This Low-Carb Chocolate Donuts recipe is my first one here on the blog. My boys and their friends go gaga for this low-carb dessert and once you try it you will too!
Thankfully, this is another super easy low-carb recipe, with only 7 ingredients total. All you need to whip these up is coconut flour, cacao powder, salt, baking soda, eggs, coconut oil, and maple syrup. To make it simply dump the ingredients into a food processor, throw the mixture in the doughnut pans, bake it, and bam! You've got gluten-free, grain-free low-carb donuts.
My husband said this nut-free Paleo dessert tasted like an Entenmann's cake style doughnut. My boys simply scarfed them down. They love my low-carb treats and are total suckers for anything with sprinkles. I tested this doughnut recipe with both coconut oil and palm shortening and found that coconut oil was far superior in this recipe. When I tested the donuts with palm shortening it was a challenge to get them out of the pan and their texture was too dry.
As with all of my recipes, I tested this one several times. Each time I test something, I make a very minor change, so that I can investigate how this single change impacts the recipe overall. For one of my test batches, I played with the amount of batter needed to make each doughnut. From that test, I can tell you a couple of things. First, do not fill up the donut wells in your donut mold all the way. Fill the wells around halfway with batter, and spread the batter evenly in each well. This batter will rise and the wells will be full when you are done baking. You'll have perfect homemade doughnuts.
I use two silicon doughnut molds
for this Low-Carb Chocolate Donut recipe which yields eight donuts. I also use these molds to make my Paleo Bagel recipe. The metal molds (which are unfortunately non-stick) do not work very well and everything I've baked in them is a total mess to remove. These donuts, however, pop right out of the silicone molds.
You can eat these adorable low-carb donuts with or without the glaze. For the boys, I add India Tree sprinkles
which make these an incredibly festive treat. If you use sprinkles (Let's Do Organic
is an even healthier brand, though not as colorful) be sure to let your glaze cool for 10 minutes or so prior to applying sprinkles, otherwise they will melt down into the glaze.
If you're looking for recipes for a very low-carb diet (VLCD) check out my Keto Diet Recipes page. If you're in need of a keto dessert, you'll want to make my Keto Brownies recipe sweetened with erythritol! Although I can't eat erythritol because it's made with corn and is a sugar alcohol that I can't digest, I created my Keto Brownies recipe for my readers and I hope you all enjoy it!
This post is an oldie but goodie from the archives. I first published this recipe in February 2015.
Comments
217 responses to “Low-Carb Chocolate Donuts”
Elana, just made these donuts and the recipe worked out great and the donuts were adorable. I realize, however, that I’m not a huge fan of coconut flour. Do you think I could substitute almond flour in this recipe?
Lori, thanks for your comment, for more on that go here:
https://elanaspantry.com/paleo-baking/
Enjoy!
Elana
These look amazing!! We will be starting a very low carb diet soon but we will only be allowed to use stevia as a sweetener. Have you tried these with stevia before/so you think it would work?? Thanks!
Gabrielle, thanks for your comment. I don’t think that would work but if you experiment I hope you’ll let me know :-)
These were amazing!! I was skeptical at first but the these were better than regular !
Jaclyn, I’m so happy to hear these are better than the real thing!
Delicious! Thanks!
Thanks Christin!
Hi! I’m hoping to make these this week and am wondering if it’s possible to use a mixer instead of a food processor? Will they be okay stored for about 48 hours before they’re eaten?
(I have to make them on Wednesday night and bring them to my synagogue on Erev Shabbat.) Thank you!
Hye mee, thanks for your comment! I haven’t tried that so not sure, but I would guess it would work. If you are going to keep these for 48 hours you will need to let them cool for a few hours, then wrap them up very well and refrigerate so that they keep –coconut flour items get very stale very quickly if not stored this way. I hope these make for the perfect Oneg Shabbat :-)
Thank you! The mixer worked alright, though I think I’ll use a food processor next time, to compare. (I feel as though I made a mistake somewhere… but people ate all of the donuts, so maybe not!) Happy (belated) Purim!
Thanks Hye!
First off, these are DELICIOUS! Thank you, Elana, for such an easy and tasty recipe :)
Second, I’m not sure if anyone else has tried using a nonstick metal donut pan, but I want to share my success with it in case anyone else doesn’t have a silicon pan but is dying to try this recipe – like me! I just had to give it a shot, even though it says the metal pans don’t work well. I used a trick I learned years ago for making flourless chocolate cake — I lightly oiled each donut well with melted coconut oil, then lightly dusted each well with cacao powder to coat the entire well for each donut. Worked like a charm – they rose just right, to the consistency of a fluffy cake donut, and slid right out of the pan when done baking.
PJ, you are inspiring me to make donuts today! Thanks for letting me know these are DELICIOUS :-)
Do you have a plain cake donut instead of the chocolate?
Sally, I don’t but will add to my list of requests :-)
It’s look easy, delicious. I will definitely try this for my family. Thanks for sharing your post.
Thanks Edward!
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