Baked Chocolate Peanut Butter Donuts with Vanilla Peanut Butter Glaze – Soft chocolate-peanut butter donuts are the best of all worlds because you get chocolate and peanut butter in one easy dessert. Because they’re baked rather than fried like traditional donuts, they’re healthier so of course you can feel free to have seconds!
You may have seen this recipe coming. I mean, come on.
Chocolate and peanut butter. I had to.
The vanilla glazed donuts, i.e. Krispy Kreme donuts And the cinnamon bun with cream cheese frosting donuts, i.e. Cinnabons in donut form, were lovely but.
The combination of chocolate and peanut butter will always hold a special place in my heart.
And these have been holding a special place in my heart and in my stomach the past few days.
The peanut butter keeps them extra moist. So moist and dense you may think they were fried, but they’re baked.
Does baking them mean they’re somehow better for you than fried and therefore you can go ahead and have seconds? Or thirds? Sure, I’ll go with that logic.
The scent of chocolate and peanut butter wafting through your house while these are baking is intoxicating. You’re forewarned.
But unlike chocolate cake or brownies which take much longer to bake, you’ll only be tempted for about 10 minutes while these babies bake.
And while they’re baking, you can make the vanilla peanut butter glaze.
Try not to lick the glaze-mixing spoon too many times while you wait for them to come out of the oven.
This is what they looked like fresh out of the oven and naked, BG (Before Glazing)
If for some reason you’re crazy you don’t like peanut butter, you could make a Cream Cheese Glaze or a basic Vanilla Glaze
But I happen to love peanut butter so the glaze choice was obvious for me.
If you don’t have a donut pan, you should get one. $8 bucks with a coupon and well worth it but if you don’t have one and you’re desperate to get your chocolate peanut butter fix on pronto, you can make these as muffins as suggested in the recipe.
Donuts seem more fun to eat than muffins though.
And these were very fun to eat.
I especially liked licking the vanilla-infused peanut butter glaze from my fingers. The sweet glaze balanced out the chocolate donuts which were not overly sweet. The donuts have a rich, dark chocolate flavor rather than a ‘sweet’ or milk chocolate flavor. They remind me of Flourless Chocolate Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies but in donut form.
Skylar and I were a sticky, peanut-buttery, chocolatey mess after we got done with these.
Her hair was getting in her eyes and face a bit while she was eating her donut and I had to remind her, “Honey, don’t touch your hair until after we wash our hands.”
Nothing like a little peanut butter in your hair to keep it soft and shiny and a little cocoa powder and chocolate streaked through your hair to accentuate your lowlights. The donuts were so worth a little hair mess. That’s what shampoo is for. No biggie.
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Baked Chocolate-Peanut Butter Donuts with Vanilla-Peanut Butter Glaze
Ingredients
Donuts
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tbsp creamy peanut butter, melted
- ¾ c all-purpose flour
- ⅓ c granulated sugar
- ¼ c unsweetened natural cocoa powder, I used Trader Joes but you could try Hershey’s Dark or any favorite
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- ½ c buttermilk, you could use regular milk/cream/vegan milk + 1/2 tsp vinegar, to mimic buttermilk if you don’t keep buttermilk on hand
- 1 large egg
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
Glaze
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tbsp creamy peanut butter, melted
- ⅓ c or more powdered sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract, use more if you like a stronger vanilla flavor
- 1 tbsp+ milk or cream, as needed for consistency
Instructions
- Donuts
- Pre-heat oven to 325F degrees and lightly grease or cooking-spray the donut pan (or muffin tin). I use this Wilton doughtnut pan. Pans vary by size but this is not a “huge” recipe. Double or triple the recipe as desired. For the extra bit of batter, rather than waiting for my one donut pan to come out of the oven, I made two small muffins in a muffin pan with it. It took about 15 minutes for the muffins to cook through.
- In a small bowl, soften/melt the butter and peanut butter in the microwave, about 15- 30 seconds. Stir to combine.
- In a large bowl, mix together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, buttermilk, egg, and vanilla. Stir to combine.
- Then add in the melted butter/peanut butter mixture and stir to combine.
- Use a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip (or a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off) to pipe the batter into a 6-donut pan. Or just be extra neat and do this with a spoon which is what I did.
- Bake 8 to 11 minutes in the preheated oven, until doughnuts spring back when touched or until dough is set. Donuts will should be springy. (I always underbake my baked goods but in my oven these took 10-11 minutes to set up)
- Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan, about 5 minutes. While donuts are baking or cooling, make the glaze.
- Glaze (makes slightly more glaze than you’ll likely need if you’re glazing only the top half of the donuts. Store extra in the refrigerator for a later use or add to a smoothie, coffee, eat with a spoon, glaze the entire donut)
- In a small bowl, soften/melt the butter and peanut butter in the microwave, about 15-20 seconds. Stir to combine.
- Add the powdered sugar and vanilla to the melted butter/peanut butter mixture and stir.
- Slowly add the water or milk, one teaspoon at a time, until desired consistency is achieved.
- Dip the donuts into the glaze and add sprinkles or other garnishes as desired.
- To make Gluten Free: use your favorite gluten free flour blend. To make Vegan: My suggestion is be to replace the buttermilk with almond milk or full fat coconut milk (because it’s thicker like buttermilk) and add 1 tsp vinegar as noted in the recipe to mimic buttermilk; increase the amount of baking powder and/or add baking soda. Use melted margarine or Earth Balance, and use a flax/chia egg rather than regular egg.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Thank you Averi, for this delicious recipe and for the great photos!!! We never made baked Donuts before, but have to try soon.
Cheers:)
Enjoy them if you make them and thanks for reading!
i’m not a fan of peanut butter, but i did the recipe anyway. it’s equally peanutty as it is cinnamony, but it’s subtle, if that makes sense.
i was looking to recreate a Tim Horton’s chocolate doughnut.. i’ll try sans peanut next time.
fyi, i recommend to definitely not use crunchy peanut butter, it’s weird.
Yes I always use smooth PB not crunchy when baking or cooking. A close friend of ours owns about 5 Tim Horton stores in Canada. I should ask him for the trade secret.
I just made these doughnuts for my family. I doubled the batch, and made them in a mini doughnut machine.
Oh my goodness . . . so yummy!!! My husband scooped up some vanilla ice cream with his!
Thank you so much for the wonderful baked doughnut recipes! We will be having fun using your recipes with our machine . . . often!!!
Thanks for telling me you made them AND that you made them in a donut maker rather than a regular pan that you put into the oven. Sometimes the batter for the donut makers vs. old fashioned pans are different and good to know this one worked in a donut maker…and that your hubs gobbled them up, too :)
I did try them and they were delish. Everyone at work loved them. Keep the donut recipes coming!
Yay for everyone liking them.
And donut recipes…I happen to have at least two in my stash to be published within the next week or two :)
This only makes six donuts :-O.
I need to buy myself a donut pan, pronto!
Precisely…so that you can make other varieties before you get sick of the one type…I have a few more NEW donut recipes coming…get those pans ready! :)
I put a donut pan on my Christmas list, and I am totally going to try something with bacon in it. I just can’t resist :-) Hehe.
LOL. Enjoy it!
I have these on my list of things to bake! Chocolate + Peanut butter + doughnut = YUM!
I want one from every photo!!! Amazing!
your donuts look amazing too!
OH BOY. These look incredible! Your pictures are gorgeous as well!
thanks, Kara!