- Hey, I'm John Kanell.
And today on Preppy Kitchen
we're making easy, amazing, chocolate donuts.
So let's get started.
First off, set your oven to 350,
grab your donut pans and give them a spray.
Now, in a large bowl,
I'm gonna sift together the dry ingredients.
You want two and a quarter cups of all purpose flour,
that's 270 grams.
And, as usual, I'm using a scale, not measuring cups.
It's so much more accurate.
For example, I dumped too much in,
so now I can just take it out
and have the correct amount, perfect.
I want two thirds of a cup of granulated sugar,
that's 133 grams.
These donuts are not overly sweet.
They're perfectly sweet to let the chocolate shine through.
(laughing)
Got to refill.
Let me just grab some more granulated sugar.
(speaks in foreign language)
One trip to the pantry later, 133 grams exactly.
Now I want half a cup of cocoa powder, that's 50 grams.
I'm just zeroing out my scale in between
and dumping these things in.
And you can use natural cocoa powder or Dutch process.
Today I'm using Dutch process.
It gives you a little bit of a fudgier texture
and I love the color.
The natural cocoa powder will give you more of a rise
but we don't need that in this recipe.
I want a quarter teaspoon of baking soda,
quarter teaspoon of baking soda.
I always get them mixed up, they look exactly the same.
And one teaspoon of baking powder.
A great recipe to make with little ones, by the way,
because there's no deep fryer involved.
It's stirred together for the most part
and they can help with every single step.
And it's really fun to make too.
And for balance, half a teaspoon of salt.
I'm using kosher salt.
Time to give this a sift,
get all those lumps and bumps out.
Look at this, look at all those nonsense.
What is this?
I don't care how much you whisk,
you would be very disappointed by just chomping
into a big lump of cocoa powder that's unmixed.
Got to get a whisk, why didn't I get it?
Whisk, whisk, whisk.
My scale is done.
I'm gonna give this a really quick whisk, okay.
The dry ingredients are done.
Let's set this aside and get to the wet.
We need four tablespoons or 70 grams
of melted unsalted butter.
Normally I would have it pre melted for you
but I've been getting questions about butter explosions
in the kitchen, which has happened to me many a time.
Here's the deal.
Grab some butter paper, usually left over.
Just pop it on top of your bowl, microwave at half power,
give it 30 seconds to start and then go to 10 second bursts.
You want it to be just melted, not boiling hot
because then the water and the butter will heat up to steam,
and it'll explode all over your microwave,
which is not fun to clean.
(gentle music)
Now in a medium bowl, I need 300 mils
or one and a quarter cups of whole milk.
It's much better if your milk is room temperature
or even warm, by the way.
So if you have ice cold wet ingredients
and we add the melted butter in,
it's gonna curdle up and it's okay
but it would be even better if it didn't.
So if your milk was in the fridge just now,
I would just warm this bowl up.
Into my warm milk, I'm adding a room temperature egg.
And the milk is slightly warm, it's not hot.
Two teaspoons of vanilla,
and now I'm adding my four tablespoons of melted butter.
Whisk this up until it's nice and smooth.
So as you can see, this is a totally stir together recipe.
It's so easy to make and there's no worrying.
I love a deep fried donut, but in the morning
I am not always to be trusted around super hot oil.
Now we're gonna add the wet mixture to the dry,
and stir that until it is just combined.
By the way, if you wanted to have some fun with this recipe
there's so many things you could do.
I might add a pinch of chili powder, some cinnamon,
and a dash of cardamom to have a spicy chocolate donut,
hmm, some Mexican hot chocolate vibes.
You just wanna see those streaks of flour disappear
so don't over mix this batter.
You want it to be melt in your mouth, cakey amazing,
not like doughy and gummy.
Okay, this looks great, the beautiful color as well.
Now we're gonna transfer this to a piping bag
for ease of transfer.
If you want to amp the chocolate flavor in this up,
by the way, you could use a half to a quarter teaspoon
of espresso powder, hmm, or just espresso.
And you won't taste the coffee,
and let's make the chocolate that much more chocolatey.
Where is my little helper?
There we go, that's very full.
We're gonna make about a dozen donuts with this.
And if you don't have a piping bag
you could definitely spoon this in
or even carefully pour it in from a pourer, pouring thing
But it gets messy so this is the easiest way.
I have two baking tins here.
One's metal and one's silicone.
They both bake up really well.
I'm just hitting this with some baking spray right now.
Stuck donuts are the worst.
These both work really well.
I will say that the metal one has a shallower shape
which can be hit or miss.
Sometimes it looks really good
and sometimes it just doesn't.
This deeper one gives you a really big perfect donut shape.
I'll link to both of these in the carousel
so you guys can pick one up if you'd like.
Snip the tip off your piping bag.
And now you are gonna fill these up, oh,
about two thirds of the way full and repeat.
This is super easy.
You don't wanna over fill
and it's nice if you don't make a mess.
these fill up so beautifully when you pipe them in.
You can totally use a plastic bag
and just snip the tip off if you want as well.
Or you can make your own own piping bag
out of parchment paper.
I think I have enough for a baker's dozen today, how nice.
If you only have one baking tin,
you can definitely bake these in batches.
So bake the first one, release,
give it a wash and bake it again.
The batter will hold up in that piping bag.
Now we can pop these into the oven,
350 for just eight to 10 minutes.
Totally depends on your baking tin
so just give them a test.
They should be springy in the center,
little toothpick will come out clean.
While they bake will make our delicious chocolate glaze.
My water is warming up over like medium heat
and I'm gonna place my bowl right there.
I want half a cup of chocolate chips,
semisweet or bittersweet, it's up to you.
About two tablespoons of heavy cream.
For a silkier consistency,
I'm also adding in two tablespoons of butter.
This is all gonna melt together.
And I just wanna say, watch the water temperature.
If it's boiling away, that's too hot.
It should be a nice simmer.
Okay, look at this, just give it a couple minutes
then you can start stirring away, stir, stir, stir,
and those chocolate chips just melt together.
And this is gonna be such a delicious glaze.
It's actually a ganache and it has the most flavor.
This is what you're gonna be tasting.
And the chocolate donut is there to give you
that, like, chocolate mouth feel deliciousness
but this is the punch of flavor.
If you wanted to add some more flavors in here,
you could add a little pinch of cinnamon, chili,
cardamom, all spice, almost anything is gonna be nice here.
And you could also add some espresso powder
or some espresso just to amp up that chocolate flavor,
just like we talked about in the donuts.
This is mostly melted so I'm taking it off heat right now.
And I'm just gonna set this aside.
I don't want things to be totally melted over heat
because the chocolate can burn and seize,
it's not a good scene.
My donuts came out of the oven
and they've been cooling for about eight minutes
so it's time to pop them out.
These donuts only need about five minutes
in the pan to cool down before they invert onto a wire rack.
If you take them out too soon,
they're just very soft and they might break apart.
So just give them a couple minutes,
but don't leave them in so long that they get stuck.
Look, see, I do like the way this shape is,
it's like big donut.
This was in the metal pan, this was in the silicone.
I just like the shape better.
This however will give you more chocolate ganache
to cake, as a ratio, so...
These of course are best fresh
but you can store any leftovers
for up to three days in an airtight container.
So I see a couple stubborn lumps, which I just don't like.
Chocolate chips are not meant for melting.
They're meant for staying little chips and cookies.
But they're the most available chocolate
which is why we use them in recipes.
You could definitely use chopped chocolate in this instead
but if you're using chips like I am,
you might just want to give it a whisk
after it's off heat and it'll break those little lumps
of chocolate that are left over.
And yes, you're not actually supposed to whisk a ganache.
I know you don't wanna beat air into it,
but this is for donuts, so it's different.
Grab your donut and here's the deal.
If your glaze is warm,
you'll get a really mirror smooth finish
and it'll just go right down that donut.
If your glaze is cool, it'll sit up on top a little bit more
and you might have a little bit of like a dip mark,
but both are gonna be delicious.
You can enjoy this immediately
but that would be very messy.
These donuts need about 20 minutes
before this ganache is set
and you can eat them without making a giant mess.
Adding sprinkles to a few.
I did a few already, but I forgot the most important thing.
If you're adding sprinkles,
just wait for them to cool a little bit
so the sprinkles don't sink in.
That way, they'll look extra pretty.
This and a cup of coffee is heaven.
Hmm, oh my gosh, that is some fudgy chocolate amazingness.
This is gonna melt in your mouth
and the whole batch will disappear in just a few minutes.
I hope you get a chance to make this recipe.
And if you like this video
check out my breakfast treat playlist.