I’ll never forget one of my sixth grade teachers. He taught me to be observant, to study the news, to learn what was going on around the world and notice what was in front of me. I think of him often when I pause and note simple things that bring me joy or are worthy of pause. Today, that thing is chocolate sprinkled donuts.

What if we paused and were thankful for these simple little things? In a world bombarded with so much information and noise, wouldn’t we love to take a mental coffee break and wonder at the chocolate sprinkle donut?

Memories

While I love cake donuts, a chocolate donut reminds me of Sundays, going to church, and chocolate donuts after. The boys each get a glazed donut and we sit in the cafe with a bunch of other church family. My kids like to eat the icing off first and then consume the rest of the donut leaving very messy faces and hands to wipe up.

Afterwards they run outside to play along the hillside. I wonder, is this a tradition only in the United States? I look forward to the familiar faces I see, the occasional bulletproof coffee I treat myself to, and the reality that Sundays, most of the time, bring a slower schedule.

Well, can you imagine the excitement when I told the boys we were making these at home?! I’d go so far as to say I prefer these over chocolate birthday cake and as I’m writing this I’m wondering if we should make them again today. They’re such a fun treat and really you only need a doughnut pan and a solid sweet tooth to have the tools and determination to make homemade donuts too!

My boys have gone through seasons of how helpful they are in the kitchen and the day we made these was no different. We love making recipes our own so creating this fluffy donut was a good task! Making the chocolate icing was of course a highlight. Dipping the donuts in the chocolate glaze then adding the sprinkles is so therapeutic to me.

Add in a big drinking glass of milk and you’re all set. These would be quite the breakfast on any business day, but for a birthday or holiday, what a treat!

Notes on the Ingredients

We used what we had and for many baking recipes I really love the whole wheat pastry flour. All purpose would work fine in a pinch!

You could try buttermilk in the actual donut recipe, but I wouldn’t use buttermilk in the glaze. Cacao is what I used here, but regular cocoa powder would work as well.

If you don’t love cinnamon, you could leave it out.

I love adding cinnamon with chocolate recipes. It adds a bit of dimension to me. I also really love adding coffee to anything chocolate but I didn’t do that here as to keep my kids from bouncing off the wall!

We needed to make quite a few donuts and this recipe yielded us about 16 donuts! Next time I’ll get another donut pan so the baking process goes a bit more quickly!

Chocolate Glazed Donuts with Cinnamon

These chocolate donuts are such a treat for a birthday or to make any afternoon or morning extra special!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 16

Ingredients

Donut Batter Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup cacao powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup milk
1 3/4 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 eggs
8 tbsp unsalted butter melted
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla

Chocolate Glaze

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons cacao powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons milk

Topping

Sprinkles!

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 325 and spray your donut tins with cooking spray!
First off, melt your butter so that it can begin to cool. Next mix together the milk and cream of tartar.
Mix together the dry ingredients, flour, cacao powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and brown sugar.
In a separate bowl mix together the milk and cream of tartar, butter, and vanilla.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients then pour the batter into the donut pans and bake for 11-13 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Don’t overfill the pans as you could result in full pans and no donut hole!
Allow to rest for 5 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool. While cooling make the glaze by mixing the powdered sugar, cacao powder, cinnamon, vanilla, then 4 tablespoons of milk.
Dip the cooled donuts then sprinkle them, allow to cool so the glaze hardens some, and enjoy!