Healthier Chocolate Donut Holes

After making my Healthier Air Fryer Donut Holes, they quickly became a staple.

I knew I needed to come up with a chocolate version, but chocolate is very tricky. It’s not as simple as just using a chocolate protein powder or adding cocoa powder to the original recipe.

Cocoa powder dries out baked goods quite a bit- so these took some experimenting to get them exactly right, but I am thrilled with how these turned out.

These chocolate donut holes are a chocolate lover’s dream. They take only 4 minutes in the air fryer, contain just 35 calories each, and are downright delicious.

I love having these as a quick & easy low-calorie snack, but you can also follow this recipe to make your own full-size chocolate donuts, too.

I whipped these up, topped them with chocolate frosting and sprinkles, and I was in chocolatey heaven.

Let’s walk through the recipe, because you’re gonna want to make these.

 

How to make these Healthier Chocolate Donut Holes

To make these chocolate donut holes, all you have to do is mix up some dry ingredients, add applesauce and butter, and mix until you have a dough!

From there, it’s as simple as rolling them into donut holes and popping them into the air fryer.

These expand a bit when cooked, so don’t worry about making them huge.

I like to keep these on the smaller side, but there’s no set rule for how large to make these. You may yield slightly more or less than I did, but you should aim to get 25-30 total donut holes.

Some will be smaller and some larger, but we’re not after perfection around here.

Depending on the size of your air fryer, you’ll likely need to do 2 batches. I like to make sure I leave enough space between all the chocolate donut holes so they fully cook all the way around. I like the outside to have a nice crisp to it, so it’s important to make sure the air can make it all the way around!

As long as your air fryer is preheated (I learned when making my Protein Churro Bites and Air Fryer Crispy Chicken that preheating makes a HUGE difference) these should only take about 4 minutes total. Let them go for 2 minutes, then open up the air fryer and flip them over.

After just 2 minutes, they should have expanded a bit already! We flip them over to not only help them fully bake all the way around, but also to make sure they don’t flatten too much on one side.

After 4 minutes, they should be perfect.

Whether you want to coat them in a glaze or powdered sugar (melted chocolate would also be a great idea) they’re ready to coat immediately. I did half my batch as glazed and the other half as powdered sugar because I couldn’t choose…

I think I enjoyed the glazed chocolate donut holes a little bit more because the glaze adds some extra moisture, but I’ll leave it up to you to decide that for yourself.

 

The best protein powder for protein donut holes

With my original Air Fryer Donut Holes, quite a few people told me that their dough was very sticky and hard to work with. That is most definitely due to using a protein that is 100% whey.

Whey-based protein gets very sticky. That’s why I swear by PEScience protein powder, which is a blend of whey protein and casein protein. The addition of casein makes such a huge difference. Trust me.

Not to mention, this chocolate truffle flavor is my favorite protein powder on the planet. The flavor is deliciously rich chocolate, which works perfectly for this recipe.

I tested this recipe with whey protein to see the difference, and I found the whey protein dough to be noticeably stickier.

Whenever I’m working with sticky dough, I use either the “wet hands” method or the “floured hands” method.

• Wet hands means filling a small bowl up with cold water. Then, dip your fingers in the cold water to be able to work with the dough and form it into balls. This typically works very well, but sometimes can make the dough very wet and/or too soft. So, that’s where the second method comes into play!
• Floured hands is simply flouring up your hands before forming the donut holes. Sometimes this method isn’t ideal because it leaves a coating or dry flour on the outside, but it won’t matter here! Since we’re going to coat the donut holes with either glaze or powdered sugar, you won’t eve notice it!

Feel free to try each method and see which you prefer. I gave both a shot and preferred the floured method, but either works!

At the end of the day, whey protein still works great, but it’s incredibly important that you add the whey protein powder as the final ingredient. When it’s mixed in with everything else, I find the dough becomes much stickier than if it is added as the very last ingredient.

When it came to the taste test, I truly enjoyed both the same, so you can’t go wrong with any type of protein powder.

 

Other ways to bake protein donuts

If you don’t feel like making protein donut holes in the air fryer, here are a very alternative methods for you:

1. Add the dough to a donut pan and bake them as full donuts in the oven.
2. Form the dough into doughnuts to bake in the air fryer.
3. When in doubt… turn it into a waffle.

This entire recipe ended up making 2 Belgian waffles when I tested it. And yes, I added some chocolate chips for good measure.

While these aren’t the most “macro-friendly” waffles, each one was about 450 calories and 25g of protein, which is still a great breakfast in my eyes.

Plus, these tasted EXACTLY like brownies. For whatever reason, these stay a little bit more dense and gooey in the waffle maker vs the air fryer, and they tasted very similar to brownies. I’m not mad about that.

 

More Protein Chocolate Recipes

If these chocolate protein donut holes are not enough to satisfy your chocolate craving, I’ve got a ton of amazing chocolate treats for you to dive into.

And don’t worry, they’re all high-protein as well.

 

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