The title of this post alone makes me happy, as does biting into one of these tender, double chocolate donuts. They are so fun to serve, and my little girls love them. And since half of our family is gluten, dairy, and egg-free, we are all happy that we can enjoy these together.
If you haven’t noticed from my dessert category, chocolate is a favorite, so chocolate donuts are a given. It’s National Donut Day, and this is a great way to celebrate. I’ve also made them for birthday parties, and special holiday breakfasts. My daughters have their ballet recital tonight, so we are bringing them to share. They were pleased to help make these, and to have a fun thing to bring. They were the ones who insisted on using sprinkles on the donuts! I love my girlies, who love adding a fun dash to everything in life, including donuts! If you also want to use sprinkles, just lightly sprinkle after you have dipped the donuts, before the chocolate sets.
These remind me of the boxed chocolate covered mini donuts that my dad would sometimes buy for us on trips at gas stations. Thankfully these ones aren’t full of preservatives and made a year earlier. 😉
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A couple of notes:
- I used coconut sugar to make these, though you could use whatever dry sweetener you like (rapadura, sucanat, evaporated cane sugar, etc).
- I used these chocolate chips as they are free of the 8 most common allergens. I love their dark chocolate chips as well.
- Instead of dipping in chocolate, you can also simply dust with organic powdered sugar. This is a lot simpler, but not quite as sweet. I think they are really pretty too.
- This recipe works with, or without the soaking period (I’ve tried it both ways). If you don’t want to soak, simply stir together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Then mix the wet ingredients in a small bowl, and then stir the two together (do this quickly before the coconut oil solidifies)
- You do need a mini donut pan for this recipe. I own this one . This silicone one looks promising as well.
- I’ve also made them with the large donut pan – just cook for 20-25 minutes. Will make nine large donuts.
- This is basically a muffin recipe, so you can also use this recipe to make about nine or ten chocolate muffins!
Enjoy!

- 1 cup of sorgum flour
- ½ cup teff flour
- ¾ cup warm water
- 1 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar (or kombucha, kefir, etc)
- 1 teaspoon chia seeds
- 1 cup of natural dry sweetener of choice (I used coconut sugar)
- ¼ cup, plus 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon unrefined salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup applesauce
- ¼ cup gently melted coconut oil
- 10 ounces of chocolate chips, allergy-friendly (This is enough to completely cover ¾ of the donuts, use 5 ounces more if you want to cover all of them)
- 1-2 tablespoons coconut oil
- If soaking, the night before, combine the flour with the water and apple cider vinegar. Cover and leave in a warm place for 12-24 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease the donut tins well. Combine the chia seeds with 3 tablespoons of hot water in a mug and set aside for about 15 minutes. .
- Add to the flour and water mixture the cocoa powder, sweetener, chia seed mixture, baking powder, salt, vanilla, apple sauce and coconut oil. As soon as you start adding the coconut oil, start mixing. You want the coconut oil to mix in before it has time to solidify again.
- Put a scant tablespoon in each donut form, pressing down on the batter gently to make sure there aren’t any gaps. You want to fill each form about ¾ full.
- Put in the middle of the oven for about 7 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let sit on the counter for 5 minutes, and then use a toothpick to gently remove the donuts to a cooling rack. They are fragile when hot, but are pretty sturdy when cool.
- Since I have only one small donut pan, I then brush the donut pan with more melted coconut oil, and cook another batch. I got 4 dozen mini donuts out of this recipe.
- When all of the donuts are done cooking, and are cooled, put the chocolate chips in the top of a double boiler along with 1 to 2 tablespoons of coconut oil (I stir the coconut oil a bit to the chocolate chips). Gently melt together over low heat until smooth, stirring. If you use the two tablespoons of coconut oil, it will spread your chocolate chips further and make for easy dipping, but the chocolate will be a lot more sensitive to heat, including hand heat. When the chocolate is melted, drop in a donut, cover with chocolate, and then use a fork to gently pick it up, shake of the excess chocolate, and then place on a parchment covered baking sheet. Repeat. I got 36 of my 48 mini donuts covered with chocolate this way. You can also just dip the top half of each donut with chocolate, or simply drizzle a little melted chocolate over all of the donuts.
- Put in the refrigerator or freezer to solidify the chocolate again, and enjoy. These donuts are best served the day they are made.
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What doughnut tins do you use? I’ve been looking for a while! Thanks!
Lenore,
I link to two in the post above! 🙂
looking forward to trying these, kids will be amped too!
Hope you like them as well as we did. 🙂
These look awesome! A doughnut pan is going on the shopping list!
how sturdy is the dough? I was wondering if it could be made without a donut pan. I have made a recipe before where you put a dollop on parchment paper and then put your finger in the middle and swirled to open up a whole.. and they worked pretty good.. was wondering if that would work with this recipe or if dough was runnier?
I find your lack of organic applesauce disturbing. I hope this was a late night blog post, and you’re not secretly peddling GMO applesauce poison.
Ryan,
I will take that comment as a joke, and say this in reply, yes, I do actually “peddle” GMO applesauce as a secret side business with a side of poison added to the mix. Because that’s what this blog is all (secretly) about! Thanks for exposing my now no longer secret real agenda! 😉
I was looking for a good gluten free chocolate donut receipe this morning- and couldn’t help but laugh at your comment! You win! I’m making your recipe- but I’m going to sub organic applesauce.
So there! Your secret plan is defeated! 🙂