Air-Fryer Cinnamon-Glazed Doughnuts

There is an entire category of recipe that exists because someone realised they didn't have to make dough from scratch. The biscuit- dough doughnut is the patron saint of that category. You pop open a can of refrigerated biscuit dough — yes, the kind that makes "buttermilk biscuits" — and using a cap or a small cookie cutter, you cut a hole out of the centre of each one. The leftover dough holes become doughnut holes; the rings become doughnuts. Air-fry, toss in cinnamon sugar, serve warm with coffee.

The result is genuinely close to a fresh cake doughnut from a good bakery. The interior is slightly denser than a yeasted doughnut but softer than the standard "cake" doughnut at a chain. The crackled cinnamon-sugar exterior shatters at the first bite, then gives way to a steamy, slightly tangy biscuit interior that hits you with that pleasant buttermilk note.

The photo shows the finish: three doughnuts in a parchment-lined container, deeply coated in cinnamon sugar so the surface looks almost gritty. The biscuit dough's natural texture shows through in the slight irregularity of the rings — they're not perfectly round, and that's good. It's homemade-doughnut-shaped, not factory- doughnut-shaped.

A note on the biscuit dough: the recipe works with most refrigerated biscuit doughs (Pillsbury Grands, Annie's, store brands), but flakier biscuit doughs (the ones that pull apart in layers) work slightly better than the smooth-domed ones — they give you more crackle on the surface.