Irish Cream Chocolate Doughnuts – Dense chocolate cake doughnuts dipped in an Irish cream glaze. And what makes these even better, they’re baked, not fried!
And just like that, we’re almost at the next holiday! St. Patty’s Day is less than a week away but I have yet to share any yummy recipes for you guys to celebrate with. I better get my stuff together this week!
Well, your wish is my command. Today, I bring to you an incredible doughnut that’s got the perfect touch of Irish flare – Irish Cream Chocolate Doughnuts.
These doughnuts mark the second recipe I’ve made with my handy-dandy doughnut pan. The first was this apple cider crumb doughnut back in the fall. They turned out so incredibly well that I am seriously questioning whether I’ll be frying my doughnuts again. So it’s no surprise that when deciding to make a new doughnut, I went straight for the doughnut pan.
These doughnuts are cake-based so they use a thick batter instead of yeast dough. In other words, they’re so easy to make. You won’t even need a stand mixer!
They’re also pretty dense and thick, almost like a cakey brownie, which makes them that much better for dunking into your coffee. And because of the Irish cream glaze, a dunk in the coffee will get you that much closer to an Irish coffee.
After you’ve made the batter and baked in the doughnut pans, you just let the doughnuts cool completely and then dip in the Irish cream glaze, which is simply powdered sugar, heavy cream, and Irish cream liqueur.
When making these doughnuts, there are few tips to consider:
- Make sure not to fill the doughnut molds too much, or else the doughnuts won’t be able to hold their round shape when baking.
- Doughnuts must be completely cool to the touch before glazing, or else the glaze will melt right off the doughnut.
- To get a smooth look on top, you’ll want to glaze the part of the doughnut that touched the mold (aka the bottom of the doughnut).
- To get a great coating of glaze, I dunked my doughnuts in the glaze once, let the sit for a couple minutes, and then dunked them a couple more times.
And there you have it – an incredible treat to enjoy before all your St. Patrick’s Day celebrations this weekend. Or hey, you can even eat them the next day to ease the hangovers.
See you on Thursday for another festive treat to enjoy this weekend – but this one will be a little more family friendly!
Here are all the kitchen tools and serveware that I used in today’s recipe. For each item sold below, I make a small commission. I only recommend items that I own and love so you can trust that each recommendation is tried and true. Thank you for supporting CPA!
Irish Cream Chocolate Doughnuts
Ingredients
For the chocolate doughnuts:
- 2/3 cup dutch-processed cocoa
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup milk
- 2 teaspoons white vinegar
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 cup chocolate chips
For the Irish cream glaze:
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1/4 cup Irish cream liqueur
Instructions
To make chocolate doughnuts:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 2 doughnut pans. Make sure all part of the mold is greased but don't let the grease pool at the bottom. Set aside
- In a large bowl, whisk cocoa, flour, sugar, baking powder, espresso powder, and salt together until combined. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk eggs, vanilla, milk, and white vinegar until combined. Add to flour mixture and fold together with canola oil. Fold in chocolate chips.
- Spoon mixture into prepare doughnut pans until almost full, but not filled past the top. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted into doughnut. Let them cool in pan for 1 minute and then gently remove them from molds and place on cooling racks. I find a spoon helps to remove the doughnuts gently. Let them cool completely before glazing.
To glaze the doughnuts:
- Combine sugar, cream, and Irish cream together. Make sure the glaze is thick like maple syrup. If it's too thick, add more Irish cream. if it's too thin, add more powdered sugar.
- Dip cooled doughnut into doughnut. I find that the doughnuts look best when glazing the smooth side. Set on wire rack placed on top of a baking sheet to let the glaze drip down. Repeat with rest of the doughnuts. I did this process 2 more times to get a thick amount of glaze on my doughnuts. Let them set for a few minutes or serve immediately.
Notes
Pin for later:
More desserts you’ll love:
Irish Cream Tres Leches
Apple Cider Crumb Doughnuts
Cinnamon Chocolate Muffins
I bought the same donut pan a few months and it is life changing. I love your recipe. so flavorful and moist.
I love these! I always make a batch of homemade Irish cream every winter and generally start to run out of ideas about 3/4 of the way through the bottle. Can’t wait to give these a try – booze for breakfast is always a good thing in my book!
These doughnuts look fantastic! I love that they’re baked too. I’m going to need to get one of those handy dandy doughnut pans!
Oh man am I craving these donuts right now Sharon! I love that glaze on them, and your photography looks amazing!
I love my doughnut pan so much and now I have a new recipe to make in them! I feel like these would be perfect any time of year!
Donuts! What’s not to love?! Your chocolate cake doughnuts dipped in an Irish cream glaze look perfect for this week!
Oh my yum! I can’t wait to try your recipe! These look ah-mazing!
The donut pan is the best piece of equipment ever made! These donuts look
So moist too. Yum all the way around. Definitely worth a try!
Those donuts look amazing and anything but dry and cakey. That’s one of the reasons I haven’t like cake donuts but yours look so moist. I’ve been thinking about a pan like yours. You’ve convinced me.
Oh my dear, these look positively divine! Love your photos, the details are so striking. The combo of chocolate and Irish cream is the best!
Oh my gosh so yummy! They’d be great for a St Patrick’s Day party 😀
Or breakfast 😉
im absolutely in love with the flavor and pictures (those drizzle side shots)! i love Irish cream flavors in general and turning them into donuts is genius.
Aw thanks so much!! So glad you like them!
Oh my gosh, these doughnuts are so cute! I need to get a doughnut mold like the one you have. The ones I have now seem to make the doughnuts too thin and they don’t hold their shape very well. So I usually make muffins instead.
Aw man! I do love making doughnut muffins. You should check out my recipe for the pumpkin ones. They’re killer!
Question-why use all-purpose flour instead of cake flour? What would the
difference in texture be?
Good question – these are definitely dense doughnuts. Almost like a cakey brownie. If I used cake flour, they’d be light and airy, which is not what I want here. I would typically use cake flour in cupcakes or layered cakes where I want a spongey texture instead of a dense one. Thanks for the question!
These look so so yummy! A doughnut pan just went on my Amazon list. 🙂
Yess!! You’re gonna love it!
What a delicious idea! We are crazy for donuts in our family!
Love that!
Yum, these look delicious! I would love to veganize them 🙂
Thanks so much! Let me know if you have a chance to try them!
These doughnuts look amazing! Would love to try them as a roll out doughnut and fry them! The flavors sound beyond amazing!
Thanks so much!
These are gorgeous! I have some Irish liquor at my cabin that would be perfect for making these!
Yay! I love when I have all the ingredients lying around!
Mmmm. These donuts look so delicious! Chocolate and Irish cream are definitely
two fun ingredients together. I love baking donuts and I’ll be trying your recipe as soon as possible
Yay thanks so much!
These donuts look so good and perfect for St. Patrick’s day!
They really are!
Yes! I just got my doughnut molds, and this recipe is perfect to get my hands dirty this week. Thanks for sharing.
You’re so welcome!