there are few words to adequately describe just how good our caramel-filled chocolate balls are. mouth-watering, decadent, eye-closed pleasure gives you some idea.

molten morsels of oozing, cakey, sugar-coated goodies – these chocolatey, caramely balls are almost too much. almost.

essentially doughnut holes filled with sticky liquid caramel, they are a naughty treat to be shared with friends – try as you might, you will not be able to manage more than a couple before you slip into a chocolate-caramel coma.

our goodies are adapted from this recipe. you’ll need:

2 1/2 cups plain flour
1 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp coarse salt
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup buttermilk
4 tblsp melted unsalted butter
2 large eggs
bag of store-bought caramels (the chewy kind, not the hard ones)
5 to 6 cups vegetable oil

take two large mixing bowls. in one, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. in the other bowl, whisk one cup of the sugar, the buttermilk, eggs and butter. pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until you have a sticky dough.

empty your dough onto a floured surface. pat the dough into a flatish ball, adding flour as required. i needed to add quite a lot of extra flour to get it to dough consistency.

roll out the dough to about 1/3-inch thickness and cut into 2 1/2-inch circles with a cookie cutter or small glass. keep re-rolling the leftover dough until it is all used up. place a caramel on each circle of dough, close the dough around it and then roll it in your hands to form a ball.

cover a large baking sheet or tray with a few layers of paper towels and fill a wide shallow bowl with the remaining cup of sugar.

heat the oil in a large heavy-based pan or pot until it is 175C (350F) on a candy thermometer. if you don’t have one, drop of small piece of bread into the oil. when the bread starts bubbling as soon as it hits the oil its hot enough. if it turns brown straight away, it is too hot.

fry the balls a few at a time, turning after a minute. the original recipe called for five minutes, but i found that they only needed three minutes cooking time total, even when i turned down the heat.

transfer the balls on to the paper towels and allow to cool for a few minutes. before they dry completely, roll them in the sugar to coat. eat them straight away.

the outside of the balls will be crisp and sugary, while the inside will be still a little gooey and cakey. not to mention the molten liquid caramel that oozes out when you bite into them. warning: you may need to revisit this post after eating.

(source: adapted from this recipe)