Baked pumpkin donuts paired with rich chocolate frosting. These donuts have the perfect amount of sweetness without over doing it. Feel free to dress up with sprinkles for whatever holiday is around the corner!
Who doesn’t love a good donut recipe? And if you don’t, are you really human? 😂
Donuts are some of my FAVORITE treats to make. Maybe it’s because they are so quick to whip up and just about fail-proof. Maybe because they are the perfect size? Or maybe it’s just because donuts are just straight fun and DELISH. Regardless, it’s always a good day when donut pan comes out.
It amazes me that these donuts are so low in calories because they are huge and seriously drool worthy. They have the most perfect moist cake-like texture with just the right amount of sweetness and spice. And the rich chocolate frosting is like the icing on top of the cake! Or frosting on the donut, in this case 😉 But I’ll stop my bad humor while I’m ahead. In all seriousness though, the richness of the frosting balances out the more neutral-flavored donuts absolutely perfectly.
Ingredients Used
- Protein powder – I used PEScience Snickerdoodle protein powder for this recipe. PEScience is my tried and true! Quality ingredients, amazing flavor, and always bakes SO DANG WELL. I will never look elsewhere. If you need to sub, I would make sure to do so with a similar whey + casein blend. For all PEScience products, you can use my affiliate code LaurenFitFoodie to save 10%.
- Coconut flour
- Oat flour – you can replace with all-purpose, whole wheat or almond flour too. I just the love the flavor the oat flour brings!
- Canned pumpkin
- Egg whites
- Sweetener – I used Swerve.
- Baking essentials – baking powder, vanilla extract, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, salt.
Why You’ll Love These Pumpkin Donuts
- Ridiculous easy to make – just throw ingredients into a bowl, mix, and bake!
- Makes a small batch (of 6) but can easily be doubled or triple.
- Low calorie, low carb, low fat 🙌🏼
- Packed with protein.
- FUN to make and super versatile if you want to switch up the frosting or sprinkles!
- Delicious plain, but awesome with frosting!
TIPS FOR BEST DONUTS
Make these donuts in advance so that you can eat them chilled the next day!
While they are amazing the day of, they are 10x better after refrigerating. This allows the flavors to come together and brings an amazing rich taste to the donuts!
I would also recommend putting them in the fridge for an hour or two before frosting. This helps in hardening the chocolate faster when the time comes for you to frost. It can take a little time for the chocolate to harden and make a “shell,” so what I like to do is chill the donuts first, then put the donuts in the freezer for just 5-10 minutes after adding the chocolate to go ahead and harden them; then I will store them in the fridge. It is a lot less messier this way!
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Pumpkin Protein Donuts with Chocolate Frosting (Easy + Healthy)
Baked pumpkin donuts paired with rich chocolate frosting. These donuts have the perfect amount of sweetness without over doing it. Feel free to dress up with sprinkles for whatever holiday is around the corner!
Ingredients
Pumpkin Protein Donuts:
- 1 scoop vanilla or snickerdoodle protein powder (31g)
- 1/4 cup oat flour (30g)
- 2 Tbsp coconut flour (14g)
- Dash of salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 Tbsp Swerve granular sweetener (24g)
- 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 2/3 cup canned pumpkin (160g)
- 1/2 cup egg whites (120g)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Chocolate Frosting:
- 3 Tbsp semi-sweet chocolate chips (45g)
- 1 tsp coconut oil (5g)
Instructions
Pumpkin Pie Donuts
- Preheat oven to 350 °F. Spray a donut pan with nonstick cooking spray and place it on a cookie sheet.
- Add all the donut ingredients to a large bowl. Using a hand (or stand) mixer, mix to combine.
- Add the donut batter to 6 donut molds.
- Bake for 17-20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
- When done, take donuts out and let cool on a cooling rack. For best results, I recommend refrigerating donuts once the have cooled for at least an hour before adding the frosting.
Chocolate Frosting
- In small bowl, add chocolate chips and coconut oil. Microwave in 30 seconds intervals, stirring in between, until the chocolate is melted. Then you can either dip donuts in the frosting use a knife to spread the chocolate on top.
- To harden the chocolate quicker, place in freezer for 5-10 minutes after frosting. Then transfer donuts to an airtight container and keep stored in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Notes
MFP entry: Pumpkin Protein Donuts with Chocolate Frosting
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1 donut w/ frosting (62g)Amount Per Serving: Calories: 118Total Fat: 4.2gSaturated Fat: 2.5gCarbohydrates: 12.2gFiber: 2.5gSugar: 5.2gProtein: 7.9g
I love pumpkin year round, so these will be on repeat! The icing is so thick and gooey almost like a ganache!
I will probably still be making these in the summer they are so good. I’ve tried them with a few different toppings now because the donut base is so versatile 🙂
I’ve been eyeing up donuts for a while now and when I saw how easy these donuts were to make, I had to make it them! I made them with the Cinnamon protein powder and they were amazing! I love how you can switch whatever toppings you want too. I had some regular icing on hand so used that but plan to try the icing Lauren used next time. These are a must try!
I absolutely love these donuts! Such a yummy recipe and great for breakfast or a quick snack!
I enjoyed these donuts! I did think the icing was a little bit too “fake” sweet, but that comes with the territory when making things lighter with artificial sweeteners and combined with the donut base it was still yummy. (@squatto4moscato on IG)
These donuts are bomb!! And my daughter loves then too!
These donuts are one of the best! I made these for my family for the holidays and they all loved them. Now I make these every few weeks to eat when I’m craving a donuts. Also the chocolate icing is delicious 😻
I’ve made pumpkin protein donuts before and they were pretty okay but a little dry so I think I’m gonna try out your recipe next! Looks 100 times better too lol maybe adding some mi I chocolate chips would kick it up a notch!
This was my first time following one of Lauren’s recipes and I’m a believer!! I have tried several different donut recipes and while some are better than others, none have nailed the donut texture quite like this recipe! I should add that instead of oat flour I used almond flour (1:1) and they were amazing. Thanks Lauren!
If you’re looking for some amazingly fluffy (i.e. not dense), protein packed, lower carb, and low fat, look no further than these Pumpkin Pie Donuts with Chocolate Frosting. With or without the icing, these are amazing (if you like pumpkin spice). Though I really think you could take the base and just change the flavor easily with different seasoning. Nutrition for my batch (with icing): 15.6C, 2.7F, and 8.3P.
Thank you for the feedback Cydni! They really do pack a lot of volume for the macro content!
Do you think these would work as muffins? I’m not the world’s greatest baker so I’m not sure about time, temp, etc.
Hey Bonnie! I think they would work amazing as muffins actually! That is a great idea 😉 i’m not 100% on baking time, but I would guess it would be the same. I would still bake it at 350 F too!
What can be substituted for the protein powder? I no longer use any protein powders but really want to try these?
Just replace with more flour! Just note that the protein powder adds sweetness to it, so you will likely need to add more sweetener 🙂
Can we up the oat flour or try gluten free instead of coconut? Not a fan of coconut flour
Hey Shannon, I haven’t tried personally, but if were to, I would try adding 3-4x as much normal flour (oat, all-purpose, gluten-free) that is called for in coconut flour instead. Coconut flour is much more absorbent so less is needed when using it compared to most other flours. Let me know if you try it! Would love to hear how it turns out 🙂