The secret to creating miso caramels is in pouring just enough hot water (or try coffee!) into the mix,
facilitating a creamy, luscious whip that doesn’t set when frozen. Then we store them in the freezer
behind the fish fingers where no one will find them. You can choose a white cacao shell to coat, with
dehydrated strawberry powder or just plain dark chocolate. Often they go straight into our mouths from
frozen, no shell or rolling necessary.

Method
Soak the dates in boiling hot water for 4-5 minutes. While the dates soak, warm the jar of cashew nut butter by carefully placing the sealed jar in a bowl of hot water.
Drain the soaked dates, discarding the soaking liquid. Remove and compost the date stones.

Blitz the fleshy dates with your warmed cashew butter, hot water, a squeeze of lemon and miso paste in a food processor or blender until smooth. If your kitchen is cold, the mixture might seize up. You can fix this by adding a little extra hot water.

Scrape the sticky ball of caramel into silicone ice cube molds to set (unless you feel you added a lot of water, in which case it’s best to use teaspoons as outlined below). I do this in several batches because I have only one silicone tray.

You could also use two teaspoons and lots of patience, rolling the mixture
into beautiful little bonbons and dropping on a lined tray to freeze until set (as pictured below, which is my preferred method).

When the caramels are frozen, collect them in a ziplock freezer bag.
As soon as all the caramels have been formed, frozen and collected, melt the chocolate over a bain marie without letting the water violently boil. Optional, add cacao butter shavings if you have them, to help the coating behave better.

Briefly and briskly tumble each caramel into the melted chocolate directly from their frozen state. I find a fork handy for this step. Let the chocolate-coated caramels set on non-stick baking paper in the freezer before popping back into your reusable freezer bag or glass jar.

Store them in the freezer, ready to plunder at will. You can eat these straight from frozen. Alternatively, they will last for 90 minutes outside the freezer to serve at parties.