Joy the Baker

Mini Peanut Butter and Chocolate Baked Donuts

by 52 Comments

Chocolate Peanut Butter Baked Donuts

I wonder if tastebud tastes are inherited.  If so… I inherited my love (let’s go ahead and call it an obsession) with chocolate and peanut butter from my mother.  She’s the queen of spooning every last bit of peanut butter out of the PB and Chocolate ice cream.  She’s the master of making a holiday dessert called Peanut Butter Balls which are a glamorous mixture of butter, peanut butter, and powdered sugar, dipped in chocolate.  Birthday cake?  You can guess, I’m sure.  

What I’m saying is, all of this chocolate baking and peanut butter dipping… I come by it honestly and I’d like to pass it on to you.  

Chocolate Peanut Butter Baked Donuts

The thing is, we’re making glorified tender, soft, chocolate, peanut butter cupcakes… donut shaped cupcakes.  

It starts here, with flour, cocoa powder, and brown sugar.  

Chocolate Peanut Butter Baked Donuts

Buttermilk, egg, and melted (and slightly browned) butter are whisked together as our wet ingredients.  

Vanilla extract too.  Remember ages ago we made our own vanilla extract?  I’m still using that good stuff!  

Chocolate Peanut Butter Baked Donuts

Chocolate batter.  One of life’s great gifts… you know?  

Give it a good stir.  We don’t want lumps.   

Chocolate Peanut Butter Baked Donuts

I made mini donuts because mini seemed like a good idea for a combination as rich as chocolate and peanut butter.  

I used this mini donut pan, here.  The trick to even donuts, rapping and tapping the filled donut pan against the counter to work out any air pockets.  

Chocolate Peanut Butter Baked Donuts

Just eight minutes in the oven?  Too good.  

If you were to give these donuts the poke test… and I give nearly everything the poke test… they’d be soft and cake-y and moist.  

Chocolate Peanut Butter Baked Donuts

Peanut Butter Glaze?  Is there even a question?  Peanut butter, powdered sugar, salt, vanilla extract, and milk.  So simple we could be in real trouble.  

Chocolate Peanut Butter Baked Donuts

Bottoms down and dipped and sprinkled.  

Chocolate Peanut Butter Baked Donuts

We’re no stranger to the wonders of a cake-y chocolate donut.  Topped with salty and sweet peanut butter glaze and a free sprinkles… of course.  Of course we’re doing the right thing.  All the way right.  

I hope you make these, staring now.  

Print

Mini Peanut Butter and Chocolate Baked Donuts

  • Author: Joy the Baker
  • Prep Time: 20
  • Cook Time: 8
  • Total Time: 28 minutes
  • Yield: 18 1x

Ingredients

Scale

For the Doughnuts

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1 large egg
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted until just browned
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Peanut Butter Glaze

  • 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
  • big pinch salt
  • 4–6 tablespoons whole milk
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • color and/or chocolate jimmies

Instructions

  1. Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a mini doughnut baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and brown sugar.
  3. In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, egg, melted butter, and vanilla extract until thoroughly combined.
  4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold together until all of the ingredients are well combined. Scrape the bottom of the bowl to ensure that you’re not leaving any flour behind. Stir well to ensure that there are no lumps. Use a small spoon to portion batter into the prepared doughnut baking pan. Each doughnut mold should be about two-thirds full. Bake doughnuts for 8 to 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted into one of the doughnuts comes out clean. Remove from the oven. Allow to rest for five minutes before inverting doughnuts onto a wire rack to cool completely. Allow doughnuts to cool completely before glazing.
  5. Repeat the baking process until all of the batter is turned into doughnuts.
  6. To make the glaze, in a medium bowl whisk together powdered sugar, peanut butter, and salt. Add 2 tablespoons of milk and all of the vanilla extract. Whisk to combine. Mixture may be thick. Add milk, a tablespoon at a time, until the glaze is thick and just pourable.
  7. Dip each doughnut (I dipped the bottom side) into the peanut butter glaze. Shake off some of the excess glaze. Return to the wire rack and sprinkle with jimmies. Allow to rest a few moments for the frosting to harden slightly. These doughnuts are best served within two days of baking.

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Comments

  3. Bonnie

    There are no words for how delish these are! My husband and I gobbled them up. These will definitely be making into the breakfast/snack rotation.

    Reply

  21. laluceblog

    Yum!! Peanut butter and chocolate is my favorite combination when it comes to desserts.

    I’ve only made one batch of donuts with my donut pan so far, but I can’t wait to make these beauties next!

    Jaclyn

    Reply

  23. Christine J

    I would like to make these in a regular-sized donut pan – my love of PB and chocolate is big! I’m assuming it will be a longer bake time. Any other adjustments I would need to make?

    Reply

    • karaiz

      I just made these in a regular-sized donut pan and they are amazing! I just doubled the recipe and baked them for 9-10 minutes (just like in the original recipe). It made 18 regular size donuts (just like the original made 18 mini size donuts), so I’m guessing the minis were about half the size of regulars. I doubled the glaze, too, but I had a ton left over, so I’m not sure that was necessary– I’d maybe try 1.5x for the glaze next time. (And there will be a next time!)

      Reply

  24. Willow @ Will Cook For Friends

    Oooh, these sound so good! I was really excited when I bought my donut pan a few months ago, and I went in search of a bunch of different recipes, read them all, and then got to work making a batch (the only major change I made to the basic dry to wet ratios was to use cake flour instead of AP flour, and was very careful not to over mix because I wanted them to be as tender as possible). They ended up being very spongy and chewy, and I was never able to determine why. These have inspired me to try baked donuts again — if the weather behaves itself enough for me to turn on the oven this week, I’m definitely going to be making a batch!

    Reply

  27. thespeckledpalate

    Chocolate and peanut butter are the BEST combination, and I want to make these… then possible eat the entire bowl of peanut butter glaze because that seems like a good idea. Definitely gonna make these treats for the fam sometime in the near future!

    Reply

  28. Stephanie | Worth Whisking

    Be still my heart! I am a total sucker for peanut butter and chocolate, and these doughnuts look and sound amazing! And I personally believe a doughnut is not a doughnut without sprinkles! (Up here in the great state of Ohio, we call those peanut butter balls “buckeyes” BTW. Absolutely a staple at Christmas time!)

    Thanks for the recipe, Joy!

    Reply

  32. Janice

    Literally last night I was looking for EXACTLY this. I wanted peanut butter. I wanted chocolate. I wanted doughnut. It was meant to be. Schedule cleared for tonight – it’s doughnut time.

    Reply

  33. Liz @ Floating Kitchen

    You had me at chocolate and PB. AND at 8 minutes in the oven! On our way to donut bliss in no time!

    Reply

    • Geri

      Di it work in the madeleine pan? I have a couple and think that it might make a more “adult” looking presentation. Please let us know. I won’t be making this for a bit. My sister made it last week to rave reviews and passed it on to me.

      Reply

  45. Lexy

    Fantastic. I just bought two big doughnut pans. How would you change this recipe for the big doughnuts? Bake time? Thank you.

    Reply

  47. Tom ~ Raise Your Garden

    You got all the winning ingredients packed into this one. Peanut butter glaze? I mean, what wouldn’t you put that on? Maybe I’ll spoon some on my vegetables and I’ll actually eat them. Donut shaped cupcakes? Put me in coach, I’m ready to play (gym teacher here)

    Reply

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