Donuts have been a pretty serious pregnancy craving of mine lately. So much so, in fact, that I came up with two versions of air fryer donuts at home.
My husband recently asked me if I’d be making any filled donuts. Since I’m not one to turn down a creative challenge in the kitchen, here are 6 variations of filled donuts using Variation 2 of my air fryer donut recipes. I did not experiment with Variation 1 because that version uses canned flaky layers biscuit dough and I was worried the layers wouldn’t “fill” properly.
Simply cut the dough with a round cutter instead of a donut cutter and make a batch of hole-less donuts. If your finished filled donuts will be glazed or tossed in sugar, be sure to do this while they’re hot out the air fryer. Let them cool completely before filling.
The filling process is the same for each donut: Fill a piping bag or a sandwich-sized Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off with your filling of choice. If you have a piping bag, the metal tip should sufficiently fill the donut. If you’re using a sandwich bag, simply use a sharp knife to make room inside the donut and then insert the corner of the bag to squeeze in your filling. Decorate as desired.
Jelly
If you want to glaze the donut or roll it in granulated or powdered sugar, be sure to do it while the donuts are still warm. Let the donuts cool and fill with your favorite flavor of jelly.
Cream
Fill cooled donuts with your favorite flavor of instant pudding (I use vanilla) prepared as directed. I like to dunk them in chocolate glaze afterward.
S’mores
Fill cooled donuts with marshmallow creme. Dunk them in chocolate glaze, sprinkle with mini marshmallows, graham cracker crumbs, and mini chocolate chips as desired.
Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
Fill cooled donuts with instant cheesecake-flavored pudding prepared as directed and mixed with mini chocolate chips. I like to dunk them in vanilla glaze afterward and sprinkle the tops with mini chocolate chips.
Strawberry Cheesecake
This one is a little different because you use 2 separate bags of filling (one bag contains strawberry jelly and the other has cheesecake pudding) placed inside another bag with the corner snipped. Dunk in vanilla glaze and sprinkle with red sprinkles.
Fruity Pebbles
Fill cooled donuts with instant vanilla pudding prepared as directed. Dunk in vanilla glaze and sprinkle with Fruity Pebbles cereal.
