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With Easter just around the corner, I’m looking forward to making something special for our family brunch.
These rich, double chocolate donuts may be the winner.
I’ve been experimenting with coconut flour again, which I love for it’s light and absorbent texture, as well as the fact that it’s safe for those with tree nut allergies. It’s also pretty economical, in terms of grain-free flours–> I’ve been using the same bag of coconut flour for nearly a year, because so little of it is required in baking recipes! For this entire pan of donuts, you only need a 1/4 cup of coconut flour. How cool is that?
Because of coconut flour’s unique, absorbent quality, please don’t try to substitute any other type of flour in this particular recipe. You’ll just be wasting your ingredients! I personally don’t feel that coconut flour lends too much of a “coconut flavor” to recipes, but if you’d prefer not to use it, I’d recommend trying one of my almond flour recipes instead. Baked donuts are essentially muffins baked into donut-like shapes, so you can use almost any muffin recipe you like to create a batch of crowd-pleasing donuts!
Similarly, you can use this chocolate batter to create muffins, rather than donuts, if you’d prefer. Either way, they’re sure to be a hit!
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Glazed Chocolate Donuts (Grain-free, Nut-free)
makes 6 standard donuts
Adapted from Elana’s Pantry
Ingredients:
For the Chocolate Donuts:
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 eggs
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
For the Chocolate Glaze:
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
2 tablespoons coconut oil
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350F and grease a standard donut pan generously with coconut oil. In a medium bowl, whisk together the coconut flour, cocoa powder, sea salt and baking soda. Add in the eggs, coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla and whisk again until a uniform batter is created.
Transfer the batter to a plastic storage bag, and snip off one corner of the bag with scissors, to create a “piping bag.” Pipe the batter evenly into the six donut wells.
Bake the donuts at 350F for 18-20 minutes, until the dough has risen and is firm to the touch.
Allow the donuts to cool for 15 minutes, then gently remove from the pan to cool completely on a wire rack. (I’ve found that it’s easiest to remove the donuts using a twisting motion. If you grease the pan well enough, they should slide right out!)
To glaze the donuts, prepare the chocolate glaze by melting together the coconut oil and dark chocolate chips. The mixture will be in liquid-form when warm, but will solidify as it cools. I find it easiest to glaze the donuts by dunking them into the melted chocolate mixture while it’s still warm.
*Feel free to use any other glaze or frosting that you prefer. For a couple donuts, we spread coconut manna on top, plus sprinkled coconut, for a chocolate-coconut flavor. The combinations are endless!
You may wish to dunk the donuts into the glaze more than once, for a thicker coating. Serve warm, or allow to cool completely to avoid chocolate running over your fingers.
Due to the dry nature of coconut flour, I recommend storing these donuts in a sealed container to retain their moisture.
Ingredients
For the Chocolate Donuts:
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 cup coconut oil , melted
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
For the Chocolate Glaze:
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil , melted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F and grease a standard donut pan generously with coconut oil. In a medium bowl, whisk together the coconut flour, cocoa powder, sea salt and baking soda. Add in the eggs, coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla and whisk again until a uniform batter is created.
- Transfer the batter to a plastic storage bag, and snip off one corner of the bag with scissors, to create a "piping bag." Pipe the batter evenly into the six donut wells.
- Bake the donuts at 350F for 18-20 minutes, until the dough has risen and is firm to the touch.
- Allow the donuts to cool for 15 minutes, then gently remove from the pan to cool completely on a wire rack. (I've found that it's easiest to remove the donuts using a twisting motion. If you grease the pan well enough, they should slide right out!)
- To glaze the donuts, prepare the chocolate glaze by melting together the coconut oil and dark chocolate chips. The mixture will be in liquid-form when warm, but will solidify as it cools.
- I find it easiest to glaze the donuts by dunking them into the melted chocolate mixture while it's still warm. You may wish to dunk the donuts into the glaze more than once, for a thicker coating.
- Serve warm, or allow to cool completely to avoid chocolate running over your fingers.
Notes
Nutrition
Calories per donut: 314, Fat: 21g, Carbohydrates: 25g, Fiber: 3g, Protein: 5g
*Note: If you wish to bake muffins, instead of donuts, you will most likely need to increase the baking time. Under-baked muffins will sink after baking, so make sure the centers are firm to the touch before removing from the oven.
Enjoy!
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Reader Feedback: Are you planning any special treats for Easter or Passover?
We really need a vegan version for my allergic family. Got any tips our suggestions? Have you used flax gel or applesauce successfully instead of eggs? (She said hopefully). Thanks!
Delicious on the first try! My son loves them better than the store-bought gluten-free donuts he’d come to love. A definite winner.
My birthday’s coming up and it’s always sad that I can’t have a ‘normal’ cake that actually tastes good. But this year will be different. I tested this recipe as cupcakes last night and they are amazing! I’m so excited to have my cake and eat it too!
Just as a head’s up, the FDA has listed coconuts as a member of the tree nut family, so it isn’t technically safe for people with tree nut allergies, like me. http://www.fda.gov/ForIndustry/FDABasicsforIndustry/ucm238807.htm
We really enjoyed these! I baked them as muffins (ended up making 5 because that was the number of paper cups that I had left), subbing coconut pulp left over from making coconut milk (pulsed into flour) for the coconut flour, applesauce for half of the coconut oil and date syrup for the sweetener. I love that I can get my chocolate fix, and I can also feed them to my 3 year old without feeling the least bit guilty!
I could still taste the eggs ever so subtly. Maybe coconut flour baking will be an acquired taste?
Whoa whoa.
So I made these tonight… only difference was that I used honey instead of maple syrup and melted butter instead of coconut oil (only because I didn’t have the real things).
They’re so good! Not eggy or mushy or grainy at all like coconut flour often gets. Is that thanks to the cocoa powder or what? They could be a little moister (although I think that’s a property of most baked donuts in general since they’re missing that oily exterior), but I would just try adding some more butter or oil.
This is the first coconut flour recipe I can totally get behind. Thanks!!
Whatbrand of coconut flour do you use?
I made these today, in a standard 12-cup stoneware muffin pan. I added a scant quarter teaspoon of cream of tartar to give a little more lift. They’re delicious! Instead of the icing, I just sprinkled a few chips on top of each muffin in the pan when I set it on the cooling rack. They melted in mere moments, and I spread them over the tops with the back of a spoon, popped the muffins out of the pan, and left them to cool. My little boy really appreciated them. Thanks for a fantastic recipe!
I’d like to make these for Easter, but was curious to know approx how long they will stay fresh compared to a standard flour mix. I’m new to grain free baking.
Thank you!
No matter what I put at the bottom of my donut pan (butter, coconut oil, olive oil), the donut always stick and come out crumbly. Any suggestions?
Try using silicone donuts mold. I grease my normal donut pan with melted coconut oil, I don’t know why it doesn’t work for you. Maybe you are putting too little?