Chocolate frosted donuts with sprinkles have a soft cake texture and a delicious 2-ingredient chocolate glaze. These donuts are baked, made in one bowl, and only 100 calories thanks to whole food ingredients. A filling and healthy treat for everyday or any festive occasion.
These chocolate frosted donuts with sprinkles are fun and delicious, and easy to make in one bowl. The chocolate glaze is only melted chocolate chips and hot milk. Mix up the donuts, bake and dip in this delicious donut frosting. The sprinkle options are endless. Make them for birthdays, holidays or just for a snack because they are actually high in fiber and only 100 calories. They are also dairy free, and oil free.
Don't have a donut pan? Use a muffin pan. These chocolate dipped donuts are lighter than my baked powdered donuts, less spicy than my healthy baked pumpkin donuts with glaze, and more chocolatey than my vanilla birthday cake donuts.
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Why You'll Love These
The calories in this chocolate frosted donuts are extraordinarily low for a donut. One delicious donut is only 108! That's because I use wholesome ingredients like apple sauce instead of oil. Compare that to the calorie count in a donut found at a bake shop. Here are other reasons to love these chocolate donuts:
- only 6 main ingredients
- stir batter with a spoon
- baked not fried
- soft and cakey
- taste like bakery donuts
- better for you than Entenmann's chocolate covered donuts
- no dairy, no eggs, no oil
Ingredients Needed
- All Purpose flour. Or you can use oat flour or GF baking 1 to 1 flour.
- Cocoa powder.
- Dairy-free milk.
- Sweet potato puree. Instead of eggs or oil, use pumpkin purée or unsweetened apple sauce. In case of pumpkin puree, use organic and be sure there are no other ingredients such as added sugar.
- Cane sugar. I prefer organic for the flavor, but ordinary cane sugar also works.
- Leaveners & flavors. baking soda, cinnamon, coffee, vanilla, salt
For the chocolate glaze for donuts, use chocolate chips, milk and sprinkles.
Substitutions
Cocoa. Use unsweetened cocoa powder. Either Dutch processed cocoa or regular cocoa works.
Apple sauce. Use pumpkin puree or sweet potato puree instead.
Flour. You can use gluten free baking flour. You can also use oat flour, but use 1 ¾ cup, more, because oat flour is more absorbent. Oat flour donuts also dry faster so prepare to eat them same day or store.
Step by Step Instructions
My complete recipe for healthy chocolate frosted donuts with sprinkles is in the recipe card at the bottom of this post. Meanwhile, here is a brief overview:
Step 1. First grease your donut pan. I use a light avocado oil spray, spritz a single spot in the donut well, and use a paper towel corner to rub it around the well.
Step 2. Then, prepare the batter by mixing up the dry ingredients first. I also pushed it through a fine strainer to be sure the chocolate cocoa chunks full incorporated.
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Step 3. Then mix up the wet ingredients in a different bowl, and pour that into the dry. Stir up until just combined. Not too much or batter will be come rubbery.
Step 4. Pour it into a plastic ziploc bag or a frosting bag, snip the tip, and pipe batter into each donut well. This donut recipe using a donut pan makes 6 fat donuts or 12 skinny donuts.
Or spoon batter into a muffin pan and make 9-12 muffins.
Step 5. Bake and cool!
Step 6. Glaze these donuts by stirring up my 2-ingredient glaze and dipping cooled donuts. Dip into the sprinkles or pour them on. Allow the glaze to set about thirty minutes.
Pro tip: The best way to add sprinkles to a donut is to pour the sprinkles about 1-inch deep in a shallow cereal bowl. Then dip the cooled donut into a glaze, and then dip that into the sprinkles, glaze-side down. Shake gently to release loose sprinkles, and turn and set the donut on a parchment-lined pan to set. The glaze and sprinkle topping sets within minutes.
Step 7. Store at room-temperature for one day. These donuts are best eaten same day since oat flour dries out fairly quickly.
Recipe Tips
Bake without a donut pan: If you don't want to buy a donut pan, you can make this batter in a muffin pan. Fill each muffin well about ⅔ full. Bake the same as donuts.
Choose chocolate or rainbow sprinkles depending on your need. For instance, use pastel or rainbow for a birthday, use orange and black for Halloween, use holiday colors for a holiday.
Make Ahead & Store
Storage. These chocolate frosted donuts with sprinkles are best eaten same day as the oat flour tends to dry out pretty quickly. If you must save them, store them in a sealed container unglazed in the refrigerator for up to a week. Then warm them in the oven for 5 minutes at 350 F. Allow to cool 10 minutes, and glaze and sprinkle.
Make Ahead. You can make and bake these donuts up to three months ahead, don't frost and simply freeze them in a sealed container until you are ready to thaw, dip them in chocolate glaze, sprinkle and serve.
FAQS
No, you can use any frosting.
Sprinkles stick to donuts best when applied right after the donut is freshly frosted. Frost the donut, then dip it into a bowl of sprinkles, and allow the frosting to set with the sprinkles inset.
A cake donut is not boiled in oil and thus is lower in fat, calories and usually sugar. But a cake donut is high in carbs from flour and sugar so still should be eaten in moderation.
There are only 108 calories in this healthy chocolate donut thanks to using apple sauce instead of oil, and because of other healthy ingredients.
More Baked Donuts
If you tried this recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
📖 Recipe
Chocolate Frosted Donuts with Sprinkles (low calorie)
Equipment
- Measuring cups & spoons
- Mixing bowl
- Hand-mixer
Ingredients
Donuts
- 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour or 1 ¾ cup oat flour
- 3 tablespoon cocoa powder
- ½ cup organic cane sugar
- ½ cups apple sauce
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup milk dairy free
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoon coffee
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- pinch of salt
Chocolate Glaze
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- ¼ cup milk dairy free
- ¼ cup chocolate sprinkles
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Instructions
Prep
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Grease a 6-well donut pan or cupcake pan.
Make Donuts
- In a large bowl, mix up flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and salt.1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoon baking powder, 3 tablespoon cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, pinch of salt
- In a smaller bowl, stir up apple sauce, sugar, milk, coffee, and vanilla. Pour the wet into the dry mixture.½ cup milk, ½ cups apple sauce, ½ cup organic cane sugar, 2 tablespoon coffee, 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Use a hand mixer to blend smooth.
- Use a frosting piping bag or use a spoon to fill the wells to the top. You can just snip the piping bag to use it, no need to use a frosting tip. Or use a zip-lock bag with corner snipped. Push the bag in a tall glass to fill it. Then squeeze batter into donut pan rings.
- Fill up to the top for 6 donuts; fill just under the rim for 12 donuts.
- Bake donuts for 12 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
- Cool pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Bake Donuts Mixture in Muffin Pan
- Fill each paper-lined muffin well about ⅔rds and bake at 12 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. I got about 9 muffins this way, but you can make them smaller and get 12.
Make Chocolate Glaze
- Put 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.1 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.¼ cup 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.¼ cup chocolate sprinkles
Store
- Store covered lightly for one day on the counter; any longer and they turn soggy. You can refrigerate them covered for a week, or freeze for a month. If you freeze, just set them on the counter to defrost for 20 minutes.
Chelsea says
Fantastic! My kids loved helping to make these. I think they'll be a new Saturday morning go-to recipe.
Dee Dine says
Thanks for sharing Chelsea!