These rich protein donuts contain 16 g of protein and are also low-carb, making a healthy dessert, fun breakfast, or delicious pre or post-workout snack. Cakey and moist, our baked chocolate donuts with Nutella are easy to make ahead, quickly satisfying your cravings! If you're a fan of quick, fun desserts made with pantry staples, you'll also love my protein mug cake.
These Nutella Funfetti Donut Cookies combine the soft, cake-like texture of a donut with the rich chocolate-hazelnut flavor of Nutella and colorful sprinkles. Easy to make and perfect for birthdays, holidays, or whenever you're craving a fun bakery-style treat, they're a playful dessert that both kids and adults love.
Quick Look: Protein Donuts
- ⏱️ Prep Time: 20 minutes
- 🔥 Bake Time: 10–12 minutes
- ⏳ Total Time: About 30 minutes
- 🍪 Yield: 8 donuts
- 🔥 Calories: 220
- 🍫 Flavor Profile: Sweet, buttery, chocolate-hazelnut flavored with festive sprinkles in every bite.
- 🍩 Texture: Soft, tender, and cake-like with a donut-inspired crumb.
- 🧩 Difficulty: Easy. Craving another easy treat? My Cookie Dough Protein Balls are low-carb energy bites packed with high-protein ingredients.
- ⚡ Best For: Birthday parties, holiday cookie trays, bake sales, and family-friendly desserts.
- 🎉 Occasion: Celebrations, special treats, and festive gatherings.
- 🍳 Cooking Method: Baked.
- 📦 Make-Ahead Friendly: Yes, the cookies can be baked ahead and stored in an airtight container.
- 🌈 Key Ingredients: Nutella adds rich chocolate-hazelnut flavor, while rainbow sprinkles create the classic funfetti look.
- 🧪 Why This Recipe Works: Combining a soft donut-like cookie base with Nutella and colorful sprinkles creates a bakery-style treat that is both fun and irresistible.
- 💡 Chef's Tip: Avoid overbaking. The cookies should look set around the edges but still soft in the center for the best texture.
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Key Ingredients Explained
Nutella: Nutella is the star ingredient, adding rich chocolate-hazelnut flavor and helping create a soft, tender texture. Its smooth consistency blends easily into the dough and keeps the cookies moist. If you're a Nutella fan, be sure to try my Nutella cookies, which deliver the same irresistible chocolate-hazelnut flavor in a classic cookie form.
Rainbow Sprinkles: The sprinkles create the classic funfetti look and add pops of color throughout the cookies. Use jimmies-style sprinkles rather than nonpareils, which can bleed color into the dough.
All-Purpose Flour: Flour provides structure while still allowing the cookies to remain soft and cake-like rather than dense or chewy.
Butter: Butter adds richness and contributes to the tender crumb that makes these cookies taste more like donuts than traditional cookies.
Eggs: Eggs help bind the dough together while providing moisture and lift, resulting in a lighter texture.
How to Make This Recipe
- Prepare the protein donut batter: Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Grease the wells of a 6-cavity donut pan.
- In a large bowl, whisk your wet ingredients (yogurt, eggs, oil, and vanilla extract) until combined.
- Then, whisk in the dry ingredients (almond flour, chocolate whey protein, sweetener, cocoa powder, and baking powder) until forming a smooth mixture. Add just enough milk/water until getting a thick batter with a pourable consistency. TIP: You may have to adjust the amount of liquid depending on the type of flour you use. It will alter the baking time!
- Fill each well about ¾ full and bake just until the tops are firm to the touch, about 10-15 minutes. Place the pan on a wire rack and let the donuts cool in the pan. NOTE: If you have a leftover donut batter, clean and dry the pan, grease 1-3 wells, pour the leftover batter into them, and bake.
- To frost donuts with Nutella: You may pipe Nutella on top of your donuts and garnish them with a few sprinkles, or you can dip your high-protein donut tops onto melted Nutella/ peanut butter, or melted chocolate and garnish them with sprinkles.
Other Protein Desserts
- Low-carb protein bars
- Protein ice cream recipe
- Shamrock protein shake recipe
- Edible protein cookie dough
- No-bake protein balls
- Peanut butter protein blondies
Love donuts? Try these pumpkin donuts, pancake donuts, and apple cider baked donuts.
FAQs
Yes! Each protein donut contains 16 grams of protein, healthy fats, no refined sugar, and won't spike insulin because they are also low-carb. Serve them for breakfast or as a pre or post-workout snack.
Yes! These protein cake donuts can be made ahead, and then refrigerated for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 2 months.
Yes! Just make sure to preheat the air fryer for 2-5 minutes at 350 degrees F and use a silicone donut pan that fits into the basket of your air fryer.
More High Protein Desserts
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Protein Donut Recipe
Equipment
- 1 6-cavity donut baking pan
- 1 whisk
- 1 large mixing bowl
- 1 medium microwave-safe bowl or pipping bag
Ingredients
Donuts
- ½ cup full-fat Greek yogurt or blended full-fat cottage cheese until smooth. the full-fat dairy will provide moisture and tenderness to these baked donuts.
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil or a mild vegetable oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup almond flour bleached (you may use about ¾ cup all-purpose flour if you aren't on a low-carb diet, but it'll alter the texture of these chocolate protein donuts and may take a little longer to bake them. If you prefer oat flour, you'll need 1 cup of it and add about 2-3 extra tablespoons of milk or water to this recipe because oat flour absorbs more liquid than almond flour. Your donuts will also take longer to bake. I haven't tested with coconut flour which is even more absorbent than oat flour)
- ½ cup chocolate whey protein powder I used protein isolate for denser donuts, but you can use casein protein powder for fluffier donuts and decrease the amount of water/milk
- ½ cup stevia in the raw Swerve Granular or white granulated sugar if you aren't on a keto diet
- 1 teaspoon cocoa powder Dutch Process only
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk or water, or regular milk, or more if needed.
Frosting
- ½ cup Keto Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Spread or Nutella. You can either be pipped on top of your chocolate protein donuts, or you can quickly melt it in a medium microwave-safe bowl and dip the top of your donuts in it). Other suggestions: Melted peanut butter or melted dark chocolate.
- Low-carb/sugar-free Funfetti sprinkles optional Or other garnishes: chocolate sprinkles or chopped nuts such as pistachios.
Instructions
- Prepare the protein donut batter: Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Grease the wells of a 6-cavity donut pan.
- In a large bowl, whisk your wet ingredients (yogurt, eggs, oil, and vanilla extract) until combined.
- Then, whisk in the dry ingredients (almond flour, chocolate whey protein, sweetener, cocoa powder, and baking powder) until forming a smooth mixture. Add just enough milk/water until getting a thick batter with a pourable consistency. TIP: You may have to adjust the amount of liquid depending on the type of flour you use. It will alter the baking time!
- Fill each well about ¾ full and bake just until the tops are firm to the touch, about 10-15 minutes. Place the pan on a wire rack and let the donuts cool in the pan. NOTE: If you have a leftover donut batter, clean and dry the pan, grease 1-3 wells, pour the leftover batter into them, and bake.
- To frost donuts with Nutella: You may pipe Nutella on top of your donuts and garnish them with a few sprinkles, or you can dip your high-protein donut tops onto melted Nutella/ peanut butter, or melted chocolate and garnish them with sprinkles.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
** Nutrition labels on easyanddelish.com are for educational purposes only. This info is provided as a courtesy and is only an estimate, since the nutrition content of recipes can vary based on ingredient brand or source, portion sizes, recipe changes/variations, and other factors. We suggest making your own calculations using your preferred calculator, based on which ingredients you use, or consulting with a registered dietitian to determine nutritional values more precisely.
Please note that health-focused and diet information provided on easyanddelish.com is for educational purposes and does not constitute medical advice, nor is it intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease. Consult with your doctor or other qualified health professional prior to initiating any significant change in your diet or exercise regimen, or for any other issue necessitating medical advice.
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Comment and rate the recipe. Also follow us on Pinterest at @easyanddelish for more delish recipes.This post was first published on April 24, 2017.
These look amazingly delicious specially that rich frosting.
Yum!
I love evrything that goes with Nutella, the best!!!
Denise, sorry for leaving another comment today, somehow I thought my first comment did not go through a couple of days ago...
No worries!! Thank you so much for doing a second time.
Oh Denise, this look so pretty and delicious, I am loving all the colors of the confetti on it...great chocolate treat!
I hope you are enjoying your week 🙂
Nutella? Say no more! Be still, my heart. 🙂 These look great -- thanks.
Wow! these look like some fun and delicious donuts, love these Denise.
Oh Denise, can I have a couple of these? They look awesome, and I love the confetti sprinkles on it!
Have a great week ahead 🙂
What a fun dessert! A wonderful recipe to make when something sweet is calling!
These are WAY too tempting! Thanks for that!