Almond Toffee

Yes, this is really the recipe, along with all of my tips and tricks. I originally found this recipe on the Cooking Light Community bulletin board, but have tweaked it some since then. The author, Anna, has her own blog - Cookie Madness and she has scaled down the recipe in this post. Michael and I make several batches of this at Christmas to give as gifts. It will make between 2 1/2 and 3 pounds.


Almond Roca

2 Cups Sugar

1 Pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter

1 Cup Water

1/2 tsp. Salt

2 Cups Almonds -- the "shaved" kind, not slivers or whole

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 pound of milk chocolate chips (about 1 1/3 bags

Reserve 1-2 tablespoons of the almonds and set aside.

Mix sugar, butter, water, and salt in large, heavy saucepan and heat to boiling over medium to medium high heat. Make sure there's room in the saucepan for the mixture to foam up and boil. Heat mixture over medium to medium high until it foams and reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer, stirring occasionally.

When temp reaches 240, stir in 2 cups of almonds. Stir mixture constantly and watch temp carefully until temp reaches 290 - 292.

Remove from heat, stir in soda and QUICKLY pour onto a cookie sheet covered with buttered or greased wax paper. Mixture should start to harden immediately.

As mixture hardens, sprinkle chocolate over hardening mixture and spread the chocolate around until they melt.

Sprinkle melted chocolate with reserved almonds. Crushing them as you sprinkle them on.

Let sit until toffee hardens and chocolate sets.

NOTES:

For this recipe to turn out perfect, you have to watch temperatures CAREFULLY. Don't let the almonds burn (so use medium to medium high heat) and don't remove the mixture from the stove before temp reaches 290. If you do, you'll get chewy almond roca.

I use a Silpat instead of the waxed paper and it works wonderfully. I had problems with the waxed paper sticking.

A digital thermometer works very well with this because getting the temperature right is so important.

It will start getting dark and smoke as it is approaching 290.

You can use milk, semi-sweet or dark chocolate to your preference.