Chocolate Old Fashioned Doughnuts (2024)

Tessa’s Recipe Rundown

Taste: Everything is better with chocolate.Texture: Cakey yet slightly fluffy but much more dense than any yeast raised doughnut. Those craggy edges just soak up that luscious thick glaze.Ease: Easier than yeast doughnuts, these can be in your mouth in under 2 hours start to finish.Appearance: I mean, aren’t these just calling your name? Loudly?!Pros: Nothing like a homemade doughnut, especially an old-fashioned sour cream doughnut. There’s just something about that texture!Cons: Sorry about your diet.Would I make this again? Mmmhmm.

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Yesterday morning was slightly disastrous. I woke up after a restless night’s sleep to find that Alfie, our new rescue dog, had peed on my beautiful Crate & Barrel striped curtain panel. The second time this past weekend. He’s completely housebroken except when his routine is thrown off he likes to do weird things like pee on curtains. I spent hours this weekend hand washing curtains that are about 3 feet taller than I am. Not fun. After washing the curtain I got on the computer to get some work done because this is the crazy busy season in the food blog world which means working on Sundays can be necessary. Of course when I get onto the computer I discover my website is down and I end up spending an hour and a half on the phone trying to get it resolved. Which basically means listening to what’s complete Greek to me as the web host rep attempts to explain what’s wrong. Not fun at all!

Luckily the disaster is over (hopefully), though I couldn’t use the backend of my site normally yesterday which meant very little work could get done. So what did I do? Well I went shopping of course. And it totally turned around my bad day. Nothing like a little retail therapy! The entire time I was trapped on the phone I was dreaming about these Chocolate Old FashionedDoughnuts. They were long gone at that point and I wished that I could just go back in time to take one last bite. That’s how dang good they are! They’re basically the chocolate version of my Old Fashioned Sour Cream Doughnuts which have unsurprisingly been one of the most popular recipes recently. Doughnuts for the win!

If you make these Chocolate Old Fashioned Doughnuts, be sure to take a picture and tag it #handletheheat on Instagram. I love seeing your photos!

How to Make

Chocolate Old Fashioned Doughnuts

By: Tessa Arias

3.56 from 9 votes

Yield: 14 Doughnuts

Prep Time: 15 minutes mins

Cook Time: 24 minutes mins

Total Time: 39 minutes mins

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These doughnuts are crazy good! Cakey fried Chocolate Old Fashioned Doughnuts with sour cream, a thick luscious glaze, and no yeast! Easier than you think!

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:

Instructions

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.

Show us!If you make this recipe, be sure to snap a picture and share it on Instagram with #handletheheat so we can all see!