White Sugar Free Double Chocolate Pumpkin Donuts

So Easter is coming.... Do you know what you are making to celebrate? You should make these. It took 30 minutes and was easy. Most of the time was hands off as they baked in the oven or cooled down in the freezer. Rushing I bet they can be done in 20 minutes. Look at these impressive things! 

Double Chocolate Pumpkin Donuts. Yes double chocolate  Yes this is how you want your day to begin with a cup of coffee. Right? :) 

The words "double chocolate" here are key. LOL probably because I couldn't make up my mind or I just wanted to be creative. Lets go with the creative excuse reason. Not only are there two kinds of chocolate going on in this easy healthy delight, chocolate is used two ways, inside and outside the donut. My pictures don't do this treat justice - they look like they were made in a bakery, not my kitchen, with my son running through playing with his light up bouncy ball. No white sugar added at all means you can eat them all spring or fall long!

 Confession: We don't really do donuts in our house. It has to be something super special or I tend to give my hubby a hard time about it. To give you an example... the last time I bought myself a donut it was the morning I graduated from college and got my bachelors degree. Yeah really special stuff. Mostly because (this might sound lame just warning you) well fried donuts from the store or local coffee place have a ton of calories and a lot of extra sugar. I don't like the way my mood and body changes when I eat junk like that. So that being said I got a little slack from my hubby when he saw these for breakfast but that didn't stop him from eating like 6 so I think its okay. I won't tell him that there was no white sugar in the recipe and I used good ingredients like whole wheat white flour, and homemade applesauce (with no sugar).

Click  here to see the original recipe, adapted from a wonderful blog about eating whole yummy foods.  Makes a dozen medium sized donuts

Easy Guilt Free Breakfast Below:

1/2 cup + 1/3 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cocoa powder  * will increase this next time
heaping 1/8 cup of homemade applesauce with no sugar
1/8 cup maple syrup
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup heaping canned pumpkin puree (didn't have any fresh)
1/8 cup 2 percent milk

1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips
1 Tbs 2% milk
1 Tbs half and half
1/2 of a Dark Chocolate bar 70% cocoa 4 or 6 squares


Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a mini muffin tray with non stick spray. 

2. In a medium bowl combine all the dry ingredients such as flour, salt, spices, cocoa powder and baking powder. 

3. In a small bowl combine all the wet ingredients such as egg, applesauce, pumpkin, milk, vanilla, and syrup. 

4. Combine the ingredients of the wet into the dry and stir until its smooth and homogeneous. 
(Or do it all in the same bowl like I did - didn't think it made that big of a difference) 

5.  Use a Tb to measure out one 1 Tb per muffin spot - these created large enough donuts to for several bites for each one. If you are serving a bunch of kiddos you could certainly do 1/2 a Tb for each and create more. The smaller ones would probably be easier to dip too. 

6. Bake for 10 minutes. Check with a toothpick. Bake for another minute if the toothpick doesn't come out clean. 

7. While they are baking heat a pot of water to boiling and put a glass bowl over it. In the glass bowl combine the milk, choc chips, and chocolate bar chopped into large pieces. Stir the chocolate as it melts. This takes a few minutes but results in glossy elegant chocolate dipping sauce. 

8. When the donuts are done baking roll them gently around in the chocolate sauce and set them on a cookie tray lined with parchment paper / wax paper. 

9. When all the donuts are coated in the yummy chocolate beautiful sauce.  Put them in the freezer to let them firm up for 10-15 minutes. I noticed any I left on the counter got melty on the outside which was yummy to lick off. Unlike me, avoid this problem by storing any extras in the fridge. 

Enjoy this sweet (healthy) chocolate pumpkin treat! 

(we'll just keep the healthy part a secret) 

From my kitchen to yours