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.
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? Oh definitely.
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I can’t stop dreaming about these Chocolate Old Fashioned Doughnuts.
The crisp exterior, the soft, cakey interior, and the rich chocolate flavor are heavenly – but then coat it all in a lucious, thick glaze? Who could possibly say no to that!?
These donuts are essentially the chocolate version of my crazy-popular Old-Fashioned Sour Cream Doughnuts, which are (unsurprisingly) one of the most popular recipes on the site!
These delicious homemade treats are the perfect weekend or holiday breakfast, and any kiddos will go crazy for them.
Be sure to check out my tips below, for the best breakfast treats ever.
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!
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Chocolate Old-Fashioned Doughnuts
Use a Scale to Weigh Your Ingredients
I highly recommend using a digital kitchen scale to weigh out the ingredients for these Chocolate Old-Fashioned Doughnuts. Mis-measuring is super easy to do when measuring by volume (cups) and can create doughnuts that are dry and tough, instead of fluffy and light. Learn more about how to measure flour correctly here.
Use REAL Bleached Cake Flour in Chocolate Old-Fashioned Doughnuts
- This is a must for these Chocolate Old-Fashioned Doughnuts.
- Store-bought cake flour will yield light and delicate doughnuts, just like the ones from a good bakery.
- DIY substitutions simply won’t work as well.
- AP flour will not create doughnuts with that same soft texture.
- Bleached cake flour will work best. Unbleached (like King Arthur Flour) won’t absorb as much moisture and you may end up with doughnuts that crumble while frying.
- Learn more about cake flour (and DIY substitutions) here.
What Type of Cocoa Powder Should I Use for Doughnuts?
You can use either natural/unsweetened cocoa powder or Dutch processed cocoa powder for this Chocolate Old-Fashioned Doughnut recipe. Learn more about the differences between Natural & Dutch processed cocoa powder here.
This Recipe is FRIED
- This recipe was specifically designed to be fried and not baked.
- Be sure to use FRESH OIL.
- Oil goes rancid quickly, often before the date on the bottle.
- If it has *any* unpleasant smell, don’t use it, as that flavor will transfer to your doughnuts.
- Alternatively, check out all my doughnut recipes here for recipes designed to be baked.
Can I Air Fry These Chocolate Old-Fashioned Doughnuts?
We haven’t tried that, but based on our testing with other doughnut recipes, air frying doesn’t work the same way as frying doughnuts with oil. If you wish to experiment, let us know how it goes in the comments below!
How to Store Chocolate Old-Fashioned Doughnuts
Chocolate Old-Fashioned Doughnuts are best enjoyed the day they’re made, but they will keep for a few days stored in an airtight container.
My Favorite Doughnut Tools:
- Digital Scale – To ensure your ingredients are measured correctly.
- Doughnut Cutter – For perfectly uniform doughnuts.
- Deep Fry Thermometer – To ensure your oil maintains the correct temperature.
- Dutch Oven – Perfect for frying without mess.
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Chocolate Old Fashioned Doughnuts
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
Instructions
Make the donuts:
- In a bowl, sift together the cake flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside.
- 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, and 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 a larger + a small biscuit cutter) 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 or until glaze is set.
- Doughnuts are best served the day they are made but may be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days.
Recipe Notes
This post was originally published in 2017 and has been updated with additional baking tips and Science of Baking information.
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!