Guinness Chocolate Donuts

Last St Patrick’s Day I made Guinness chocolate cupcakes and proclaimed that all my future chocolate cakes would include Guinness.  I’m glad I decided to do the same with these donuts.

Guinness adds a richness and “je ne sais quoi” that makes any chocolate cake or donut unbeatable.  This is the first time I’ve attempted chocolate donuts and they turned out perfectly moist and flavourful.  You also end up with a can of Guinness that’s still pretty full, and you can have a nice afternoon beverage (although I’ve been known to enhance my Friday/Saturday night baking sessions with a glass of wine, who’s with me?)

I upped the St Patrick’s Day factor on these with a green glaze, but feel free to go with any colour.  You could up the chocolate factor by replacing the 1 cup of icing sugar with 3/4 cup icing sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa.  You could also up the celebration factor by replacing the milk with Bailey’s.

Happy St Patrick’s Day – where everyone is at least 1/8th Irish for the day!

Ingredients

• 1 cup cake flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• Pinch baking soda
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 cup salted butter, melted
• 6 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 cup Guinness
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla

Glaze Ingredients

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 2 tbsp milk (or Bailey’s)
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• Green food colouring, to your preference

Steps

Preheat oven to 425F and grease a donut tin with butter.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Stir with a whisk until uniform and set aside.  In a small bowl, whisk together Guinness, sour cream, egg and vanilla and set aside.

Whisk together butter and sugar in a large bowl.  Add half the dry ingredients and whisk until incorporated.  Add wet ingredients, then remaining dry ingredients, whisking until just incorporated after each addition.

Spoon batter into donut pan until 1/2-3/4 full.  Bake 7-8 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean and allow to cool completely on a wire rack before glazing.

Whisk together icing sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth.  Stir in food colouring a little at a time until you get your desired colour.  Dip donuts in glaze, wiggling around to cover the sides.  Allow to set on a rack with aluminum foil underneath to catch drips (trust me, it saves you lots of mess).