These chocolate donuts with peppermint chips are the perfect holiday treat. Soft, chocolaty cake donuts are topped with a sweet vanilla icing and peppermint baking chips, for a treat that’s festive and delicious.
This holiday season, serve up these delicious baked donuts for a festive breakfast or a cozy sweet treat with a cup of coffee.
Fall is here, and we’re in all our sweet treat glory. From mini fall sugar cookies to mini pumpkin pretzel cups and a gingerbread loaf with molasses frosting, we’re welcoming the cold weather and festive season.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Soft and Tender: These cake donuts have a wonderfully soft, tender texture.
- So Chocolaty: These donuts are made with both chocolate chips and dark cocoa powder for a deep, chocolaty flavor.
- A Classic Holiday Combo: The combination of chocolate and mint is a classic that everyone loves and is perfect on any table.
- Simple Ingredients: You only need a few basic baking ingredients to make these donuts.
- Super Easy: Just mix, bake, ice, and enjoy!
Key Ingredients
You’ll find a complete list of ingredients and their exact amounts in the recipe card at the end of the post.
- Dark Cocoa and Chocolate Chips: Dark cocoa and melted chocolate chips give the donuts an extra-deep chocolate flavor.
- Avocado Oil and Butter: The combination of avocado oil and butter makes the donuts extra moist and tender.
- Peppermint Baking Chips: Andes Peppermint Baking Chips add the final layer of festive mint flavor to the donuts.
Variations
- Mini Chocolate Chips: Experiment with milk, semi-sweet, or dark chocolate chips to subtly change the flavor of the donuts.
- Avocado Oil: Coconut oil or vegetable oil can be used in place of avocado oil. Avoid oils like olive oil that can add unwanted flavor to the donuts.
- Holiday Sprinkles: Use chocolate icing and festive holiday sprinkles to make a more chocolaty version, like these chocolate cake donuts with Jimmie sprinkles.
- Chocolate Mint: Add even more minty flavor to these donuts by adding a touch of mint extract to the donut batter.
- More Intense Flavor: Add a pinch of instant coffee to the batter for a more intense flavor.
How to Make Chocolate Donuts with Peppermint Chips
- Whisk the dry donut ingredients in a medium bowl.
- Melt the chocolate chips. Then, combine them and the remaining ingredients with the dry donut ingredients.
- Pipe the batter into two prepared 6-count donut pans and bake at 350°F until set.
- Cool the donuts for a couple of minutes in the pans. Then, transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Mix the icing ingredients, adjusting with a small amount of additional milk as necessary to achieve the correct consistency.
Dip the tops of the cooled donuts into the icing, and sprinkle them with chopped peppermint baking chips. Enjoy!
Expert Tips
- Mix your donut batter until just combined to avoid dense, tough donuts.
- If you don’t have a piping bag, snip a corner off a Ziploc bag to fill your donut pan wells easily.
- Your donuts should be set, but yield to a gentle press when they’re ready to be removed. The heat from the pans will finish baking them as you let them cool.
- Your donuts should be fully cool before dipping them into the glaze to allow the glaze to begin to set immediately.
Chocolate Donuts with Peppermint Chips FAQs
Yes, they are. They have a moist, tender texture that holds its shape while still maintaining a wonderful crumb.
If you use too much flour, your donuts will be dry. Be sure to loosely spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level it off with a knife to avoid compacting. In addition, if you overmix your donut batter, it will become tough and dense, with a dry feel.
These donuts will last for up to 5 days in the refrigerator in an airtight container. They must be refrigerated because of their icing.
More Delicious Holiday Treats
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Chocolate Donuts with Peppermint Chips
Ingredients
Chocolate Donuts
- 1 ¾ cup all purpose flour
- ⅓ cup dark special cocoa powder
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup butter melted
- ⅛ cup avocado oil
- 1 cup milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¾ cup mini chocolate chips
Icing
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 3-4+ tablespoons heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Andes peppermint baking chips, coarsely chopped, for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 and spray (2) 6-count donut pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Chocolate Donuts
- In a medium bowl, whisk flour, both sugars, baking powder, and salt together until combined.
- Next, add butter, oil, milk, vanilla, and eggs, and stir until combined.
- Add donut batter to a gallon size ziploc baggie or a piping bag. If using the baggie, cut off a small corner of the bag after filling
- Pipe the batter into the pan(s) and bake for 10 minutes, remove from the oven and let sit in the pan for a couple minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Icing
- In a medium bowl, add powdered sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla extract. Stir to combine. If additional milk is needed, do 1 tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is obtained.
- Once the donuts have cooled completely, take one donut at a time and dip the top of each donut into the icing. Place back on the wire rack and then sprinkle with the coarsely chopped peppermint baking chips.
Notes
- Mix your donut batter until just combined to avoid dense, tough donuts.
- If you don’t have a piping bag, snip a corner off a Ziploc bag to fill your donut pan wells easily.
- Your donuts should be set, but yield to a gentle press when they’re ready to be removed. The heat from the pans will finish baking them as you let them cool.
- Your donuts should be fully cool before dipping them into the glaze to allow the glaze to begin to set immediately.
I love these! Chocolate and peppermint is always a great combo, and these look so festive. I never thought I’d be serving donuts for the holidays, but here we are. LOL.
I love the cool, minty flavor of the icing and crushed candy with the deep chocolate of the donuts. They’re so good!
Everything about these donuts is absolutely amazing! The texture is wonderful, and the flavor is so festive.
These are fully awesome. I made them yesterday for dessert, and we finished them off this morning with coffee. Om nom nom.
Wow, those look amazing! The dense chocolate paired with the refreshing crunch of peppermint chips is pure holiday decadence. I’m definitely adding these to my Christmas baking list!
I made these yesterday and they were so fun and festive. The minty crunch with the soft chocolate donut was just right.
Chocolate and peppermint is so classic! Whipped up a batch of these asap while we decorated and it was so fun and memorable. Love that they’re baked too!
My only problem with this recipe is that I can not stop devouring the donuts. They turned out soooo goood!
These are too good to be true. The texture is absolutely stunning!