Cereal milk always takes me back to working at Milk Bar. I’ve been on an on-and-off air fryer cake doughnut kick lately, so I figured, why not try making some air-fried cake doughnuts using cornflakes? While traditional cereal milk involves toasting cornflakes then steeping that into milk, you can consider this recipe a cheat-method of getting that flavor imparted. In this case, I still toast the cornflakes, but then I grind them into a super-fine powder. That powder is then used in both my cake doughnut dough, and in the glaze. I still manage to accomplish getting the cereal milk flavor into these doughnuts through the glaze specifically, since I combine the ground cornflakes with milk powder and evaporated milk, which results in a cereal milk-flavored glaze without the need to steep and strain the cereal into anything! I also wanted to capitalize on the time I spent toasting the cornflakes, so I mixed some of the toasted(but unground) cereal with blonde chocolate(caramelized white chocolate), to accentuate those toasty, caramel-y notes, and keep the cornflakes I’m adorning my doughnuts with from going soggy!

Makes 6 doughnuts:
For the cornflake powder:
2 1/2 cups cornflakes

Toast the cornflakes on a sheet tray at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes. Transfer the cornflakes(reserve 1/3 cup for garnish) into a blender and puree into a super fine powder.

For the doughnut dough:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup finely ground cornflakes
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
2oz buttermilk
2oz heavy cream
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a bowl, sift in the flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, heavy cream, egg, and vanilla. Fold the wet ingredients into your dry to form your dough. Allow the dough to rest in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Then on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Using ring cutters, cut out 3-inch rings and cut out 1-inch holes. Re-roll the scraps of dough and repeat these steps until you have used up all of the dough.

Line an air fryer with cooking spray. Bake the doughnuts at 375 degrees F for 4 minutes. Then flip the doughnuts and repeat for another 4 minutes.

For garnish:
1/3 cup toasted cornflakes
1.5 oz blonde chocolate
a pinch of salt

Over a double boiler, melt 1oz of the blonde chocolate with the salt. Take off heat and stir in the rest. Fold through that the cornflakes and spread them on a sheet tray. Allow the cornflakes to set before breaking apart into smaller pieces.

For the glaze:
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup ground cornflake powder
2 tbsp non-fat milk powder
3oz evaporated milk
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a bowl, whisk everything together until a smooth glaze forms. Dunk each doughnut into the glaze, then place them on an icing rack, allowing any excess glaze to drip off and set. Sprinkle the cornflake garnish on top to finish.