Easy Baked Chocolate Doughnuts – just in time for dinner.

I love doughnuts! All of them really … but chocolate doughnuts are my favourite. I have made many different types, both baked and deep fried. A really nice thing about this recipe, no need for a mixer. Two bowls only, so minimal washing up! Easy baked chocolate doughnuts are worth your time!

Soft, chocolatey and easy to make doughnuts

This doughnut is nice and soft. The buttermilk in the recipe is what makes it that way. Gentle baking on a lower heat helps too. I top these with a chocolate ganache which is even easier to make than any kind of glaze that needs icing sugar. Truth is, I was out of icing sugar when I made these and we all love ganache anyway.

There’s a big debate about what a doughnut is … so, are these really little round cakes with a hole in the middle? Maybe, they’re still awesome. In pastry school I was taught that all doughnuts are deep fried. Now, I love deep fried, but who wants to do that at home? Not most people! So, let’s make baked doughnuts.

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Whether you’re weighing your ingredients or doing volume measurements, same process applies. All the dry into one bowl, all the wet into another. Combine, put into the doughnut pans and bake. The doughnut pans are the only special equipment you need here. I do think you’ll feel they’re worth the investment. Just think how nice it will be to make a dozen off these fairly small, but tasty treats for your family. They’ll think you’re a superhero! Maybe they already do … but a superhero with doughnuts.

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I do recommend that after you’ve sprayed the pans (do it over the sink so you don’t get spray on the floor – dangerous) and you’ve filled the cavities with batter, that you take a sheet of paper towel and wipe off the excess spray. This is good to do when you’re making muffins or cupcakes too.

Decorate these easy baked chocolate doughnuts as you prefer – a little or a lot

The technique to ‘frost’ the doughnuts is super easy too. Once they’re cool, gently pick them up and dunk the top (or bottom) into the ganache frosting, then you can just sprinkle the tops with as much or as little jimmies or sprinkles as you like. Sit the doughnuts back on the wire rack until it’s time to serve them.

A little note on the ganache. I recommend you buy high quality chocolate for this. I prefer Callebaut. It will not leave any kind of waxiness in the mouth. It has good level of sweetness in any of the varieties you buy. Ganache is just chocolate melted in whipping cream, nothing else. The ingredients have to be good otherwise the end product will not be. Do not use the type of chocolate chips you use for cookies in this. They are designed not to melt and will not make ganache.

Here’s a link to the International Cocoa Organization’s website, there’s some really interesting reading here about how cocoa beans are harvested and fermented. It’s good to understand the processes involved and why you should want to buy a sustainable product and support the cocoa farmers.

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You may notice I was fairly generous with the chocolate sprinkles, because, yes … more chocolate! I also dipped a couple of them in multicoloured sprinkles too, but honestly that was bit much and finished the rest of with a lighter touch.

Let the finished doughnuts sit for 10 – 20 minutes if you can. The ganache does not become very hard, but it will firm up.

I recommend eating these easy baked chocolate doughnuts the same day or next. Who am kidding? If they last to the next day, they’ll still be good. My kids are not little anymore and put several of these guys away very quickly.

If chocolate doughnuts are not going to be on the menu, take a look at the Pound Cake recipe, perhaps you’d like to give that a try!

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