Hi! WELCOME TO DESSERT WEEK! I am so happy you’re here and hopefully as excited as I am. I’ve always been a dessert lover, I blame my grandma. She’s a coffee and dessert after dinner lady and that’s how I grew up. It is always something I gravitate toward for some reason so I figured it would be fun to create some full gluten, dairy and sugar recipes since I get that request so often. Let me just set something straight – IRL I am a healthy, wellness obsessed girl who loves a good cheeseburger and a milk shake, ya feel? This was so much fun for me. I love coming up with different combinations, both with things people love and with things people didn’t know they loved. I put lots of love and [taste testing] energy into every single one of these recipes and I cannot wait for you guys to see all of the amazing things I’ve created for you, starting with this homemade donuts recipe.
THE DOUGH
When I polled my Instagram, the cake donut won over the yeast (which I was really happy about). For some reason in my head I didn’t see a cake donut recipe having a ‘dough’ like a yeast one would. I was picturing frying cake basically. I was wrong! You can create a cake dough that you can roll out, so that’s exactly what I did! Once you’ve mixed the dough and added the chocolate chips, throw some flour on your counter and roll that baby out. This homemade donuts recipe also has buttermilk in it which makes it super tender. *pro tip if you don’t want to buy a whole thing of buttermilk, you can make your own. All you need is a little bit of milk and some vinegar or lemon. Be carefully not to over work it or you’ll get rock hard donuts. Use a donut cutter or top of a glass to cut out the desired size.
FRY
I also polled Instagram about this baked or fried situations and fried won, obvi. These get golden brown delicious just how you want them to be. Crispy on the outside but soft and pillow-ey on the inside. Once you pull them out of the oil make sure you have some paper towel or regular towel ready for them to sit on to get all of that excess oil off. You want them completely cool before you glaze them, otherwise you will have a sloppy slimy mess, my friend.
GLAZE
This cheesecake glaze is EVERYTHING you guys! I love anything with cream cheese in it, sweet or savory. This is a simple 3 ingredient glaze that you’re just going to lusciously pour over your perfectly fried donuts. I had them on a rack that was sitting on a pan. I felt like this was the best because then you can pour over the glaze and it will properly drain off of the donuts while simultaneously cooling. The glaze gets a little bit hard and crackily, just how you would find in a donut shop.
My favorite ones are actually the ones that are kind of imperfect and have those delicious looking cracks and crevasses that the glaze has seeped into. Right? Don’t those ones look the best to you, like you could just take a bite! In this particular homemade donuts recipe, the chocolate chips surprisingly kind of held their form and didn’t completely melt into the dough. So you can actually taste the chocolate and the cheesecake glaze when you bite into them. They’re honestly pretty quick to make also because you don’t have to wait for them to rise or anything!
If you love this homemade donuts recipe, you’ll love these Cannoli Cupcakes too!
Chocolate Chip Cake Donuts with Cheesecake Glaze
Ingredients
DOUGH
- 2 tbs butter room temp
- 3/4 c sugar
- 3/4 c buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 3 c flour + more for dusting
- 1 tbsp Baking powder
- 1 Tsp Baking Soda
- ½ c choco chips mini
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp salt
GLAZE
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 c milk
- oil for frying
Instructions
DOUGH
- Combine butter, sugar, egg and vanilla in a bowl until combined and slightly lighter in color.
- In a separate bowl add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and whisk until combined.
- With mixer on low, add flour mixture 1 cup at a time, alternating with buttermilk. *if you don’t have buttermilk, simply add 1 tbs lemon or vinegar to your milk and let sit 10 minutes.
- Do this until all flour and buttermilk is incorporated into the dough. DO NOT OVERWORK. Add chocolate chips and mix until just combined. Turn this out onto a floured surface and roll out to about 1/4 inch
- Heat a large pot on medium high with about 3 inches of vegetable oil. Once the oil has reached 375, begin frying donuts about 1 1/2 – 2 minutes on each side.Drain on paper towel or cooling rack and let cool completely.
GLAZE
- Mix or whisk together softened cream cheese, powdered sugar and milk. You want the glaze to be rather runny so you can pour it over the cooled donuts.
- Pour the glaze evenly over all donuts and let cool (if you can wait)
