
Who can resist a homemade baked donut? Not us right? Feast your eyes on these beauties…
Simple one-bowl chocolate cake piped into cute little donut moulds. Baked to perfection. Dipped in a rich homemade chocolate ganache and sprinkled with chopped hazelnuts, how good is that?


You might be thinking, hey, these really aren’t donuts because you said it was cake? That’s correct, because they’re baked “donuts”. I’m sharing with you a super simple and fun recipe that is formed into donuts using your donut mould. So much easier and time efficient than making traditional donuts that you have to make the dough, prove the dough, deep fry the donuts etc etc. Don’t get me wrong, those donuts are truly magical in every way and I plan on sharing a recipe for traditional homemade donuts this year. However, to keep things easy (just the way we like it) we’re baking donuts, yay! So onto the good stuff.

You’ll be folding through a bunch of chopped hazelnuts into the batter also and once you enjoy the finished product, with those crunchy hazelnuts throughout the actual cake donut, oh my goodness, I senses will be bouncing off the walls!
So what are we waiting for? Baked Chocolate Hazelnut Donut anyone? Let’s go!!

Chocolate Hazelnut Donuts
Ingredients
Donuts
- 2 Tbsp salted butter, melted
- 1 cup gluten free all purpose flour, or regular all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 cup coconut sugar
- 1/2 cup almond milk or milk of choice
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla bean extract
- 1/4 cup hazelnuts, chopped small
Chocolate Ganache Icing
- 200 g dark chocolate block, roughly chopped
- 200 g canned coconut cream
- 1/2 cup hazelnuts, roughly chopped, for topping
Instructions
Donuts
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Preheat oven to 180ºC (356ºF). Grease a standard sized donut pan or a mini donut pan with coconut oil or butter. I use standard 12-hole donut pan. Set aside.
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Melt butter and set aside.
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In a large mixing bowl, add flour, baking powder, cocoa and sugar. Mix well.
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Add in milk, eggs, vanilla and melted butter.
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Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat mixture for 30 seconds on medium speed. Scraping down the sides when needed.
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Fold through chopped hazelnuts.
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Spoon batter into a piping bag fitted with a large sized round nozzle and pipe batter into donut moulds, filling each 2/3 of the way up. NOTE: if you don’t have a piping bag, simply spoon the batter into the moulds, carefully. NOTE: use a large round piping nozzle to ensure no hazelnut pieces get stuck.
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Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the surface of the donuts spring back when touched. Or when a skewer inserted into a donut comes out clean.
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Cool in pan for 2 minutes.
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Carefully remove donuts by running a butter knife round each donut to help remove. Place each on a wire rack to cool completely.
Chocolate Ganache Icing
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Place chopped chocolate into a heat-proof mixing bowl and set aside.
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Pour coconut cream into a small pot and gently warm over a medium heat.
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Once small bubbles begin to form around the sides, remove from heat and pour over chocolate. Let stand for 3 minutes.
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Give mixture a good mix, the chocolate should melt through the cream and become smooth and shiny.
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Place ganache in the refrigerator to cool and thicken for 30 minutes. NOTE: ganache should not be too thick that you can’t dip your donuts and not too thin that it will run off the donuts when dipped.
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Once ganache has thickened and donuts have cooled, dipping one donut at a time, place the top side of one into the ganache to coat well, pick up and allow any excess ganache to drip back into the bowl. Place donut back onto wire rack.
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Sprinkle half the donut with chopped hazelnuts before ganache sets.
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Repeat this process with remaining donuts.
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Serve and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Store in an airtight container, refrigerated, for 1 week.
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