Ingredients
For the doughnuts:
- 2 cups (226 grams) cake flour
- 1/2 cup (40 grams) cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine salt
- 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 cup sour cream
- Canola oil, for frying
For the glaze:
- 3 1/2 cups (350 grams) powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 1/2 teaspoons corn syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup hot water
- Make the donuts:
Directions
Make the donuts:
-
In a bowl, sift together the cake flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.
-
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together until sandy. Add the egg yolks and mix until light and thick. Add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl in 3 additions, alternating with the sour cream, ending with the flour. The dough will be sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour, or until slightly firmed.
-
On a well floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thickness. Use a doughnut cutter or two differently sized biscuit cutters to cut out as many doughnuts as possible, dipping the cutters into flour as necessary to prevent sticking. You should get about 14 doughnuts and holes. Don't worry if they stick a little to the cutter, they'll puff up while frying and imperfections won't matter.
-
Pour 2 inches of canola oil into a heavy bottomed pot with a deep-fry thermometer attached. Heat to 325°F. Fry the doughnuts a few at a time, being careful not to overcrowd the pot. Fry on each side about 2 minutes, being careful not to let them burn. Let drain on a paper bag to soak up the excess grease.
Make the glaze:
-
Mix all ingredients in a bowl with a whisk until smooth. Immerse each doughnut into the glaze. Place on a wire rack above a sheet pan to catch any excess glaze. Let sit for 20 minutes until glaze is set.
-
Doughnuts are best served the day they are made but may be stored in an air tight container at room temperature for a few days.
Can you bake these or do in the air fryer? I love a good chocolate cake donut!
Hi there! We haven’t tried that, as these doughnuts were designed to be fried in oil. Feel free to experiment and let us know how it goes!
Hey there, can you use the Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Coca powder to give these donuts a more robust Chocolatey taste? Do you think it would mess with the batter consistency?
Hi Juan! We haven’t tried that, but it should work just fine! Let us know how it goes if you give this a try! 🙂
Excellent way to make them!
Happy you enjoyed these doughnuts, Travis!!
Can these be frozen? At what point should I freeze them, if possible? Before or after frying?
Hi Cathi! While we haven’t tried freezing these doughnuts, I don’t see why you couldn’t! Once you have fried them, cool completely and arrange the doughnuts in a single layer on a baking tray. Freeze the tray for a few hours, or until solid. Transfer the frozen doughnuts to a freezer bag or airtight container and return them to the freezer. To defrost, leave them on the kitchen counter for a few hours. I would recommend refreshing them in a very hot oven for a few minutes, just to crisp the outside back up, without drying out the middle, and then glaze the doughnuts before serving. I hope that helps! 🙂
Can I make the dough a day ahead and refrigerate it overnight?
Hi Jess! You can, just make sure to keep them really well covered as this dough tends to dry out quickly.
What brand of cake flour do you recommend?
Hi Kathy, I prefer Swans Down Bleached Cake Flour 🙂
This recipe looks great. However, I would like to bake them. How would I adjust? It would need to be more of a batter than a dough.
My husband and I thought we would spend some time together making these donuts today. Although I’m not in the kitchen much anymore as I have Multiple Sclerosis, my husband is an excellent cook and baker. We raised all 7 of our children with him cooking and a dessert from scratch every week.
We followed your directions, step by step. After taking the dough out of the fridge, it was still so sticky it was difficult to work with. The canola oil was tempted properly and we put in the first three donuts. Using my cell phone to make sure that the timing was correct, I checked them at 1.5 minutes and they were already burned. I couldn’t use the rest of the dough because it was just falling apart.
So our day of spending time together ended in the trash can.
I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO GET THE GLAZES
Made this last night. Turned out meh. Flavor isn’t bad but the dough barely puffed up on most of them so they were flat and crispy. Dough was also really sticky and hard to work with, had to add a ton of extra flour just to make it workable. Waste of time and ingredients for me, will not make again
I wish I would have read the comments before I wasted ingredients on this hot mess. I too wondered why there were so many differences in measurements in this versus the non-chocolate version. I’ll never know if the other is better, because after this sticky, squishy, spicy “chocolate” donut, I’m headed elsewhere for recipes! (And no, my dough was not too warm and I know how to fry dough)
Donuts are great! We used just a tad less sour cream.
BUT because I only looked at the times for prep & cooking given at the top of the recipe I didn’t start as early as I should’ve. My bad, however, chilling time & glaze set time should be included in the prep time portion of the recipe.
This is the best whole made donut recipe I’ve done so far
While the donuts turned out pretty well, I agree with other readers that they weren’t quite chocolatey enough. I’m wondering if adding more cocoa powder in place of a little flour might help. I’m also wondering if adding more sugar would help. I noticed that although this recipe uses twice as much sour cream as the regular old fashioned donut, the sugar content is exactly the same.
I think I figured it out. You are supposed to use Dutch process cocoa.
I also noticed measurements were slightly different with the chocolate vs the original…for the non-chocolate lovers of the family, could you make one of the recipes and just leave the cocoa out or add it to 1/2 of the dough depending on which recipe you use? If so, which recipe would you recommend using?
Is it crucial to add corn syrup to the glaze? Why is it needed? What does it do for the glaze? I never use corn syrup and I don’t want to buy it for such a small amount if it isn’t necessary. Thank you.
I have read that adding gelatin or powdered agar to the glazes can keep it better set/stabilized- any tips or experience with that?
No, I don’t. Fried doughnuts always taste best the day they’re fried no matter what you put in the glaze so I don’t really see the point in going to that extra effort here!
just made them they are soo good i also toasted coconut in the oven and sprinkle on 1/2 of them yum yum ..
why does the cook time say 1 hour 40 minutes and in directions it says Fry on each side about 2 minutes, so which is it and why
Because of prep time and you don’t fry them all at once
Will this recipe work baked in the oven in a donut pan?
Love the fact that no doughnut pan is required
Yum!! These look incredible! I’ll take 10! LOL!
I’m wondering why this recipe calls for 1 cup of sour cream but the plain recipe only calls for 1/2 cup. Is that perhaps why some people are reporting the dough being too sticky and dissolving in the oil? Thank you.
I tried making these yesterday and they didn’t come out well at all 🙁 they weren’t firm enough after being in the fridge overnight even. I noticed there’s 3 tablespoons of butter in this recipe vs the original recipe theres only 2 would that make a difference? I’d love to make these for my family. Thank you.
I will definitely make a couple of changes to amounts of sour cream and probably increase the sugar amount as the cocoa is unsweetened. I have made donuts a few times and helped my Mom do it as a kid. Never have had to keep dough in freezer or frig. I am hoping making these changes will not result in the problems that most are having with this recipe. Will update after I try it my way.
Can you take out the sour cream or substitute it with something because I don’t really want them to taste like sour cream.
Thanks
They don’t taste like sour cream
Do you have a baked version?
Didn’t work out well for me, sadly. I echo other commenter’s sentiments about the flavor (not chocolatey enough, too much nutmeg) and they fell apart, despite liberal freezer usage.
for everyone commenting on this page, and https://handletheheat.com/old-fashioned-sour-cream-doughnuts/ regarding gluten free versions – I tried one – I made the AP gluten free into cake flour with the link here and did everything to the letter – they had trouble rising a little bit – so they just looked like flat donut shaped treats – but they tasted pretty good – next time I’m going to try to leave the whites in the eggs – and maybe find a gluten-free cake flour
These are probably the best chocolate cake doughnuts I’ve ever had homemade. I’ve tried so many doughnut recipes–fried and baked–and I’m always disappointed that I still can’t seem to make doughnuts just as good if not better than a bakery… which I’m able to do with most baked goods. This recipe is probably the best. They were moist and sweet. The only thing I didn’t care for was the nutmeg. I agree with one previous person who commented that I wanted to taste more chocolate and not spice. Next time, I would leave out the nutmeg completely. I had no problems working with this dough. About half-way through the chill time, I had read that some people put theirs in the freezer, so mine sat in the freezer for about 30-40 minutes. To roll them out, I sprayed my pastry board with non-stick spray, then I coated it fairly generously with flour. Then, I put down my ball of dough, and covered that generously with flour. I noticed one person said that their doughnuts started dissolving into the hot oil. I noticed that happening with one of mine after the doughnuts had all been cut and were waiting to be fried. I would suggest keeping the cut doughnuts in the fridge while they’re waiting for their turn, so the dough doesn’t get too warm. I think these are a keeper!
Overall very tasty. I agree with previous comments about putting in the freezer to make the dough more firm and also with the large amounts of flour for rolling. Do not try to knead by hand or it will warm the dough and it will become unworkable.
My recommendations:
– use less nutmeg (1/4 teaspoon) and more cocoa (3/4 cup). The donuts were a bit too “spicy” and not chocalatey enough for me.
These look amazing! Anyone tried them with a donut pan? I really want to try baking my favorite donut.
I was comparing this recipe to your standard Old Fashioned Donut recipe and noticed that they are nearly identical, except for the amounts of butter and sour cream. The butter is close, but the sour cream in the chocolate recipe is twice as much as in the standard! Is that intentional? All the comments about super sticky dough made me wonder if it could be a typo…I’m hungry for chocolate donuts, but don’t want to get myself into a mess… 😀 Your pictures remind me of my childhood favorite, chocolate honey glazed donuts from Dunkin Donuts, but better, of course, being homemade. Mmmm.
Question–can you make the doughnuts (including the cutting step) and then shove them in the fridge and fry them the next morning? Asking for a friend… *ahem*
You can, just make sure to keep them really well covered as this dough tends to dry out quickly.
put in freezer for 1 hour or so until a bit firm. Will still be VERY sticky but put lots of flour on table, dump dough on flour, put more flour on top – I use a sifter to distribute this flour, flatten the mass a bit and place more flour, turn over onto well floured cutting board put more flour – roll out and cut with floured cutter – pick out holes with fork and lift donuts up with thin, metal floured spatula – fry. To make this easier to handle, I rigged a pizza screen with wire handles – I place soft donuts on the screen and when the screen is full I lift into hot oil. donuts can be lifted out as well. everything enter and leaves at same time. Good luck. I make hundreds at a time with this sticky dough.
Help! Something went wrong! 🙁 I followed the recipe just like it is, but when I put the donut in the oil it “dissolved” into the oil, I don’ really know why that happend…. Then I just tried to save it by putting the other donuts in the oven but they turned into cookies… I must say the taste is good..but I failed at consistency.
Any recommendations?? Thank you!
Only have hand mixer, can that work?
Potatoes
Wow these look seriously amazing! I love chocolate cake donuts, especially when sour cream is involved and especially when they’re fried 😉 Hope you managed to get your curtains cleaned and glad you got some retail therapy after that nightmare of a morning!
I’m so sorry your day started off so badly, mornings like that are the worst! Yay for reatail therapy!!! These donuts look wonderful!
So excited to make these, but am finding this dough completely unworkable. It’s so sticky, I can’t do anything with it! I’m trying to get it off my well floured counter as I speak. Maybe I’ll just do donut balls… I don’t think I’ll be able to keep salvage an actual donut shape. I’m sure they’ll be tasty either way.
Hi Megan! If the dough is too sticky pop it back in the fridge until it firms up more and it’ll be much easier to work with 🙂 Also, don’t be skimpy with the flour when rolling these out!