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!
Low-Carb Chocolate Donuts Recipe with Coconut Flour
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.
Nut-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.
Low-Carb Chocolate Donuts
Ingredients
Donuts
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- ¼ cup cacao powder
- ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 4 large eggs
- ½ cup coconut oil, melted
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
Topping
- ½ cup chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon palm shortening
Instructions
- In a food processor, pulse together coconut flour, cacao powder, salt, and baking soda
- Pulse in eggs, coconut oil, and maple syrup until thoroughly combined
- Fill each well of a donut mold half way full of batter
- Bake at 350°F for 15-18 minutes
- Remove doughnuts from pan and place on a cooling rack
- Use a paring knife to cut hole in center of each doughnut
- In a saucepan, melt chocolate chips and shortening
- Drizzle doughnut with chocolate glaze
- Cool and serve
Equipment
Creating and Testing a Low-Carb Nut-Free Donut Recipe
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.
How to Make Low-Carb Donuts
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.
Low-Carb Donuts for Kids with Sprinkles
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.
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Keto Dessert Recipe with Erythritol
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.
Kelli says
Do you think flaxseed or chia egg substitutes might work in this recipe? I have a friend who can’t eat eggs but thought I’d try these for her.
Elana says
Kelli, I haven’t tried that in this recipe, but generally egg subs don’t work in my baked goods recipes :-)
Veronica says
Hi Elana, So excited to try this! Can I substitute anything for the palm shortening? Coconut oil, maybe? Or butter? Thanks for the fun recipe!
Elana says
Veronica, I haven’t tried that so not sure :-)
Lori says
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?
Elana says
Lori, thanks for your comment, for more on that go here:
https://elanaspantry.com/paleo-baking/
Enjoy!
Elana
Gabrielle says
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!
Elana says
Gabrielle, thanks for your comment. I don’t think that would work but if you experiment I hope you’ll let me know :-)
Jaclyn says
These were amazing!! I was skeptical at first but the these were better than regular !
Elana says
Jaclyn, I’m so happy to hear these are better than the real thing!
Christin says
Delicious! Thanks!
Elana says
Thanks Christin!
Hye mee says
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!
Elana says
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 :-)
Hye mee says
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!
Elana says
Thanks Hye!
PJ says
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.
Elana says
PJ, you are inspiring me to make donuts today! Thanks for letting me know these are DELICIOUS :-)
Sally says
Do you have a plain cake donut instead of the chocolate?
Elana says
Sally, I don’t but will add to my list of requests :-)
Edward Parker says
It’s look easy, delicious. I will definitely try this for my family. Thanks for sharing your post.
Elana says
Thanks Edward!