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
I feel like I’m constantly talking about Swerve these days so if you’ve heard my spill before, carry on. I’ve always used stevia and even turned stevia into a high protein powdered sugar in my crunch berries protein donuts recipe. But recently, I’ve been using Swerve in both granular and powdered forms.
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 the protein powdered sugar I mentioned above or you could add 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
Update 3/2019: I’ve updated the recipe card’s notes below to include the recommended amount for Bowmar Nutrition protein users!
You can use any protein powder you’d like. I always use a whey concentrate or blend in my baked recipes, and the macros in my recipes are always with Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard or Dymatize 100% Whey.
I’ve found that whey isolates or other super lean protein powders (very little fat or carbs in their nutrient profile) can make recipes tough or dry. You can fix this by adding a bit more fat to the recipe. In this recipe, for example, that might look like using full-fat yogurt.
Baked 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.
High Protein Chocolate Cake Baked Donut Holes
Quick and easy 58-calorie protein donut holes with a chocolate cake spin.
Ingredients
- 1/4 C (28g) Coconut Flour
- 1 scoop (32g) Whey Protein Powder vanilla or chocolate
- 2 Tbsp (10g) Unsweetened Dark Cocoa
- 2 1/2 Tbsp (20-22g) Sugar-Free Fudge or Chocolate Pudding Mix
- 1 Tbsp (9g) Swerve Confectioners or a powdered sugar substitute
- 1/2 C (113g) Fat-Free Greek Yogurt vanilla
- 1 Egg
Sugar Coating (for rolling donut holes in after baking)
- 1-2 Tbsp (9-18g) Swerve Confectioners or a powdered sugar substitute
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 8-10 minutes or until the donut holes are cooked through.
Allow the donut holes to cool slightly before rolling them in the additional Swerve or powdered sugar of your choice.
Recipe Notes
- Each donut hole has 1 Smart Point.
- For Bowmar Nutrition Protein Hot Chocolate, use 2 scoops (56g) protein powder and keep everything else the same. The adjusted macros with PHC are: 75 calories, 8g protein, 9g carbs (6g net carbs), and 2g fat each
- For a powdered sugar substitute, check out my stevia protein powder mixture in my Cap'n Crunch Berries Protein Donuts recipe.
- If you have trouble forming the dough into balls, you can use the cooking spray on the hands method or chill the dough in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes. You can also add a bit more protein powder. I've successfully made the recipe with two scoops (64g) protein powder. Though you'll have to work the dough a bit more before forming to ensure all the dry ingredients are incorporated.
More Recipes with Protein Powder You Might Like
If you like the idea of protein granola but don’t like the fact that most have 30 grams of carbs per serving, you might like my pumpkin spice protein granola that has fewer than 10 grams of carbs per serving.
And if you’re a true outlaw and believe in cookies for breakfast, my banana breakfast cookies should tickle your fancy.
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!
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?
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.