• Mash the banana into a smooth puree, make sure you get 1 cup or the beignet batter won't come together with the same ratio of flour.
• Stir in sugar, olive oil, and vanilla extract if used.
• Fold in the flour, stir with a rubber spatula at first then, when it starts to be difficult to stir and forms lumps, lightly oil your hands with olive oil and squeeze and knead the dough to form a dough ball. Use a bit of flour if too sticky, but you shouldn't have to add much more. If too sticky, the best is to add a bit of oil onto the dough and hands and rub to make a soft elastic dough. Adding too much flour now would make the beignets dense, packed, and taste like bread. You should form a nice consistent banana dough that stays moist and a bit sticky.
• Rub 2 teaspoons of olive oil on your work surface and place the dough ball on it. Drizzle 2 teaspoons of olive oil on top of the dough ball.
• Rub, the dough with oil and knead again 3-4 times to incorporate some of the oil, but mainly form a shiny, elastic dough that won't stick to your hands.
• Divide the dough into 16 equal portions. Roll each portion into a ball between your oiled hands. Each ball should look a bit oily, that's normal.
• Press the dough balls between the palm of your hands to flatten them into a disc, place a slice of banana in the center of the disc, pinch the sides together to enclose the piece of banana into the dough, and roll into a cylinder to form a beignet shape.
• Spray oil in the air fryer basket and place the oiled beignets in it, leaving about and inch (3 cm) between them as they will expand. I fit 6 in a XXL basket.

Air Frying

• Air fry the beignets at 350°F (180°C) for 8-9 minutes, flipping them halfway, or until puffy and golden brown. They will look like dry bread, don't worry that's normal.
• To make these banana beignets taste like beignets, brush the warm beignets with melted plant-based butter, melted coconut oil, or light olive oil using a pastry brush. Then, roll them warm into cinnamon sugar to coat evenly.
• Repeat the step above to air fry the remaining beignets.

Deep Frying Method

• Heat about 2 inches (5 cm) of avocado oil to 370 °F (190 °C) in a large pot.
• Carefully add each of the banana beignets to the hot oil.
• Fry until golden brown, about 3-4 minutes in total, flipping them halfway using forks or metal tongs.
• Let them cool on a plate covered with absorbent paper for 2 minutes, then roll them into cinnamon sugar to coat.