Combine Bananas With One Ingredient To Make Delicious Donut Holes In Your Air Fryer

Those overripe bananas do not need to end up in the trash bin. Just combine them with flour to make donut holes, which are just one of the many foods you should be making in an air fryer. Simply take a cup of mashed banana and combine it with 1 ½ cups of self-rising flour to make the dough. There's no need for any other ingredients, as the bananas provide both moisture and natural sugars. You can use coconut oil (or your choice of cooking oil) or melted butter on your hands to keep the dough from sticking while you knead it. Then, pull small balls of dough and make them round with your hands, or use an ice cream scoop for consistent, uniform donut holes, and place each in the air fryer basket.

Be sure to prepare that air fryer basket ahead of time. You can grease the basket with cooking oil or coat the bottom with the same oil you used to knead the dough. You can also use parchment paper instead of placing the donut holes directly onto the fryer surface and risk them sticking to it. Give each donut hole an inch of space to allow for expansion as it fries. 

Using an air fryer means these balls only need about seven minutes at 350 degrees to crisp up (you can check if the donut holes are completely cooked through by pulling one apart and inspecting the dough in the center). As an option to give the treats more flavor, you can use those seven minutes to mix sugar and powdered cinnamon, the same way you would use for churros. When the timer goes off, baste the donut holes with oil or melted butter, and roll each one in the cinnamon sugar mixture before serving. And just like that, you've got delicious donut holes without any messy deep frying.

Once you get the hang of the simple two-ingredient dough, you can give these donut holes flavor and presentation upgrades that will make your family and friends think they came from a bakery rather than your kitchen. Vanilla extract can amplify the flavor, while a little salt can balance the natural sugars of the bananas if you think the fruits are already a little too sweet. You can also add cinnamon right into the dough so the spice flavor is baked in from the very beginning, which is especially delicious during the sweater months. In spring, a little orange zest can give these a nice perk without overpowering the sweetness.

If you prefer to leave the dough alone, you can start looking at different options for coatings and drizzles. Instead of cinnamon sugar, give the puffy donut holes a nice crunch by rolling them in crushed almonds or crumbled cookies. You can also drizzle caramel syrup or serve the bite-sized treats with chocolate sauce or icing for dipping. And if you really want to take these air-fried, two-ingredient treats to the next level, you can even fill them with Nutella or fruit jam. How far you take these flavor bombs is up to you.