Grain-Free Chocolate Cake Donuts with Vanilla Bean Glaze

I’ve been so excited about my new donut pan! I even have another one on the way, and even ordered the mini-donut pan too. There’s just something about baked confections with a hole in the middle! Why are they so fun??

So my Mother-in-law is in town this weekend, and since both kids were napping at the same time, I decided to make some donuts. But she isn’t a fan of coconut. A request for chocolate donuts later, and…

Grain-Free Chocolate Cake Donuts

Donut Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 cup organic cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup xylitol
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup coconut oil or butter, melted
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
• 1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate

Donut Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Combine all ingredients except for dark chocolate in a bowl until well-blended (I used my stand mixer with whisk attachment).
3. Gently stir in the dark chocolate. Let the batter sit for a while. (Coconut flour recipes generally benefit from this because it allows the flour to absorb more, and it’ll give a less grainy texture to the finished product.)
4. Fill your donut pan with the batter. The original recipe and the pan instructions say 2/3 full, but I filled them all the way… I just made sure to scrape off the “hole” part so they would have nice holes in the middle. I got 12 donuts out of this recipe, which means I had to do them in 2 batches (but when I get my second donut pan, I can do them all at once).
5. Bake for 20 minutes.
6. Allow donuts to cool in the pan about 10 minutes before removing.
7. Remove donuts and dip the tops in the vanilla glaze.
8. Eat right away, allow the glaze to “set.

Vanilla Donut Glaze

Glaze Ingredients:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 Tablespoons whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Glaze Method:

1. Combine the ingredients and mix well.
2. Gently heat in a double-boiler or microwave at half-power until the glaze is warm and thin enough to dip your donuts in it. There is actually a spot on my stove that gets hot when the oven is on (in the center back) and I just set my bowl of glaze there, stirring occasionally as the donuts baked.
3. Dip tops of cooled donuts in the glaze, and place on a tray to set for a few minutes.