Caramel. Even the word is an onomatopoeia; it sounds just as gloriously velvety and smooth as the thing it describes. But that’s the English language for you folks. I’m terrible at speaking foreign languages but I love how they work, I think because I was a Latin geek at school and really enjoyed learning all the beautiful prose. A not so interesting fact about me that you didn’t think you’d find in a recipe for caramel balls.

So back to caramel love. For Mr H’s 30th birthday I threw him a surprise chocolate themed party; the party itself was not a surprise but the theme definitely was. He hates any sort of dressing up so I deemed it only necessary to add some sort of fancy dress element and given our shared love of chocolate (the love is shared, the chocolate often not) there was only one obvious choice.

I dressed as the Cadbury’s caramel bunny, with bunny ears and a pink bow. And the party went as smoothly as, well, caramel! So let’s segue equally as smoothly now onto these beauties. The caramel is so gooey, sweet and delicious, and by freezing it it’s possible to roll it into balls quite easily which the melted chocolate covers really wonderfully. The end result is a delicate crunch of chocolate as you bite in and all the caramel just oozes out. You need to try it to know what I mean though, so don’t delay!

Ingredients

For the caramel

• 1 cup dates
• 2/3 cup cashew butter
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• Pinch of Himalayan salt

For the chocolate

• 1/4 cup cacao butter
• 3 tbsp cacao powder
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• Pinch of Himalayan salt

For the caramel, simply combine the ingredients in a blender or food processor and whizz for 1-2 minutes until smooth. Place in a container and freeze for around 4 hours until the mixture has hardened up. Remove from the freezer and roll into small balls, then place back in the freezer while you make the chocolate.

To do this, melt the cacao butter in a bowl over a saucepan half full with water on a medium heat, stirring until melted, then remove the bowl from the heat and add in the other ingredients. Stir well and then leave to cool for 5 minutes. Take the balls out the freezer and balancing them on a fork, dip them in one by one to the chocolate, making sure they are completely covered and letting any excess drip off once you take them out before placing them on a plastic chopping board or similar. Repeat with all the balls, then continue from the beginning again until all the chocolate mixture has been used up. Store in the fridge or freezer in an airtight container.

Love, Mrs H xx