to learn how to make air fryer cronuts.

Air Fryer Cronuts Recipe

Ingredients

Directions

1. The canned biscuit I used contains eight full-size biscuits. To make these cronuts, I split each biscuit into halves. So this means you will end up with 16 thinner biscuits. Then use your cookie cutter and cut the middle.

2. In a mixing bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon together.

3. Toss the cronut into the bowl and toss, including the cut-out middle part. Don't waste all that delicious dough when you can turn the middle parts into bite-size cronuts. If the sugar mix is not sticking, gently pad it in, then flip over and repeat. Gently padding it with the mix on top will ensure your cronuts take on as much cinnamon sugar as possible.

4. Depending on the type of air fryer you use, you may need to spray your air fryer basket to prevent the cronut from sticking to the tray. Because the cronuts contain sugar, they will caramelize a little during air frying, and it is possible for them to stick to your air fryer basket.

5. Once your cronuts are dusted with cinnamon sugar, place them in the tray. Make sure they don't touch each other and provide some space in between, or else they stick together during air frying. Depending on the size of your air fryer, you may need to air fry all of them in two sessions.

6. Air fry the cronuts at 350F for 7-8 minutes. Flip them over in 4 minutes. Keep your eyes on the cronuts as they should become golden brown.

7. Once the cronuts are finished cooking, sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar while they are still hot. This will help the sugar stick to any raised areas that may have missed the first coating. Another option is to coat them with melted unsalted butter and then dip them in cinnamon sugar for a richer flavor.

After enjoying these delicious cronut, don't forget to clean your air fryer to keep it in top-notch condition for future cooking adventures.

What Is A Cronut?

A cronut is a delectable pastry that's a fusion of a croissant and a donut, earning it the name croissant donut or cronut. It's typically flaky and buttery like a croissant, yet airy and soft like a donut.

Cronut was first invented in New York City in 2013 by a French American pastry chef Dominique Ansel. People were lined up to get this cronut from his New York bakery when the word got out.

Cronuts are typically made with croissant-doughnut pastry or puff pastry sheets with croissant-like dough and deep-fried in grapeseed, canola, or vegetable oil. Some are even filled with flavored cream.

What You Will Need To Make These Air Fryer Cronuts

Puff Pastry Dough

Cronuts are typically made with croissant-doughnut pastry dough; some bakers make them with puff pastry sheets, crescent pastry dough, or croissant dough. You can make the dough from scratch, or you can purchase ready-to-use.

To make this recipe, I opted for canned biscuits as they are a convenient option. Canned biscuits and crescent pastry are very similar, except crescent pastry has way more butter and is airier than biscuits. On the other hand, biscuits don't contain yeast, so they aren't as fluffy as croissants. And because they contain less butter, they are also less flaky.

If you need a canned biscuit suggestion, I recommend Immaculate Baking Organic Flaky Biscuits, and is what I used for this recipe. Not only are they organic certified and made with real ingredients, but they also contain no bleached flour, artificial flavors, or preservatives. Plus, they're vegan-friendly, so there are no unsalted butter, eggs, or animal by-products. These biscuits are soft, buttery, and perfect for making delicious air fryer cronuts.

Cinnamon Sugar

For those with a sweet tooth, you can customize your cronuts with any glaze you desire. In this recipe, I opted for a delectable cinnamon sugar coating. To make it, I combined coconut sugar with ground cinnamon, but feel free to experiment with other sugars like brown or maple sugar.

Donut Cutter

To create the donut shapes, you will need a large and a small cookie cutter. By using canned biscuits, it eliminates the need for a larger cutter. Use a small cookie cutter (1 inch round) to make "donut holes." If you don't have a small round cutter, use any shape cutter to cut the middle. In my case, I used a heart shape cookie cutter.

How Is This Cronut Recipe Healthier

Fewer Calories

Desserts are usually packed with calories, and cronuts are no exception. A cronut can arrange anywhere between a few hundred to even over a thousand calories! Isn't that insane?! After all, they are half of a croissant, which is packed in butter!

To make a healthier version of the cronut, I used canned biscuits instead. While puff pastry dough or crescent sheets can be used, biscuits are a healthier option as they contain less butter.

Canned biscuits I used to make eight biscuits, and each biscuit is 170 calories. To create the perfect thickness of the cronut, I split each biscuit in half. So this means each cronut is only 85 calories! With the addition of sugar and cinnamon, you are looking at enjoying a cronut that is about 130 calories! By saving hundreds of calories, you can enjoy a warm cronut with a scoop of vanilla ice cream—all without guilt.

Air frying

Another reason why cronuts are packed with calories is that they are deep-fried! This means they are drenched in oil and rack up calories. With this recipe, instead of deep-frying, I used the air frying method. You will still get that crispy on-the-outside effect without drenching it in oil.