Baked Chocolate Doughnuts with Peanut Butter Icing #Recipe

Yes, chocolate and peanut butter just might be the perfect combination. Married together in a doughnut? Well, that can't be wrong. But this recipe comes with an added bonus, it is baked and not fried.

Okay, baked doughnuts are not as dense as their fried cousins, but I am willing to let that one slide. It is still a little cakey peice of heaven with an iconic hole in the middle.

Now to make these little beauties you will need a doughnut pan like this one:

They are pretty easy to find. I ordered mine a few years ago from King Arthur Flour, but Wilton now has their own pan. Now you can find a whole host of delicious recipes for it on Pinterest or various blogs. After a while, you won't even miss the grease smell in your house. I don't.

Baked Chocolate Peanut Butter Doughnuts

adapted from Averie Cooks

You Will Need:

• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2 Tbsp. peanut butter
• 3/4 c. cake flour
• 1/3 c. super fine sugar (or pulse regular sugar in a food processor till fine)
• 1/4 c. Dutch processed cocoa
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 c. buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp. real vanilla extract

Glaze:

• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2 Tbsp. peanut butter
• 1/3 c. + powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp. real vanilla extract
• 1-2 Tbsp. buttermilk or cream for desired consistency

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease the doughnut pan with butter, shortening or Wilton's cake release.

Melt the 2 Tbsp. butter and 2 Tbsp. peanut butter in the microwave. Try 20 seconds, stir and use 15 second increments till creamy and smooth. 

In your stand mixer combine the dry batter ingredients. Whisk to combine. Then add the wet ingredients and peanut butter mixture.

Piping into the doughnut pan is much easier than spooning the batter. Either use a pasty bag or snip one end off of a ziplock bag. Tap the batter filled pan against the counter to release air bubbles and smooth out the batter.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let the doughnuts cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan on a cooling rack. Do not try to take them out of the pan right away (I repeat!) you will end up with more broken doughnuts than whole. If you greased the pan well then when cooled slightly they will come out easily. Invert the pan and coax out with a toothpick around the edge of the pan.

As the doughnuts cool make the glaze.

Again start by melting the butter and peanut butter together. With beaters slowly add powdered sugar and vanilla extract. The add the buttermilk or cream a few teaspoons at a time till you have the desired consistency. I like mine thick and spoon-able, so I added less than 2 Tablespoons.

Top with sprinkes, nuts or gobble them down plain. These are a good and cake-y alternative!

Enjoy.