Baked chocolate crumb donuts make such an indulgent breakfast or brunch treat! These are moist and tender, with tons of deep chocolate flavor.
Good Tuesday morning, my friend! Did you catch my Oatmeal Raisin Cookie recipe yesterday? What a great way to kick off a new fall week.
And today we have baked chocolate crumb donuts! I know I usually only post twice a week, but there are just SO many great things to bake in fall and winter, I have decided to step it up to three recipes throughout the next few months. If you are an email subscriber and that feels like a bit much for your inbox, please shoot me an email or leave a comment at the bottom of this post. I can set up a new system where you just get one big email at the end of each week, if there’s enough of a demand for that.
One of my all-time favorite recipes on this site is for Homemade Crumb Donuts. They’re tender as can be, baked with sour cream and a hint of nutmeg, plus a cinnamon-y glaze and a crumbly streusel topping. I love making (and eating) them, and so do my kids. They were patterned after the Entenmann’s kind that you can buy at convenience stores. (Way better though!) And since they also have a chocolate crumb donut variety, I figured I should too.
I am so glad I gave this a whirl because I think I might love them even more than the regular kind. There is just something about the way that crusty exterior gives way to the most tender, moist chocolate cake donut.
The donut batter is super simple and it whips up in a snap. While the donuts bake in the oven, stir together a quick vanilla glaze and mix up the chocolate streusel crumbs. Once the donuts are cool enough to handle, dunk them in the glaze and press the crumb mixture all over them. A dusting of powdered sugar is all the adornment they need.
I decided to leave some of my chocolate cake donuts plain, and some just got the vanilla glaze. They were all good, regardless. So feel free to leave off any of the extras- they’ll still knock your socks off, even without!
Chocolate Crumb Donuts
Baked chocolate crumb donuts make such an indulgent breakfast or brunch treat! These are moist and tender, with tons of deep chocolate flavor.
Yield: 6 donuts
Ingredients:
For the baked chocolate donuts:
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup dark cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup sour cream (Greek yogurt can be substituted)
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the glaze:
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons milk (I used 1%)
- 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the chocolate crumb topping:
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Directions:
To make the baked chocolate donuts:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and lightly mist a donut pan with non-stick spray.
- Place the flour, cocoas, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl and whisk to combine. In a smaller bowl, mix the sour cream, sugar, oil, egg, and vanilla together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and fold together just until combined (batter will be thick and lumpy). Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake the donuts for 12 to 14 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the thickest part of a donut comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Cool on a wire rack, then glaze and coat with chocolate crumb topping.
To make the glaze:
- Stir the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla together in a medium bowl.
To make the chocolate crumb topping:
- Melt the butter in a medium pot over low heat. Add the flour, sugar, cocoa, and salt, and toss together with a fork until crumbly. Press the crumb topping into the glaze while still wet.
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Omg, I just can’t even!!!! These are exactly what I’ve been craving!
Girl you’ve gotta bake up a batch! I think you will love them!
Looks delicious!!! 🙂
Thanks so much Stephanie! We really loved them 🙂
I love these! Great job! 2 thumbs up.
Thank you so much Evelyn!
I love the crumb! That really makes these unique- delicious 🙂
Thanks so much Medha! I loved the chocolate crumb too 🙂
Read directions but didn’t see how to make the shape of donuts. It just said to transfer batter to prepared pan then bake. Don’t you have to make them donuts first?
Hey Carolyn! If you go back and have another look at the recipe, you’ll see that it calls for a donut pan (it’s hyperlinked to an Amazon page, so you can see what that looks like and even order one if need be). That info is in step one on the recipe card. The batter just goes into that pan and it bakes up in the shape of a donut. Hope that helps!
suuuuch gorgeous photos!!! and it doesn’t hur that the subject is chocolatey donut deliciousness!
Aw, thank you! Between you and I, I really struggled with this shoot. So that is so nice to hear!
These donuts looks completely perfect! The crumbs and glaze have me swooning. Your photos are always so beautiful too!
Thank you so much Sarah! Sometimes photography can feel like such a struggle- so that’s really nice to hear. So glad you like the donut recipe too! Thanks again Sarah!
i am obsessing over these! is there anything better than a donut? and with that crumb topping and tender crumb. just wow!
Cathy they tasted even better than I expected! Such an incredible treat. Thank you so much for the awesome feedback and the sweet comment!
Love these Allie! The more crumb the better!!
Thanks Mary Ann! Boy, you said it!
These look amazing, Allie!! I can’t explain how much I’m craving one of these doughnuts now…
Oh I’m so happy you like them Sabrina! I need to bake up another batch soon- I’m craving them now too!
I just made these. It’s an easy recipe and tastes wonderful. I was disappointed because they are on the dry side.
Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear that Irene! They were definitely not dry when I made them- is it possible they were baked a little longer than needed?
It’s possible. I baked them for 12 min. I’ll give it another try and bake it a bit less.
Hopefully that makes the difference for you Irene! It’s surprising how far out of calibration our ovens can sometimes wander. Good luck and thanks for reading!
anyway to make these without the dairy ingredient- mainly sour cream or greek yogurt?
Hey Nina! You could probably substitute with something like coconut milk or almond milk, but I think you might need to add a little lemon juice or something similarly acidic, in order to activate the leavening. If you have any luck with that, let me know! I’d love to hear about your experience. Thanks for reading, and good luck!
They were good but made a huge amount of crunchies. Probably enough for 2 dozen doughnuts, and covered them pretty well.
So glad you enjoyed! Thanks for the feedback Kristen!
i just made these they were amazing!! I am doing lots of your recipe and there all look amazing! i used the crumble but i also did a nut blend and shaved coconut and it was so good!!
That sounds so fantastic! I’m so happy you’re liking the recipes!
Hi Allie! I made these with my children today and they were amazing! I decided to do a blog post about how my kids and I skipped our homeschool lesson to bake these donuts. If it is okay I will be linking to your this page through text and a final picture of our delicious treats in the post? Thank you for sharing this recipe.
– Catherine
That would be so nice Catherine! I’m so happy you and your kids enjoyed the recipe- sometimes you just have to take a break from life and treat yourself!
Great, thank you! And I absolutely agree. What a treat it was!! 😀 Below is the link to the post (if you’re interested). It will be posted tomorrow! Thank you again for a great recipe!
http://www.peaceofcakeparenting.com/?p=1518
– Catherine
Is there anyway to substitute the dark cocoa and use the reg cocoa powder in place of it?
Hey Stevie! You can absolutely do that. You’d use the same amount of regular cocoa. The color of the final product will just be not quite as dark, but the flavor will still be amazing! Good luck and I hope you enjoy 🙂
Just so I have this right – Did you mean to use a half cup of unsweetened cocoa so that you can omit the regular cocoa?
The recipe calls for two kinds of cocoa: unsweetened and dark (aka Dutch processed). If you don’t want to use dark cocoa powder, you can sub regular cocoa powder in, in equal measure. So that would be another 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder, which would total 1/2 cup altogether.