It has been awhile since I created a new donut recipe, I was craving something decadent and full of chocolate! These triple chocolate brownie donuts are amazing…if I don’t say so myself 😉 Easy to make and only 3 Points each… yup that’s right all that chocolaty goodness for 3 Points… you’re welcome 🙂
Most brownie donuts start with a boxed brownie mix. These are baked from scratch, and the batter sits closer to a brownie than to a cake donut: cocoa powder for the chocolate, unsweetened applesauce and egg whites in place of the oil and whole eggs, and a single tablespoon of sugar. Mini chocolate chips go into the batter, then every donut gets a drizzle of melted dark chocolate and melted white chocolate. That is the triple.
They take about ten minutes to mix and 14 to 16 minutes in the oven, and they come out dense and fudgy with a proper chocolate hit. The recipe makes six.
If you want a smaller batch of chocolate, my Baked Double Chocolate Chip Donuts make just 4 🙂
Why you’ll love these brownie donuts
- Baked, not fried. A donut pan and a 350°F oven. No pot of oil, no mess.
- Brownie inside, donut outside. The applesauce keeps the crumb dense and moist, so a bite eats like a brownie even though it looks like a donut.
- Three chocolates in one. Cocoa in the batter, mini chips folded through, and dark and white chocolate zigzagged over the top.
- Nothing fancy to buy. Flour, cocoa, baking powder, sugar and vanilla are probably in the cupboard already. The two Lindt squares are the only special purchase.
- 3 Points each, drizzle included. No trimming the topping to make the number work.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 16 minutes
Total Time: 26 minutes
Servings: 6
Serving Size: 1 donut
3 WW Points Per Serving. You can view the recipe on the WW App here. (WW login required.)
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp egg whites
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp melted light margarine
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1 Tbsp mini chocolate chips
- 1 square (10 g) 70% Lindt dark chocolate, melted
- 1 square (10 g) Lindt white chocolate, melted
The applesauce is doing the job oil does in a regular brownie. It keeps the donuts moist and heavy in the good way, and it is where most of the lightening happens. Buy unsweetened; the sweetened kind adds sugar you do not need and changes the points.
Any unsweetened cocoa powder works. The 1/4 cup is what makes these baked chocolate donuts taste like chocolate rather than like brown cake, so do not scale it back.
For the drizzle you want one 10 g square of a 70% dark bar and one 10 g square of white chocolate. Lindt is what the recipe was built on, but any bar will do if you weigh out 10 g of each. That small amount is deliberate: it is enough to cover six donuts and it is already counted in the 3 Points.
How to make baked brownie donuts
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and spray a 6-hole donut pan with cooking spray.
- Whisk the wet base. In a bowl, whisk together the egg whites, sugar and melted margarine.
- Add the dry ingredients. Stir in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder, then mix in the vanilla and applesauce. Fold in the mini chocolate chips. The batter is thick, much closer to brownie batter than to a pourable cake batter.
- Fill the pan. Spoon the batter into the six wells and smooth the tops so they bake evenly. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes.
- Melt the chocolate. Once the donuts are out and cooling, melt each chocolate square separately in the microwave in 35-second bursts, stirring between each one.
- Drizzle. The dark chocolate melts loose enough to drizzle straight from a spoon. White chocolate is thicker, so scrape it into a small zip bag, snip a tiny corner off and pipe thin lines across each donut. A little goes a long way; there is more than enough here for all six.
Tips and substitutions
- Divide the batter evenly. Six equal donuts is what the 3 Points is based on.
- Check at 14 minutes. A toothpick in the thick part should come out with a few moist crumbs, not wet batter and not bone dry. Overbaked, these lose the brownie chew.
- Cool before you drizzle. Chocolate on a warm donut slides straight off the sides. Ten minutes on a rack is enough.
- Do not rush the white chocolate. It seizes if it gets too hot. Short bursts, stir, and stop as soon as it is smooth.
- Swap the chips. Peanut butter chips or white chips in place of the mini chocolate chips both work. Skip the white drizzle and double the dark if you want them darker. Any swap changes the points, so run your version through the app.
Storing
These go in the fridge, in an airtight container, and they are best within three or four days. They freeze too. Freeze them before the drizzle, then thaw and top them the day you want them.
If chocolate is your weak spot the way it is mine, there is a lot more where this came from in our dessert recipes.
Triple Chocolate Brownie Donuts
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp egg whites
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp melted light margarine
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1 Tbsp mini chocolate chips
- 1 square, 10g 70% lindt dark chocolate, melted
- 1 square, 10g lindt white chocolate, melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and spray a donut pan.
- In a bowl whisk together your egg whites, sugar and melted margarine.
- Stir in your flour, cocoa powder and baking powder, then mix in your vanilla and apple sauce. Fold in your chocolate chips.
- Fill your 6 hole donut pan and bake in oven for 14-16 minutes.
- Melt your chocolate squares separately in the microwave for 35 second intervals turning each time. Drizzle your chocolate over the 6 donuts. White chocolate does not melt as well as the dark, you should be able to use a spoon to drizzle dark, for the white I place in a zip lock, cut a tiny hole and drizzle, you don't need a lot of chocolate, a little will go a long way. Store in fridge.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi there, I have a question. I have made these donuts two times now and can’t figure out how to get the batter all the way around in the donut pan. It is as if there isn’t enough batter. Any advise? Also, roughly, how much batter per donut well? Love all your recipes! Thank you so much….Gail
Hi, my guess would be your filling them to high, and maybe possibly you have a deeper donut pan, although I think the reg size ones are all pretty similar in size, I have never measured exactly how much I put in each one but I just divide it over the 6.. If I were to guess, they are about 1/2 way full before going in the oven..
How much Coco powder are you supposed to use? I tried making them twice and they were really thick and didn’t taste right. Thanks
Recipe states 1/4 cup of cocoa powder, they are not think when I have made them, made your cocoa powder is a different brand and thicker? Try lowering it maybe and increasing the flour a little..
I was wondering if I could make muffins out of this batter? I do not have a donut pan.
Thanks.
I was wondering the same thing as Kim – do you think this recipe would work as a muffin? I don’t have a donut pan either. (Although, it would give me a reason to go shopping! 🙂 )
Haha.. nothing like a good excuse to shop!! Yes I think they will work as muffins although they may not rise as much
Yum, made these last night and put ff cool whip and fresh strawberries ????
Thanks again!
So glad you enjoyed them 🙂
I’m on weight watchers and am wondering if the points you’re talking about are for their program.
Yes absolutely they are, I am a lifetime WW member myself and these are all WW friendly recipes, it is what I devote my time too 🙂
is the pan a regular pan or mini
It is a 6 hole regular size donut pan
Just made these today. Soooo good! I don’t have a donut pan so I used our cakepop maker. Made 24 donut holes at 1 sp ea 🙂
That’s awesome, so glad you enjoyed them 🙂
I bought the donut/ bagel silicone pans on Amazon?
Happy donut baking 🙂
Can I use a whole egg instead of egg whites
Yes 🙂 I made the recipe before freestyle when whole eggs still had points