These soft healthy mini chocolate donuts are baked and topped with 2-ingredient chocolate glaze. They are made dairy-free, in one bowl, and are easily ready in under half an hour or make half as many full size donuts.
These easy mini chocolate donuts are so easy to make and eat. These small donuts are a fun size for birthdays, and other holidays. They are also delicious for everyone since they are dairy free, egg free, even oil free, and can be naturally gluten-free depending on your flour choice.
Just like my larger chocolate frosted donuts, my apple cider donuts, my birthday cake donuts, and my baked powdered donuts, these are full of nourishing ingredients but also a fun small size. This makes them a copycat recipe like Entenmann's donuts only healthier.
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Why You'll Love These
Healthy mini chocolate donuts are a fun size. These donuts are easily made miniature using a silicon mold or even mini cupcake pan. Or make half as many in a full size donut mold or full size cupcake pan. The perfect treat for every day snacking or brunch or parties.
Healthier donuts. Thanks to simple ingredients, and unsweetened apple sauce instead of eggs and oil, these bite-sized treats will leave you feeling better, no aftertaste from preservatives found in processed donuts.
Make ahead donuts. These chocolate donuts save easily for days, staying soft and fluffy, and make a delicious lunchbox or grab-and-go snack.
Ingredients Needed
Flour. All purpose flour works well, but so does a gluten-free baking flour or and oat flour.
Cocoa powder, unsweetened. The quality of the cocoa makes the donut. I love using Valhrona or Ghiradelli's Dutch processed for a dark color, but any regular cocoa works as well.
Cane sugar. Use any cane sugar, but try organic cane sugar when you can because it tastes better and is less processed.
Applesauce. Use unsweetened and this replaces the moisture eggs and oil would bring.
Dairy-free milk. Adding a teaspoon of lemon juice to milk helps put a lift into the donut's texture making it fluffy.
Misc. Add cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, salt
Tools Needed
- Hand mixer or stand mixer
- Measuring cups, spoons
- A mixing bowl
- Silicon mini donut mold or mini cupcake pan
Substitutions
Flour. Choose between all purpose flour, a gluten free baking flour, wheat flour or even oat flour. To use oat flour, to make the donuts naturally gluten free, use 1 cup of oat flour instead of ¾ cup of flour.
Applesauce. This is the ingredient that replaces eggs and oil. Use yogurt instead, choose a plain high fat for best absorption.
Milk + lemon. This also replaces an egg, so use 1 flax seed egg if you want to replace the milk. Add 1 tablespoon of ground flax seed to 3 tablespoons of water and set it aside for 10 minutes.
See the recipe card at the bottom for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Step by Step Instructions
For more detail, visit the complete and printable recipe at the bottom of this post, but here are general steps.
Step 1. First grease and flour your donut mold with cocoa powder. Rub the wells with oil using a paper towel, and dust with cocoa powder. Add the lemon juice to the milk and wait 5 minutes. Be sure all ingredients are at room temperature.
Step 2. Add the wet ingredients in a bowl and mix with a hand mixer or stand mixer for about 2 minutes to be sure the sugar is dissolved.
Step 3. Add in the dry ingredients, and mix briefly.
Step 4. Spoon the batter into a plastic Ziploc bag or a frosting bag, snip the tip, and pipe batter into each donut well. You'll be putting about 1-2 tbsps of batter in each well if you use my mini donut pan. Level with a spoon if needed.
Step 5. Slid the silicon mold into the oven; it's head proof! And bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 F.
Step 6. While they are baking, make the glaze. Microwave the chocolate chips at 60 seconds to melt. Pour in room temperature milk and stir until smooth. Add the glaze to a shallow bowl.
Step 7. Dip cooled donuts and then dip into a bowl of sprinkles while glaze is still wet. Store at room-temperature for one day. These donuts are best eaten same day since flour dries out fairly quickly.
Storage & Make Ahead
Store these mini chocolate donuts at room temperature. Store these donuts unfrosted in a sealed container in the refrigerator for a week. Frost on the day you plan to eat them.
Store these baked mini donuts frozen. Store the donuts unfrosted in a sealed container in the freezer for 3 months. Allow 20 minutes to thaw, the frost on serving day.
How to make ahead for an event. Make the donuts three days in advance, and store refrigerated in a sealed container. Frost and sprinkle them an hour or two before serving.
Recipe Tips
1. Be sure your applesauce has no added sugar.
2. Use a chocolate chip brand for the glaze that you enjoy the flavor of. I use Enjoy life mini chips.
3. Measure your flour carefully by loosening it in the bag, then spooning it loosely into a 1 cup measuring cup, and leveling it off with a knife.
4. Use a dutch processed cocoa (dark) to get this lovely dark color and rich flavor.
5. If you don't have a mini silicon donut pan, than use a mini muffin pan, or make half the number of donuts using a regular-sized donut pan, or regular sized muffin pan.
FAQS
You can bake this batter in a mini donut mold or use a large donut pan mold. Or use a mini cupcake pan or a regular cupcake pan.
My healthy chocolate mini donut recipe produces mini donuts of 61 calories, 1 g fat, and 5 g of sugar as well as 3 g of protein and fiber. Far healthier, than the preservative-laden Entenmann's brand whose donuts have 170 calories, 8g fat and 9 g sugars, and zero protein and fiber.
More Healthy Donuts
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📖 Recipe
Healthy Mini Chocolate Donuts
Equipment
- Measuring cups & spoons
- Mixing bowl
- Hand mixer or stand mixer
Ingredients
Donuts
- ¾ cup all purpose flour or GF baking 1 to 1 flour
- 2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¼ cup organic cane sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅓ cup dairy-free milk
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- ¼ cups unsweetened apple sauce or plain yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon optional
- pinch of salt
Chocolate Glaze
- ½ cup chocolate chips
- 2 tablespoon dairy free milk
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Instructions
Prep
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Grease the 12 wells of the mini donut pan.*
- Add the teaspoon of lemon juice to the ⅓ cup of milk and wait 5 minutes.
Make Donuts
- In a large bowl, use a hand-mixer or stand mixer to combine wet ingredients and sugar. Be sure to mix at least 2 minutes to be sure sugar is melted.¼ cup organic cane sugar, ⅓ cup dairy-free milk, ¼ cups unsweetened apple sauce, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- To the wet ingredients, add the dry ingredients.¾ cup all purpose flour, 2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder, ½ teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, pinch of salt, ½ teaspoon baking soda
- Mix until just combined. Add the mixture to a frosting piping bag, and snip the tip to allow about a 1-inch opening. Or use a 1-gallon ziplock bag.
- For ease in filling the bag, tuck it into a tall glass and open the bag and fill with batter using a spoon.
- Squeeze the batter into donut pan rings. Fill up each donut well with 1-2 tablespoon of batter. Level with a spoon if needed.
- Bake donuts for 8-10 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
- Cool pan for 10 minutes, then extract the donuts and line them on a cooling rack.
Bake Donuts Mixture in Muffin Pan
- To use a mini muffin pan, line them with paper, fill each well just below the top line and bake at 8 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
Make Glaze
- Melt the chocolate chips in a glass pyrex measuring cup, microwave at 1 min and stir until all chips are melted. Microwave an additional 10 seconds if chips need more melted.½ cup chocolate chips
- Stir in the milk, and stir vigorously until you have a creamy, shiny glaze. Pour glaze into a shallow bowl for dipping donuts in.2 tablespoon dairy free milk
- Dip one side of each donut, allow excess to drip off, and set non-glazed side down on a cool rack. Allow glaze to set, about 10 minutes or less.
Store
- Store covered lightly for one day on the counter; any longer and they dry up. You can refrigerate them covered for a week, or freeze for a month. If you freeze, don't glaze them.
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