When it comes to donuts, chocolate is always a great choice. Chocolate Chip Donuts are prepared with a vanilla batter, loaded with chocolate chips, topped with a chocolate glaze, and chocolate sprinkles. Why? Because nobody can ever have too much chocolate!

CHOCOLATE CHIP DONUTS

If there are two things in life that one should never live without, it has to be donuts and sprinkles. This is precisely why I have paired them both together in these Chocolate Chip Donuts. Any excuse I can find to break out my donut pans, I’m going to find it. And, you know how I feel about sprinkles, right!?

When we are in Toronto, it is so easy to go grab a donut whenever I feel like it. In fact, we live literally steps away from both a Tim Horton’s and a Starbucks. My go-to donut at Tim Horton’s is the apple fritter. And, if I’m at Starbucks, I always go for a cream cheese danish.

Now that we have been spending more time outside the city, the nearest Tim Horton’s and Starbucks are about a 35 minute drive from our house. To drive there and back would take over an hour. I can bake 18 donuts in much less time, so that’s what I often do. Before you ask, no, we did not eat 18 donuts! There are a couple of cute kids two doors down. So, some of the donuts were dropped off on their doorstep. Kids love chocolate, and I love to share, so it’s great having kids close by!

BAKED, NOT FRIED!

Now, for some of you, making donuts at home might seem daunting. But, it shouldn’t be. These donuts are baked, not fried, so there’s much less mess. And, the recipe is quite easy too. The only thing you might need are donut pans.

Baking the donuts makes them super healthy, right? Oh, if only that were true! In fact, baked is better than fried in terms of health-conscious eating. So, these baked Chocolate Chip Donuts are indeed healthier, so at least we have that going for us!

DONUT PANS – A GOOD INVESTMENT FOR THE AVID BAKER

When I first thought about the possibility of making donuts at home, I thought long and hard about purchasing donut pans. After all, how often will one make donuts at home? Did I really need to spend money on a set of donut baking pans? Would I use them more than just twice a year? Then, I’d convince myself that I didn’t have much storage room and eventually, I’d leave the store without them.

Ever since I broke down and purchased a set of donut baking pans, I can’t stop thinking about making donuts. Truthfully, Dear Reader, I will try to find any excuse I can to whip up a batch. I try not to do that, though. If I can limit them to special occasions only, I won’t feel so guilty for eating so many of them.

CHOCOLATE CHIPS CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE

You can use whichever chocolate chip you tend to favour. I prefer milk chocolate or semi sweet. But, I have been known to use dark chocolate a time or two.

For this particular recipe, I like to use milk chocolate. Milk chocolate chips have a creamier texture and lends themselves so well to the texture and the soft crumb of the donuts. Since these donuts are not super soft, the milk chocolate chips will make them feel like they are!

I used mini milk chocolate chips. Again, it was because I wanted the donut to look just as good as it tastes. You can use regular size chips. In fact, you can skip the chips completely if you want. Or, you can add in baking M&Ms, or even cinnamon chips!

GETTING THAT PERFECT GLAZE

I have found that when it comes to the glaze on a donut, there’s just no way to do it that will please everyone. So, I say, please yourself. If you like a thick glaze, then go for it! If a thin glaze is more your thing, then go for that instead!

The glaze is very easy to make. All you need to do is put confectioner’s sugar and cocoa powder into a bowl. Add a scant amount of milk, and use a fork to mix it. Mix it until there are no visible lumps.

Use less milk for a thicker glaze or more milk for a thin glaze. As you can see from the photos, I used a glaze that was thick enough to stick to the donut. But, I wanted the glaze that was also thin enough to smooth itself out on the surface of the donut, while allowing the sprinkles to settle into it, capturing them into the glaze.

DECORATING SKILLS ARE NOT NEEDED HERE!

Whenever I bake donuts, I’m always surprised at how well they turn out in the end. I’m not a cake decorator by a long shot. But, I can manage the dunking of said donut into the glaze, and topping with sprinkles or candy.

When I was dunking these donuts into the glaze, and topping them with the chocolate sprinkles, I thought that it might be nice to have some donuts without the sprinkles. I know, it’s like blasphemy, but not everyone loves sprinkles as much as I do! So, I decided to make some with just the glaze. The contrast of the two types look beautiful together!

There are no stead-fast rules to decorating a donut. The flavour of the donut will not change at all, or very little at the least, when you top them. All of the donuts you see in these photographs are made from the same donut batter, but the sprinkles are only on half.

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