Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels

There are increasingly fancy confections available and whilst they turn my head, the words sea salt, caramel and chocolate together always steal my attention.

The secret of success in these caramels is to use coarse crystal sea salt. The rough fragments of crystal stick to your tongue slowly melding with the contrasting sweetness of the gooey caramel.

A word of warning about separation anxiety. This can happen if your caramel mixture splits.  This can be remedied by adding a tablespoon or two of water and blending again until your caramel comes together in a glorious silky gloop.  This may sound counter intuitive, but it really does work.

These are best eaten straight from the freezer. They make excellent gifts – ensure your gifting jar is freezer safe.

 INGREDIENTS

Makes 25 caramels

9 Medjool dates, pitted
3/4 cup (130g) hazelnut butter
1 tablespoon coconut sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 tablespoons cacao powder
75g cacao butter, melted
¾ teaspoon coarse Cornish sea salt

METHOD

1. Remove the pits from the dates and soak the dates in water for 20 minutes. Drain well, reserving 4 tablespoons of soak water.

2. In a high-speed blender, whizz together the hazelnut butter, soaked and drained Medjool dates, coconut sugar and vanilla extract with 4 tablespoons of soak water from the dates. Process until it is super silky smooth.

3. Add the cacao powder and melted cacao butter and blend again so the mixture emulsifies. You should now have a lovely glossy caramel mix.

4. Transfer to a bowl, stir in the coarse sea salt by hand so it is well dispersed.

5. Place the mixture in a tin lined with parchment. Freeze until firm, remove from the tin and form into pieces.

6. Finish the caramels with a dusting of cacao powder.

7. Store in the freezer until required.

The Perfect Raw Christmas Plan contains a step by step raw Christmas plan to make Christmas easier – find out what can be made ahead and what can be frozen plus quick tips, chef cheats, a downloadable shopping list and 26 recipes to take you from Christmas Eve through to Party Time. Recipes include Christmas pudding ice cream bombe, nut roast roulade and even a black forest gateau.