Homemade Chocolate Doughnuts

Valentine's Day this year in our household was pretty low-key - we'd decided to upgrade our cell phones for Valentine's Day, so I already knew what my gift for the day was, but I wanted to do something special. Naturally, I turned to my apron and trusty oven, and made some homemade baked doughnuts. My absolute favorite doughnut is a chocolate cake donuts drizzled with yummy glaze. I love Dunkin Donuts for doughnuts. They're certainly not as good as they used to be, but they're still pretty darn good.

These doughnuts were pretty good, although given that they're baked rather than fried, they're not quite as awesome as a good old fashioned fried doughnut. But you can comfort yourself that they are (mildly) more healthful this way. Not to mention less messy in the kitchen. I always make the biggest mess when I fry things. These are definitely a solid doughnut for a special breakfast, and perfect for a nice chocolate treat. These are best when they're warm, though they will keep for about a day. You must use a doughnut pan, but you can find these pretty cheaply on Amazon

Baked Chocolate Doughnuts

Printer-friendly recipe

1 1/2 cups flour

1/3 cup baking cocoa

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs

2/3 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 tbsp melted butter

Glaze

1 cup confectioner's sugar

2 tbsp - 6 tbsp HOT water (depending on if you want icing or a glaze)

1. Preheat oven to 325.

2. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, mix eggs, sugar and vanilla until thick.

3. Combine milk and butter in another bowl.

4. Alternately, combine egg mixture and milk mixture with flour mixture and mix until smooth and soft.

5. Spray doughnut pan lightly with cooking oil. Fill with batter 2/3 full.

6. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool (mostly). Carefully remove doughnuts from pan. Repeat with rest of batter.

7. Frost or glaze.