Jan 28

Jan 28 Chocolate Latte Baked Doughnuts

Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you bite into a brownie or chocolate cake and though they look dark and gooey, they don’t really taste all that chocolatey? That’s not an issue here. These baked doughnuts are rich, chocolatey, and sweet enough to feel indulgent without being sugary. The amped up chocolatey-ness comes from the espresso powder and hot coffee mixed into the batter. A bit of half & half and plain Greek yogurt take a bit of the edge off and give the doughnuts their latte name. I hope you like them as much as I do, and yes, go ahead and dunk them in your coffee. I mean, while we’re busy over caffeinating, why not?

How do I get that doughnut shape?
You need a standard doughnut pan for this recipe. This is the one I have. I think the wells in it must be slightly larger than the standard, because I always end up with slightly fewer doughnuts than I’m expecting. But of course then I have bigger doughnuts so it’s not that bad a situation! This is a highly rated option from Amazon.

What about decorating them?
These are pretty decadent and don’t really need a glaze, but if you do want to top if off, I’d recommend the Chocolate Espresso Glaze (recipe at the bottom of this post). Or maybe a simple ganache topping. Just know that baked cake doughnuts are more fragile than yeasted fried doughnuts so be gentle if you’re dipping these doughnuts into a glaze. It’s just a little cake after all.

Chocolate Latte Baked Doughnuts Recipe:

Time:
15 minutes prep, 10-12 minutes bake

Yield:
Around 8 doughnuts depending on size of pan

Difficulty:
Easy

Special equipment:
Standard doughnut pan

Ingredients

32 grams Dutch Process Cocoa powder
16 grams Black Cocoa
16 grams Natural Cocoa powder, unsweetened
200 grams All-purpose flour
2/3 cup (150 grams) Granulated sugar
¼ cup (50 grams) Light brown sugar, packed
2 tsp Baking powder
¼ tsp Baking soda
1 ½ tsp (4 grams) Espresso powder
½ tsp (4 grams) Salt
2 Eggs, room temperature
¼ cup Greek yogurt, 2% or whole fat. Not nonfat. Room temperature.
1 ¼ tsp Vanilla extract
⅓ cup Canola oil
¼ cup Half & half (or whole milk)
½ cup Brewed coffee (I like it strong), hot but not boiling.
2 TBSP Unsalted butter for greasing the pans
Chocolate Espresso Glaze - recipe follows

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Sift your cocoas to break up any large lumps.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoas, flour, both sugars, baking powder, espresso powder, and salt.
- Tip: If you don’t have all three cocoas you can use all Dutch Process, just make sure the total quantity of cocoa is 64 grams.
In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, yogurt, vanilla, and oil.
- Tip: The yogurt may separate at first, but keep whisking and it will come back together.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring until just combined. Make sure there are no dry spots of flour but don’t overmix. The batter will be pretty thick at this point.
Combine the half & half and hot coffee then pour into the batter, stirring just to combine.
Pour the batter into a glass measuring cup with a spout and let it sit while you prepare the pans.
- Tip: A lot of baked doughnut recipes say to put the batter in a piping bag and pipe the batter into doughnut pan. I find it much more straightforward it pour it in with the measuring cup, plus it saves some plastic, but feel free to do what works best for you.

This is how filled my doughnut pans look before baking. You could fill them with slightly less batter and you’ll end up with smaller doughnuts but more of them.

Generously grease the wells your doughnut pans with cold butter. Not cooking spray. If you don't have two pans you can bake in batches.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans filling each well until they are almost full but not completely. You should still see around 1/4 inch of the well.
Tap gently to release any remaining air bubbles. Smooth batter as much as possible.
Bake for 12-14 minutes rotating pans halfway through. When ready, the the doughnuts will spring back when lightly touched. If your finger leaves an indent give it another minute. If you can see liquid batter on top of the doughnuts give it another 2 min before testing again, but be careful not to overbake. Chocolate cakes and doughnuts are better slightly underdone than overdone.
Remove the doughnut pan from the oven and place it on a cooling rack. Let cool for 6 or 7 minutes in the pan before turning out onto a cooling rack. You may need to give the pan a gentle tap for the doughnuts to pop out.
Cool completely on rack before glazing.

Unglazed doughnuts. Still yummy and chocolatey!

Chocolate Espresso Glaze:

Yield
Enough for the top half of 6-8 doughnuts. Double if you want to completely cover your doughnuts.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

64 grams semisweet chocolate baking wafers or chopped chocolate from a bar or block. Don’t use chocolate chips, they won’t give you a smooth consistency.
16 grams light corn syrup. (This gives your glaze some shine.)
1/4 tsp espresso powder (optional)
45 grams heavy cream

Instructions

Line a pan with parchment, place a cooling rack on top of the parchment.
Gently combine all ingredients in a heavy pot over low heat. Stir until completely melted. If it seems too thick, at more heavy cream, 1 tsp at a time until desired consistency. The more cream you add the softer the final glaze will be.
Let cool just enough so you can touch it comfortably. It should still be warm.
To cover just the tops: Carefully and gently tip the doughnut upside down and gently roll the top around in the glaze. Tilt it to the side to let excess run off. Place doughnut on prepared rack. Let excess run off or smooth it off with an offset spatula.
To cover the whole doughnut: Place doughnut in the bowl with glaze right side up. Spoon glaze over doughnut. Using 2 forks on either side of the doughnut, lift out of the bowl from underneath (like you would use a spatula), let excess drip off and place on rack on prepared pan.