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These air fryer churros are crisp on the outside, soft in the middle, and hold their ridges without a drop of frying oil. You make a quick choux pastry on the stove, pipe it into short sticks, freeze them for 30 minutes so the ridges set, then air fry at 360F until golden. Toss them in cinnamon sugar while they’re still hot and dip them in thick homemade dulce de leche.
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The first batch I ever made came out of the air fryer looking like sad little breadsticks. All the ridges had melted flat. I kept blaming the air fryer until I realized the problem was that I was piping soft dough straight into a hot basket, so the ridges relaxed before the outside had a chance to set. Freezing the piped dough for 30 minutes fixed it completely, and that’s the whole trick to this recipe. It also means these are built to cook from frozen, so you can pipe a batch, stash it, and air fry churros whenever the craving shows up.
Why this recipe works
- Crisp cinnamon sugar shell with a light, custardy inside, like a cream puff in churro form
- The ridges stay sharp and deep, not flattened, thanks to one freezer step
- Makes 22 churros from ¾ cup of flour and one saucepan
- Pipe a batch, freeze it, and have hot churros on demand for the next 3 months, the way I keep from scratch mini cinnamon rolls in the freezer
- Four ingredients in the dough, all of them already in your kitchen
- No pot of frying oil to heat, monitor, or throw away
Ingredients You’ll Need (and Why)
Quick context before the list: Spanish churros use a simple dough of flour, water, oil, and baking powder, while Mexican churros are made from choux pastry, the same dough behind cream puffs and éclairs. This recipe is the Mexican style, which is why there are eggs in the ingredient list and why the interior comes out light instead of dense. It’s also the reason the cinnamon sugar coating belongs here, since Spanish churros are traditionally rolled in plain sugar.
- All-purpose flour – Cooked directly into the boiling water and butter so the starch gelatinizes. This is the step that makes choux behave like choux, and it’s why the dough can hold a piped ridge at all.
- Eggs – Two medium, added one at a time once the dough has cooled. They make the dough pipeable and they’re what puffs it in the air fryer. This is the only step in the recipe with a judgment call in it, so check the notes in the recipe card for how to tell when you’ve added enough.
- Butter – Unsalted, so you control the salt. One reader found the original amount too salty for a dessert, so I’d start light and adjust.
- Cinnamon and granulated sugar – The coating. Toss the churros while they’re still hot so it clings.
Full ingredient amounts in the recipe card.
Substitutions and swaps
- No piping bag: a heavy-duty ziplock with the corner cut works. You still need a star tip taped inside, or you’ll get smooth tubes instead of churros.
- No star tip: a Wilton 1M is what I use. Any large open star tip works. A closed star tip gives shallower ridges.
- Butter for extra stick: brush the hot churros with melted butter before tossing them in cinnamon sugar. Two readers suggested this and they’re right, the coating clings much better.
- Dips: thick homemade dulce de leche is my default, but sweetened condensed milk, Nutella, homemade caramel sauce, or warm white chocolate ganache
How to Make Air Fryer Churros
- Cook the dough. Bring the water, butter, sugar, and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Reduce the heat, add the flour all at once, and stir hard with a wooden spoon until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pot and forms a smooth ball.
- Cool it down. Transfer the dough to a stand mixer bowl and beat with the paddle attachment for 3 to 5 minutes. This isn’t optional. If the dough is still hot when the eggs go in, you’ll scramble them.
- Add the eggs. Beat in the eggs one at a time, waiting until each is fully absorbed before adding the next. The dough will look broken for a second, then come back together glossy and sticky.
- Pipe and freeze. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a large star tip. Pipe 3-inch sticks onto a parchment lined sheet, snipping the end with scissors. Freeze for 30 minutes. This is the step that keeps the ridges sharp.
- Air fry from frozen. Preheat the air fryer to 360F for 3 minutes. Peel the frozen churros off the parchment, arrange them in a single layer with space between them, and air fry for 13 to 14 minutes until golden. Work in batches and keep the waiting churros in the freezer.
- Coat while hot. Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl. Toss the churros in it the second they come out, while they’re still hot enough for the sugar to stick. Serve them with a bowl of thick pressure cooker dulce de leche for dipping.
Texture note: These are crisp outside and light and airy inside, the way choux pastry always is. If you’ve had a cream puff or an éclair, that’s the interior you’re getting, piped into ridges and rolled in cinnamon sugar. They’re their own thing rather than a copy of a fried churro, and the contrast between that crackly sugar shell and the airy middle is the reason I keep making them.
About the freezer step
Thirty minutes is the minimum. An hour is better and doesn’t hurt anything. If you’re piping a big batch, freeze them solid on the sheet, then transfer to a freezer bag and keep them for up to 3 months. Air fry straight from the bag, adding a minute if they’ve been frozen more than a few weeks. This same pipe-and-freeze approach is why I keep reaching for the air fryer for dessert, the same basket handles fudgy air fryer brownies and soft air fryer chocolate chip cookies.
Tips for Success
- Beat the dough for the full 3 to 5 minutes before adding eggs, or you’ll get scrambled bits through the churros
- Preheat the air fryer, always. Cold basket means soft ridges
- Leave space between churros so air can circulate, they won’t crisp if they’re touching
- Toss in cinnamon sugar immediately, the coating won’t stick to a cooled churro
- Serve within a few minutes. These do not hold well and they don’t reheat into anything good
If you want to go deeper on the technique itself, Food Crumbles choux pastry guide breaks down the science better than I can in a recipe post.
Air Fryer Churros FAQs
The dough, yes. The finished churros, no. Pipe the churros and freeze them raw, then air fry whenever you want them. Cooked churros go soft within about 15 minutes and there’s no good way to bring them back. If you want something cinnamon sugar that actually keeps, my churro cheesecake bars with a crescent dough base hold for days.
You need something with a star tip. A piping bag is easiest, but a heavy-duty ziplock with a star tip pushed into a cut corner does the same job. What you can’t skip is the star tip itself. The ridges are what make the surface crisp up, and a plain round opening gives you a smooth tube that cooks unevenly.
That’s choux pastry doing what it’s supposed to do. The steam from the water inflates the dough and leaves an airy interior. It will always be lighter and more open than a deep fried churro. If yours are completely collapsed rather than airy, the dough was probably too wet, which usually means the eggs went in before the dough had cooled enough.
Not with this recipe. This is a choux pastry dough and the eggs are what create the structure and let it puff. Eggless churro recipes use the simpler Spanish-style dough instead, just flour, water, oil, and baking powder. That dough works too, it’s denser and chewier, and it isn’t what this recipe is built on.
They’re lighter. At about 60 calories per 3-inch churro, they come in well under a deep fried churro because you’re not adding frying oil. The dough is the same butter and flour base either way, so they’re still dessert, just a smaller one.
Anything cinnamon sugar tends to end up on this blog eventually. If you want the flavor without a piping bag, my chewy Crumbl-style churro cookies are the shortcut, churro pumpkin cheesecake bars are the fall version, and cinnamon sugar toast is the five-minute one.
Other Favorite Air Fryer Recipes
If you tried this Air Fryer Churros Recipe or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you it goes in the comments! I love hearing from you!
Easy Air Fryer Churros
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp water
- 1/4 cup butter or 1/2 a stick
- 1 tbsp sugar
- a pinch of salt
- 3/4 cup flour
- 2 medium eggs
cinnamon sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- In a medium sauce pan, bring the water, butter, sugar and the pinch of salt to a boil over medium heat. Once the mixture boils, reduce the heat and add in the flour and mix rapidly using a wooden spatula. Continue stirring the mixture until the mixture thickens and does not stick to the sides of the pot.
- Transfer the mixture to a stand mixer bowl or heat proof bowl and mix using a paddle attachement. This will allow the churro dough to cool down so we can add the eggs. This process will take between 3-5 minutes.
- Once the churro dough is a little bit cooler add in the eggs one at a time while continuing to mix. The mixture will become a lot more sticky. At this point, transfer the churro mixture to a piping bag fitted with a star tip. I used the Wilton 1M
- On a parchment lined baking sheet pipe 3-4 inch long churros. Cut the end using a pair of scissors or knife. Place the baking sheet in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- 3 minutes before your churros are ready to be baked, preheat the air fryer to 360F. Gently remove the frozen churros from the parchment paper and place them into the air fryer basket and bake for 13-14 minutes. Depending on what air fryer you have you might have to bake these churros in multiple smaller batches. Place the leftover churros in the freezer so they don't get soft.
- In a shallow bowl or plastic bag combine the sugar and the cinnamon. Place the baked churros in the sugar mixture as soon as they come out of the air fryer, toss them in the cinnamon sugar mixture to coat them evenly.
- Serve with dulce de leche, sweetened condensed milk or even Nutella!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These are delicious and SO much easier in the air fryer! This was my first time making a choux dough, and it was a success! Thank you for the great recipe and instructions. I did brush them with melted butter before tossing them in the cinnamon sugar. Not quite as healthy, but a good compromise considering they’re not deep-fried! 🙂
That’s awesome, especially for a first try at choux dough! Air fryer churros really are such a game changer. So glad they turned out well for you!
They were very tasty! 😋
(This was the first time i’d ever had a churro) Would make again but would probably dip them in butter before adding the cinnamon sugar to make the cinnamon sugar stick better. 🙃
I would also definitely recommend dipping them in condensed milk. 💯
4 Stars! 🌟
I’m so honored and happy that my churro is the first one you’ve ever tried! Now that you’ve had this, you should definitely try classic Mexican churros that are deep fried and even stuffed with dulce de leche, those are my fave! But this is a healthier version that we can have more often without worrying as much about the calories 🙂
these where delicios i just want to say be prepaired for a long process because they have to spend 30 minuets in the freezer and then cook for 15 minuets
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!!
And thank you for pointing out the timing, the 30 minutes in the freezer + 15 minutes in the air fryer is exactly what gives them that perfect texture, so you did everything right.
I know it can feel like a longer process compared to quick snacks, but I really appreciate you trying the recipe and I’m happy they turned out delicious for you! If you ever want a quicker churro-style treat, I can point you to a few options too.
Very airy and salty, would not suggest adding salt as they are supposed to be sweet anyways. If your looking for healthier alternatives although this recipe is still very healthy, i used whole meal sr flour and monk fruit sugar in the same amounts as the recipe. Dont expect the churros to be like the real consistency all the way through, they are so airy they almost feel hollow. They were still crispy and amazing tho, i had mine with melted dark chocolate on the side! I would recommend, but they arent what i was expecting lol
I also added vanilla and tried to mix the cinnamon sugar into one batch, they were better with the cinnamon sugar mixed through them before piping. I also sprinkled some onto them before i froze them, but i still shook them in it after i cooked it. I used raw sugar for that btw
4 stars :))
The air fryer makes quite a big difference compared to deep frying so they definitely won’t be like a normal churro. But like you said, it’s healthier 🙂