Chocolate Cake Baked Donut Holes
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I’m always hesitant to declare a new recipe the best recipe on my blog because of recency bias and all that jazz. So, I’ll just say these high protein baked donut holes are in the top five.
I’m honestly not sure how to describe the joy you experience when biting into one. They’re slightly crispy on the outside but moist like perfect chocolate cake on the inside. And the powdered sugar exterior gives them a cool, perfectly sweet taste.
Amazeballs. (Ironically this was one of the more popular title suggestions when I polled my Instagram.)
And as always, I’ve done my best to keep things simple.
Ingredients for Chocolate Cake Baked Donut Holes
Below I’ll run through a few notes of ingredient swaps and recipe modifications.
Swerve Confectioners
These protein donut holes call for Swerve confectioners in the dough itself. Just look at how moist the center is below! If you don’t have any on hand, you could try adding a bit more pudding mix or other thickeners mixed with another low calorie sweetener.
For the powdered sugar coating, however, it’s going to be a bit more difficult to replicate the true powdered sugar texture with protein powder and granular sugar blended together. But even without the perfect powdered sugar exterior, these protein donut holes are still delicious!
My final word on Swerve would be that if you’re on the fence about buying some, it’s one of the best ingredients I’ve come across in some time. For high protein, low calorie desserts, it’s a game changer. And don’t think it’s a one-recipe ingredient. Here are other recipes I’ve made with Swerve:
- Oreo Protein Cake and Protein Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cinnamon Roll Protein Mug Cake
- No Bake Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake
- High Protein Birthday Mug Cake
If you’re curious where to find Swerve, you can use their store locator here or you can find it on my Amazon list.
Pudding Mix
This ingredient is readily found these days in most grocery stores. If you can’t find the chocolate or fudge flavors or would like to use something else, you could combine cocoa powder with something like corn starch, arrowroot powder, xanthan gum, or another thickener.
Coconut Flour
Coconut flour works extremely well in lower calorie recipes thanks to how absorbent it is. You don’t need to use much to get the desired effects of flour, keeping calories low. That said, I realize not everyone keeps it on hand.
If you want to swap the coconut flour for something like all purpose flour, you’ll want to use at least a 2:1 exchange ratio. That means you may need a half cup of all purpose flour.
If you go this route and have a dough that’s too thick, you can add more fat or even a bit of liquid like a lower calorie milk or water at the end of mixing.
Protein Powder
The recipe calls for PEScience Select which is a bit different than most protein powders since it’s a blend of whey and casein. If you’re using a whey-only protein powder or something similar, you may need to add more protein powder or flour so you can handle the dough.
I expect to continue developing recipes with PEScience Protein. So if you like my protein desserts and want to pick some up, you can use my affiliate discount code mason at checkout to save 15%.
Baked Protein Donut Holes Recipe Video
The video below shows just how simple this recipe is.
All right, grab a bowl and get ready to go. If you try these protein donut holes or any of my protein sweets, I wanna see them. Snap a pic and tag me on Instagram @mason_woodruff.
Chocolate Cake Baked Protein Donut Holes
Quick and easy 58-calorie protein donut holes with a chocolate cake spin.
Ingredients
- 1/4 C (28g) Coconut Flour
- 1 scoop (31g) Vanilla Protein Powder*
- 2 Tbsp (10g) Unsweetened Dark Cocoa Powder
- 2 1/2 Tbsp (22g) Sugar Free Chocolate Fudge Pudding Mix
- 1 Tbsp (9g) Swerve Confectioners (or powdered erythritol)
- 1/2 C (113g) Vanilla Fat Free Greek Yogurt
- 1 Egg
For Rolling the Donut Holes After Baking
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- Add the Greek yogurt and egg to the dry ingredients and stir until you have a giant ball of dough. (I use a rubber spatula and use a folding, pressing movement to incorporate any remaining dry ingredients.)
- Once you have the ball of dough, pinch off 8 smaller balls and place them on the baking sheet.
- Using your hands (spray them cooking spray if the dough is sticking), roll the balls between your hands until smooth.
- Bake for 14-16 minutes or until the donut holes are cooked through.
- Allow the donut holes to cool slightly before rolling them in the additional powdered sugar.
Notes
Each donut hole has 1 Smart Point.
*I used PEScience Select protein powder. You can use my affiliate discount code mason to save 15% on PEScience products.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Donut Holes Serving Size: 1 Donut HoleAmount Per Serving: Calories: 56Total Fat: 1.4gCarbohydrates: 5.5gProtein: 5.9g
Absolutely love this recipe! As well as being a chocolate lover, I have a huge sweet tooth, and this recipe was easy to make, has awesome macros, and tasted amazing. The fudgy texture in these donut holes are beautiful!
This is amazing even my kids love them , thank you!
These look so good. I haven’t tried swerve before so thanks for the link. I’ve heard about it from a friend but forgot where she told me to order it.
I’m only mildly obsessed with it. 🙂
Hi there! Have you ever dabbled in the idea of baking low carb? Your echoes look amazing, but I follow the THM (Trim healthy mama) lifestyle. We can’t have AP flour, sugar and processed goods. just drool st your recipes and thought I would ask. They also produce the best low carb sweetener EVER- called Gentle Sweet! Anywho- kudos to all of your hard work on your recipes:$
Thanks, Kari! I make the occasional low carb recipe like my low carb breakfast pizza, microwave biscuits, and low carb Cheezits. But I don’t follow any strict guidelines with ingredients or specific carb counts. That said, I do my best to give tips for making substitutions and modifying any recipe to fit other needs. There are always limits, though!
These are soooooo good! They’re so fudgy and moist youd never guess they were low calorie or had so much protein! My boyfriend, who dislikes almost anything baked with protein powder, would eat all of these in one sitting if I let him.
Hi, love your recipes! Do you think I could replace the protein powder with flour for a lower protein version?
I’d say yes, but I’m not certain on the amounts. Maybe try gram for gram and add the liquid ingredients slowly.
Have you ever tried making these with Lemon FF pudding mix instead of the chocolate? I’m going to try it and see how it turns out since I love lemon stuff 😀
I haven’t, but I bet it would work great. Let me know how they turn out!
I made the lemon version of these and they turned out great and were rockin! I just subbed FF SF lemon pudding mix for the chocolate, omitted the cocoa powder, omitted the Swerve coating, and added a couple of drops of lemon extract. I think they would be even better with a white Chocolate style coating. Do have any macro friendly coating recipes?
Thanks for the lemon pudding idea. Make them this evening, smells delicious
bought pudding mix for this recipe and the donut holes turned out fab!!!!!
Made these again and doubled the recipe and srsly…with that taste, texture and macros they are too good to be ture!!
Seriously one of the best recipes I’ve tried. Dangerously good. Pro tip: figure out the macros for the whole recipe before you make them. You’re going to need to know this because they’re that addicting.
Do you use the instant pudding or the pudding that’s cooked?
The instant pudding mix/powder.
These are soooo good! They stay moist, sweet, and chocolatey for days. You don’t even need to coat the outside in swerve powdered sugar if you dont want to because they’re great already!
What could I use in place of the yogurt? Unfortunately, have a dairy intolerance. :/
You could try a plant based yogurt in its place, but I might just go with another egg or two. Hope that helps!
Go ahead and just figure out the macros for the whole recipe. These are so good you won’t be able to stop eating them!
SO GOOD! I literally couldn’t believe how good they were, considering they’re a “protein dessert.” I was curious though, when calculating the macros, do you include the Swerve sweetener in your calculation, or do you leave it out because its zero calorie?
How should we store them?
How long do they last?
Airtight at room temp should keep for a day or two. Or you can refrigerate to extend to 2-3 days or so. I’d hold off on dusting with powdered sugar until serving if you’re storing a bunch for later.
I have made these several times – even took to my office to share. Huge hit. East to make.
Made these last night (used Ascent Vanilla protein because it’s all o had)…huge hit, even with my kids (yes they love sweets but get so disgusted when I cook “healthy” all the time). I would like to try these with a cappuccino protein powder!!
I made these for a friend gathering. They were a hit! Told everyone what was in them and have since shared the recipe with them. And I love that they are GF!
We’ve made these a few times when we just wanted to curb the sweet tooth! Pair with a little bit of almond milk and you’ve got a filling and delicious dessert.
I tried this recipe mainly because i had all the Ingredients on hand but whoa, was it a hit!!! And now a staple. I put in them in the freezer for those moments when the sweet tooth cravings hit!!!! They’re sooo good and the macros are excellent!
These were amazing as is but I especially love that it’s SO easy to change up the flavors! I made these with pistachio pudding mix and omitted the cocoa powder and then did a lemon juice/swerve confectioners glaze and they were to DIE for. I plan on making chocolate peppermint ones for Christmas as a healthy dessert option 🙂
These are seriously the best!! We do breakfast for dinner once a week and these are always on the menu! I’ve even swapped the protein powder for birthday cake protein and just used extra swerve instead for cocoa powder and made birthday cake donut holes! So so good!
If you are looking for a moist donut hole, this is your recipe!!
These are delicious, I made them with the powdered sugar coating the first time, and then tried a cinnamon coating the second time. The cinnamon was a fun swap for fall!
Have made the Kodiak Cakes version several times. Chocolate mix with peanut butter protein powder and buttermilk mix with vanilla protein powder. Top them both with a Greek yogurt/protein powder ‘sauce’. Added mini choc ships to the top for the chocolate version and strawberries and blueberries to the buttermilk version. 1/4 of the recipe is a good serving when cooking for one. Planning for more flavor combos.
I believe I commented here by mistake for the pancakes ! I redid it on the pancake page.
Made this original recipe as is and it was a crowd pleaser. Tried a cinnamon version with vanilla pudding powder and cinnamon protein powder rolled in a cinnamon confection blend . Also did a batch with a white chocolate pudding powder and a fruity protein powder. So easy to toss together and have available on the fly.
Hi!
You mentioned subbing arrowroot or xanthan gum with cocoa powder for the pudding. How much of each would I need to use? Thanks!
If I wanted to use real sugar, such as honey, how much would I use?
Depends on what you’re trying to replace. If you’re looking to replace the Swerve and pudding mix, honey won’t be a good substitute. You’d need something similar like powdered sugar or a combination of powdered sugar and a bit more cocoa powder.
Sugar alcohols make me really sick- Have you tried them
With anything else? I know it’s your favorite but I’m sooooo sensitive to them. I’m thinking of coconut sugar
I’ve not tested them with others, but I bet you could make anything that substitutes 1:1 for sugar work!
I love this recipe and I used a coffee flavored Greek yogurt and it gave a really rich chocolate flavor! My family is demanding I make these every week!
These are so tasty!! They literally taste like cake pops! I didn’t have powdered sugar, so instead I melted dark chocolate and drizzled it on top and froze it! I make these regularly and this supplements my protien bars on certain days!
WOW these were so easy to make! I used a 2 oz. cookie scoop to portion them out and ended up making smaller donut holes for more per serving 🙂
Holy moley (pun intended, cause they are donut holes) these are DANG good! Will be making them again for the whole fam. 🙌🏻 Going to stick a chocolate chip in the middle next time too. 😏 Delish! 😋
All I can see are such positive reviews, and it looks like such a delicious recipe! However, I am unable to get that right texture every time I make them and they have a soupy texture kind of like cake batter and not the doughy batter it says. I don’t know where I am going wrong as I follow the recipe to the letter. They also have a dryer- funny texture when they come out that does not look like the picture. If anyone knows what I’m doing wrong, please let me know!
Are you using a different protein powder? Unfortunately, no protein powder seems to work the same in recipes.