Healthier Chocolate Donut Holes

When I posted my Healthier Air Fryer Donut Holes, you guys went crazy for them.

For good reason. They are easily one of my favorite recipes here on the site!

I knew I needed to come up with a chocolate version, but chocolate is very tricky. It’s not as simple as just using a chocolate protein powder or adding cocoa powder to the original recipe.

Cocoa powder dries out baked goods quite a bit- so these actually took some experimenting to get them exactly right.

I’m very pleased with the final result!

I’ll be honest: I don’t like these as much as the original, but that’s because I’m much more a fan of vanilla than chocolate. Call me crazy!

The major criticism (if you can call it that) of the original recipe is that the dough was way too sticky to work with. I’ve come to find out that if you use a 100% whey protein, the dough is in fact going to be very sticky.

I learned through my Giant Protein Cookie recipe that the type of protein you choose is VERY important. And that is no different here.

But, since I love you so much, I did a whole bunch of testing with whey protein so I could relay the proper directions to you. Don’t worry, I’ll break it all down for ya!

 

How to make these Healthier Chocolate Donut Holes

These instructions are assuming you are using the same protein I used- a whey/casein blend. If using 100% whey protein, please scroll down for the changes you’ll have to make!

To make these chocolate donut holes, all you have to do is mix up some dry ingredients, add applesauce and butter, and mix until you have a dough!

From there, it’s as simple as forming the donut holes…

These expand a bit when cooked, so don’t worry about making them huge.

I like to keep these on the smaller side, but there’s no set-rule for how large to make these. You may yield slightly more or less than I did, but you should aim to get 25-30 total donut holes.

Some will be smaller and some larger, but we’re not after perfection around here.

Depending on the size of your air fryer, you’ll likely need to do 2 batches. I like to make sure I leave enough space between all the chocolate donut holes so they fully cook all the way around. I like the outside to have a nice crisp to it, so it’s important to make sure the air can make it all the way around!

As long as your air fryer is preheated (I learned when making my Protein Churro Bites and Air Fryer Crispy Chicken that preheating makes a HUGE difference) these should only take about 4 minutes total. Let them go for 2 minutes, then open up the air fryer and flip them over.

After just 2 minutes, they should have expanded a bit already! We flip them over to not only help them fully bake all the way around, but also to make sure they don’t flatten too much on one side.

After 4 minutes, they should be perfect!

Whether you want to coat them in a glaze or powdered sugar (melted chocolate would also be a great idea) they’re ready to coat immediately.

I did half my batch as glazed and the other half as powdered sugar because I couldn’t choose…

I think I enjoyed the glazed chocolate donut holes a little bit more because the glaze adds some extra moisture, but I’ll leave it up to you to decide that for yourself!

 

Using a different type of protein powder

With my original Air Fryer Donut Holes, quite a few people told me that their dough was very sticky and hard to work with. That is most definitely due to using a protein that is 100% whey!

Whey-based protein gets very sticky. That’s why I swear by protein powders like PEScience or Quest, because they use a whey & casein blend. The addition of casein makes such a huge difference. Trust me.

I tested this recipe with Quest, which is a whey/casein blend, and Bowmar Nutrition, which is 100% whey.

For Quest, I went with the peanut butter flavor, which worked surprisingly well. Chocolate is obviously the safest bet for these, but truly any protein powder flavor will work. Since we’re adding cocoa powder, the protein powder will not be too prominent, so anything should work (even vanilla).

When you mix up all the ingredients with whey protein alone, the result is a very sticky batter. Don’t worry, I have 2 solutions for you!

 

Solution 1 for Sticky Dough: Add the whey LAST

I first discovered this when I made my no-bake protein cookie dough. Check out the difference between these two cookie doughs:

These are the same exact recipe (using whey protein) and the ONLY difference is when I added the whey protein. In the front, I added the whey protein along with my other dry ingredients, and in the back was when I added the whey protein as the very last ingredient.

I mean, that is a huge difference.

For these chocolate donut holes, the same principle applies: add the protein powder as the very last ingredient (after the wet ingredients). It will still be sticky, but not nearly as much as adding the protein first!

 

Solution 2 for Sticky Dough: Cold water or extra flour

Whenever I’m working with a sticky dough, I use either the “wet hands” method or “floured hands” method.

• Wet hands means filling a small bowl up with cold water. Then, dip your fingers in the cold water to be able to work with the dough and form it into balls. This typically works very well, but sometimes can make the dough very wet and/or too soft. So, that’s where the second method comes into play!
• Floured hands is simply flouring up your hands before forming the donut holes. Sometimes this method isn’t ideal because it leaves a coating or dry flour on the outside, but it won’t matter here! Since we’re going to coat the donut holes with either glaze or powdered sugar, you won’t eve notice it!

Feel free to try each method and see which you prefer. I gave both a shot and preferred the floured method, but either works!

Outside of this, the only other difference was one extra minute of cook time. Since the dough was a little bit wetter, an extra minute did the trick!

At the end of the day, whey protein still works great, but it’s incredibly important that you add the whey protein powder LAST. When you’re dealing with a whey/casein blend, the ordering won’t matter.

When it came to the taste-test, I truly enjoyed both the same, but the whey/casein version seemed to hold up slightly better.

 

No air fryer?

These bake up very well in the air fryer and only take 4-5 total minutes per batch, so that’s my preferred method!

You can definitely use the oven if you don’t have an air fryer. For my Protein Cider Donut Recipe I baked them in the oven, and the result was great. I can’t tell you the exact time & temp, but 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes should work.

 

Can’t form these chocolate donut holes?

If your dough is sticky and you’re too frustrated trying to form them into balls, I have 2 options for ya!

1. Add the dough to a donut pan and bake them as full donuts in the oven.
2. When in doubt… turn it into a waffle!

This entire recipe ended up making 2 Belgian waffles when I tested it. And yes, I added some chocolate chips for good measure!

While these aren’t the most “macro-friendly” waffles, each one was about 450 calories and 25g of protein, which is still a great breakfast in my eyes.

Plus, these tasted EXACTLY like brownies. For whatever reason, these stay a little bit more dense and gooey in the waffle maker vs the air fryer, and they tasted very similar to brownies. I’m not mad about that!

 

If you want more chocolate recipes, I have a ton for ya…

• No-Bake Vegan Brownies
• Chocolate Pumpkin Protein Donuts
• Protein Chocolate Fudge Cookies
• Brownie Cookie Dough Sandwiches
• Protein Brownies