Healthy Mini Chocolate Donuts & Muffins

Welcome to the magical Pink Recipe Box bakery where you can eat as many chocolate donuts as you like without putting on a single pound. Okay, that might be a bit exaggerated – I work in marketing so what do you expect? – but it’s not far from the truth. These chocolate donuts really are healthy. You won’t find any oil or butter in the recipe and you won’t have to step anywhere near a deep-fat fryer.

They are a combination of oats, egg, cocoa, apple sauce and yogurt essentially, with a few other ingredients thrown in for good measure. I was skeptical at first when making the batter – it was really thin and the ingredients just didn’t sound appealing together. Then I tried a spoonful of the batter – a very important quality control measure all bakers will know about wink wink – all ready to pull my what-on-earth-have-I-done?! face, only to be pleasantly surprised. The batter tasted great and if the raw batter tastes great, you just know the final creation will be fantastic.

Because there is hardly any fat in these donuts, feel free to add a few handfuls of chocolate chips – I promise I won’t tell. My donuts are covered in a chocolate glaze – 1 part melted butter to 2 parts melted milk chocolate – which isn’t healthy, but as soon as I find a way to make a butter and chocolate combo that’s good for you, I’ll let you know.

I bought this mini donut pan from Amazon a while ago. It’s fantastic – the donuts pop out really easily and don’t stick at all. If you don’t have a mini donut pan, you can always pour the batter into muffin cases and make Healthy Chocolate Muffins that you can eat for breakfast. Don’t forget the chocolate chips!

Healthy Mini Chocolate Donuts or Muffins

Inspired by Triple Chocolate Chunk Muffins from Healthy is Always Better

Makes around 36 mini donuts or 12 muffins

Ingredients

½ cup + 2 tablespoons oats

1 egg

1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup hot water

2 tablespoons apple sauce

2 tablespoons Greek yoghurt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

Pinch salt

Optional chocolate chips

Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F/170°C and grease a mini donut pan or line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake papers.

2. In a blender or food processor, blend together all of the ingredients until the mixture is smooth.

3. Fold in chocolate chips is using and half fill your donut mold or fill your cupcake liners 2/3 full. If you want chocolate chips to sit on top of your muffins like mine, sprinkle a few on top of the muffins before baking.

4. Bake donuts for around 12-15 minutes or until they spring back when touched. Bake muffins for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out almost clean. 

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