Pillowy-soft, ultrachocolatey, and incredibly moist!Count on these glazed gluten free and keto chocolate donuts to become a favorite treat (at just 2g net carbs a piece!).
Gluten Free & Keto Chocolate Donuts
Glazed &Suuuuper Soft!
These guys are the chocolate version of our pillowy-soft keto donuts. They’re definitely just as good, and if anything a little easier(courtesy of the added cocoa).
Turns out the secret lies in making an easy keto choux pastry, which I first used for our keto churros. And with a couple small modifications, you’ve got some truly amazing baked donuts at your disposal!
You can also pretty much do your topping of choice. I love a good classic glaze, but brushing them with melted butter and sprinkling with cinnamon ‘sugar’ issooo delicious too.
The Method
The batter for these keto donuts is essentiallya choux pastry (used to make anything from eclairs to gougeres). But this is just a fancy way of saying that you first boil together water with sugar, butter (or coconut oil) and salt. Adding in the flour and cooking it until it forms into a ball. And step three, mixing in the eggs off the stove. We also add a bit of baking powder at the end for extra rise.
Now when you mix in the eggs the dough will be very stiff,and given that we’re also adding in baking powder, the job is best done with a hand-mixer here. The final dough should be very elastic (courtesy of the eggs and xanthan gum).
For the shaping you’ll need a pastry bag (disposable ones are terrific) or simply use a thick plastic bag. You don’t need a tip here, just to pipe it out onto a donut pan as smoothly as you can (so they rise evenly).
The Chocolate
You’ll want to use aDutch-processed alkaline cocoa here. As there’s baking powder involved, using cacao won’t give the same results (at all!).
In terms of brands, my favorite will forever beValrhona,known to be one of (if not the) best cocoas in the world.
The Flours
I like a mixture of super fine almond flour and coconut flour best. Add a touch ofpsyllium huskand xanthan gum, and we’re golden.
And don’t skip thepsyllium husk. It helps retain moisture, create structure (i.e. it’s highly responsible for the killer crumb). And it just so happens to be a killer source of fiber.
Borrowed from molecular cooking, xanthan gum is the binding agent which makes your toothpaste jelly-like (and your cream cheese, well cream cheese-like). And it’s also the most common gluten-replacer in gluten free baking. And there’s absolutely no skipping it here!
In all honesty, no substituting anything here. You really do need the full combo of grain free flours to get the choux just right.
In terms of brands, for the almond either Anthony’sor WellBees work great. Both are super fine grinds. And for the coconut, we always favor Anthony’s.
The Sweetener
This choux pastry to make the donuts is very lightly sweetened (and fairly bland solo), think just a couple tablespoons. But this is really to accommodate for the glaze or topping of choice. So to sweeten the keto choux pastry itself you can useerythritol (Lakanto orSwerve), xylitol or allulose.
And if just grain free, coconut sugaris your best bet here. And of course, raw sugar works great too.
If you’re opting forthe glaze, which comes highly recommended, your best options for no aftertaste arealluloseorxylitol. But theymust be powdered.
So get your blender out, make sure it’s completely dry, and process your sweetener of choiceuntil powdered. Just make sure you wait a few moments for the dust to settle before opening the blender or food processor.
Or you can always grab a bag of powdered erythritol (Lakanto or Swerve).
And if using xylitol, make sure to be careful if you have a pup around the house, as it’s highly toxic to the little guys!🐕
Glazed!) Gluten Free & Keto Chocolate Donuts
Pillowy-soft, ultrachocolatey and incredibly moist!Count on these glazed gluten free and keto chocolate donuts to become a favorite treat (at just 2g net carbs a piece!).
5 from 15 votes
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Prep Time 15 minutes mins
Cook Time 25 minutes mins
Total Time 40 minutes mins
Course Dessert
Cuisine American, Keto
Servings 9 donuts
Calories 166 kcal
Ingredients
For the keto donuts
- 64 g almond flour
- 28 g coconut flour
- 1 tablespoon psyllium husk ground
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 240 ml water
- 57 g grass-fed unsalted butter or coconut oil
- 3 tablespoons erythritol or xylitol*
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 eggs lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 30 g cocoa powder
For the glaze
- 50 g xylitol powdered
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 42 g grass-fed unsalted butter melted (or 2 TBSP coconut oil/ghee)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2-3 tablespoons heavy, sour or coconut cream at room temperature
- 1-3 teaspoons hot water optional, as needed
Special equipment
- pastry bag or plastic bag
- donut pan **
Instructions
See recipe video below for guidance! You'll be adding in the cocoa powder along with the baking powder.
Preheat oven to 390°F/200°C. Grease and dust with cocoa powder a donut pan.
Whisk together in a medium bowl almond flour, coconut flour, psyllium husk and xanthan gum. Set aside.
Heat up water, butter, sweetener and salt in medium pot (or Dutch oven) until it just begins to simmer. Lower heat to low and add in flour mixture, mixing constantly to incorporate. Continue to cook and stir until the dough pulls away from the pan and forms into a ball, 1-3 minutes.
Transfer dough back to the bowl and allow to cool for 5 minutes. The dough should still be warm, but not hot enough to scramble the eggs.
Add in one egg at a time, mixing with an electric mixer until fully incorporated. Mix in vanilla extract, baking powder and cocoa. The final dough should be very elastic.
Spoon dough into a piping bag or plastic bag (no tip needed). Cut out bottom of piping bag 2 cm (3/4 inch) wide. Pipe out dough onto donut pan. Wet your finger tip and smooth out where the ends meet (for a more even rise). Bake for 20-25 minutes, checking in on them at minute 15 for over-browning and covering with a foil dome if need be (we didn't find it necessary!). Allow to rest in the pan for 10 minutes before removing and cooling on a rack before glazing. However, if you're doing a coating rather than a glaze, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon 'sugar' right out of the oven.
For the glaze, sift powdered sweetener onto a bowl and whisk in the salt. Mix in the melted butter, vanilla extract and cream of choice (I love sour cream!) a tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. You can thin it out even further with a little hot water and dunk the entire donuts in it. Use your fingertip here to test for thickness! Oh, and if you're glaze splits (usually the result of a cold cream), use an immersion blender to get it silky-smooth. Glaze donuts by dunking them onto the glaze (if your tops came out a bit wonky, you can always use the rounder bottoms as your new 'tops'!).
These are best enjoyed still warm and freshly glazed, but they keep quite well for a day or two stored in an airtight container in the fridge if they're glazed, or at room temp without it.
Video
Notes
*Please see section on Sweeteners for more deets and possible substitution.
**Donut pans do result in prettier (i.e. rounder) donuts. But if none is at hand, simply pipe out circles onto parchment paper.
Please note that nutrition facts were estimated for the donuts with the glaze, and we found a batch to yield 9.
Oh, and apologies for the awkward yield number, but every time we tried to yield 6 it simply didn't work the same.
Nutrition
Calories: 166kcal | Carbohydrates: 5.5g | Protein: 4.5g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 78mg | Sodium: 33mg | Potassium: 71mg | Fiber: 3.5g | Sugar: 0.5g | Vitamin A: 350IU | Calcium: 33mg | Iron: 0.8mg
Keyword gluten free chocolate donuts, keto chocolate donuts
Whip up this recipe?Comment below or drop me a line @gnomgnom._ and tag #gnomgnomyum!
