Air fryer donuts are predictably delicious

Some AirFryDay recipes are relatively complex. The idea behind those recipes — things like a Thanksgiving turkey, hot wings, or a Chick-fil-A style chicken sandwich — is to combine the ease of an air fryer with the tasty rewards of more involved recipes.

This week's AirFryDay is...not that. It's an exceptionally simple recipe from @thehookerfam on TikTok that mostly relies on a packaged, processed food. Simply put: It's dousing a Pillsbury biscuit in butter, sugar, and cinnamon and you know what? That's fine and it's tasty.

Not every day is right for a 15-step, gourmet meal. Sometimes you might need something sweet to shut up your kids. And my goodness, this recipe is that. And clearly people like it: The TikTok has racked up 18 freaking million views. Here's what you need to know.

Ingredients

• 1 can of biscuit dough

• 1 stick of butter

• 1 cup of sugar

• Cinnamon

Directions

1. Melt your butter in the microwave. This shouldn't take long, perhaps a minute or so.

2. Whisk together the sugar and a few heavy shakes of cinnamon. The cinnamon-sugar mixture should clearly have brown specks throughout.

3. Using a cookie cutter — or, carefully, a knife — cut a hole in the center of each biscuit.

4. Dip each biscuit into the melted butter, then coat with the sugar-cinnamon mixture. Load the biscuits into an air fryer greased with nonstick spray or oil.

5. Air fry at 330 degrees for seven minutes. Enjoy!

Here's how the process looked in the TikTok from @thehookerfam.

Credit: Screenshots: TikTok / @thehookerfam

The details

Look: We're not reinventing the wheel here. It's a cinnamon-sugar biscuit, my friend. The most difficult part is cutting the hole. No joke. The TikTok used a cute little cookie cutter, which I do not have. I ended up using a paring knife, and I was too conservative with the hole size. When the biscuits puffed up, the hole closed a bit on my donuts. But that doesn't really matter for flavor, so truly, who cares?

Here's how my donuts looked after I cut the holes.

The holes could've been bigger. Credit: Mashable

Next up, we're taking a biscuit dip, baby. It's a simple process. Slosh the donut in some butter, then toss it into the sugar mixture. When applying the sugar, get those fingers dirty. Make sure to sprinkle it all over the biscuit and, crucially, do not forget to coat the sides of the donut. The dough is going to rise during the cooking process, meaning you want a much sugar as possible on the sides to coat the donut as it rises.

Here's how your donut should look, all sugared up.

Make sure you get the sides of the donut. Credit: Mashable.

From there, you just spray the air fryer, toss the donuts in, and then air fry for seven minutes. It's wildly easy. And look at the results. Not bad right?

Not bad, right? Credit: Mashable

The taste...OK, let's get this out of the way. These are not donuts. Not really. They are, quite obviously, doctored up biscuits. But that's fine.

In my opinion, the problem with canned biscuits — most notably the Pillsbury brand — is that they're a bit too sweet. A good biscuit is flaky, buttery, but savory overall. I've never been a huge fan of the canned variety because there's an underlying sweetness and processed taste. They're so light and sweet they border on tasting like croissants. But in this use, canned biscuits are perfect. All sugared up, they end up tasting like a cinnamon roll of sorts, which is hardly a bad thing. The outside is crunchy and sugary, while the inside is a flaky, sweet biscuit. Together, it works.

Overall, it's a good recipe in a pinch. It's easy as hell. And it makes something pretty tasty — even if it's a one-note, too-sweet sort of a tasty. I could absolutely see these being a huge hit with kids, or serving as a last-minute dessert. Not too shabby for about 10 minutes of work.