Air Fryer Churro Bites

This is the perfect sweet treat! Air Fryer Churros are simple to make using premade cake and some simple ingredients that I always have in my pantry. You’ll be amazed at the transformation that occurs when air frying these cinnamon sugar cake bites.

recipe overview

Churros are traditionally a deep-fried pastry coated with cinnamon sugar. Here we’re taking some shortcuts to create a treat similar to the texture and flavor of a real churro, but with much less fat and way less mess than frying traditional churros.

I’m doing this a little bit different than other air fryer churro recipes out there, but I promise you are going to love this recipe, and it’s so easy.

As usual, air-frying foods that are traditionally deep-fried makes them healthier!

ingredients you’ll need

• Angel Food Cake – I started with a store-bought angel food cake, and I used a serrated knife to cut it into small cubes. The size isn’t super important, but I think these were about 3/4 inch.
• Sugar – the coating for the churro bites starts with lots of granulated sugar.
• Cinnamon – It’s not a churro if it doesn’t have cinnamon!
• Powdered Sugar – We’ll be making an icing for dipping these in! Powdered sugar is the sweetener for that part of the recipe.
• Cream Cheese – Soften your cream cheese before starting the recipe, it will be much easier to create a smooth icing.
• Butter – Just a bit of butter goes into the cream cheese dip, it gives it a silky smooth texture.
• Milk – Milk thins out the icing so it’s perfectly dippable.
• Spray Oil – For coating the cake so it gets crispy.

how to make these churros

1. Place the angel food pieces in the air fryer basket, spray with oil, and air fry at 350F for 5 minutes.
2. Combine cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl. Place the bites and the cinnamon sugar mixture in a large bowl or a zip-top bag. Stir or shake to coat each piece.
3. Make a dippable icing by combining butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and milk with a mixer. Mix until smooth, adding more milk if needed to reach desired consistency.
4. Serve immediately and enjoy!

serving tips

These are delicious topping a bowl of vanilla ice cream or added to a dessert tray with some air fryer peanut butter cookies. Enjoy your treat with a hot Oat Milk Latte or a homemade Iced Coffee.

Dipping Tips

I am in love with this cream cheese icing dip, but you certainly have other options! Many Mexican restaurants serve churros with chocolate syrup, hot fudge, or honey. You could also dip these in some melted Nutella!

can I use another type of cake?

If you can’t find angel food cake, feel free to use a white cake. Pound cake will work as well, but you’ll have a denser churro bite.

I love angel food cake because it’s light and airy, and it holds its shape very well. Also, my local grocery store almost always has angel food cake in the bakery section. Angel food cake is also typically available in the freezer dessert section.

I haven’t tested it yet, but I think that puff pastry would also work really well to make air fryer churro bites.