I’ve been a busy little candy maker lately, anticipating the desire for holiday gifting. So far, I’ve made truffles, peanut brittle, fudge and this Almond Roca.
Watch the video showing you how to make Almond Roca, then scroll to the bottom of this post to print out the recipe so you can make it at home.
Almond roca is my favorite. My TOTAL favorite. My CRAZY-ADDICTING favorite! The best part is- you will NOT need a candy thermometer for this recipe! yahoo-easy!
How to make Almond Roca:
To make homemade almond roca, sprinkle 3/4 cup chopped and toasted almonds into the bottom of a buttered 7×11-inch glass pan. I realize everyone doesn’t have a 7×11-inch pan, so you can certainly use a 9×12-inch if you need to… it will just be more spread out and thinner.
I use salted, roasted almonds (and then toasted them in a dry frying pan after chopping). You can use unsalted natural almonds if you don’t care for the salty-sweet combination in dessert.
Melt some butter in a medium saucepan.
Add brown sugar, and stir it up.
Bring the mixture to a boil. Not a wild, rolling boil… just enough of a boil where you see bubbles popping frequently.
Boil the butter/sugar mixture for 12 minutes exactly (stirring constantly). It should look all cool and golden and toffee-like when it’s done.
I make my almond roca without a candy thermometer with success, but since some readers have noted having trouble with this recipe- you might wish to stick an instant read thermometer in there just to make sure it’s about the right temperature.
Here’s a candy thermometer that has good reviews on Amazon.
Pull it off the heat when it has reached the hard-crack stage (300 degrees F) or when the mixture starts to separate (the oil starts to separate from the sugar). If it gets higher than 320, the mixture will not remain solid.
Pour it on top of the almonds in the pan– drizzling it all over and and filling in all of the spaces with the toffee.
Place four chocolate bars on top of the hot toffee.
Let them sit there for a minute or so and get all gooey and melted, then use the bottom of a spoon to spread the chocolate around.
Spread all the way to the edges.
Sprinkle more almonds on top. Press them in gently. Now’s the hard part.
You can either let the almond roca sit at room temperature overnight to set that chocolate completely, or you can refrigerate it until firm, or you can freeze it for about 20 minutes (until firm).
Once the mixture is firm and set, loosen the sides of the pan with a knife and the almond roca should pop right out of the pan in one, big hunk. Break it apart gently with your hands, or set it on a cutting board and use a large knife to cut across the slab of candy–wedges will break off and appear in all sorts of shapes and sizes.
Sample! Just to make sure everything is tasting okay and everything 😉
It’s best to get this almond roca out of your house as quickly as possible. On candy-making day at my house, this was the favorite of all of my taste testers… by far.
SO good. And SO addicting and buttery and almondy and salty-sweet and delicious.
This should keep just fine in a sealed container kept at room temperature for a couple of weeks. Happy holiday gifting!
If you enjoy candy recipes, you might also like my recipes for Key Lime Fudge, Caramels or Fantasy Fudge. Homemade Snickers and Holiday Lollipops are fun choices too!
Almond Roca
Ingredients
- 1½ cups chopped toasted almonds, divided
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter
- 4 bars milk chocolate (such as Hershey's)
Instructions
- Butter a 7x11-inch pan (or 9x12 for slightly thinner roca). Sprinkle 1 cup of toasted almonds on bottom of the pan.
- In a heavy saucepan at medium-high heat melt butter and add brown sugar. Stir until gently boiling. Reduce heat to medium or medium-low and boil 12 minutes exactly, stirring constantly. *Edited to add* I make mine without a candy thermometer with success, but since some readers have noted having trouble with this recipe- you might wish to stick an instant read thermometer in there just to make sure it's about the right temperature. Pull it off the heat when it has reached the hard-crack stage (300 degrees F)- or when the mixture starts to separate (the oil starts to separate from the sugar). If it gets higher than 320, it will not remain solid.
- Remove the mixture from heat, give it a good stir to mix up that butter and sugar one more time, and immediately pour the hot mixture into the pan over the almonds. (see *Recipe Notes below) Place the chocolate bars on top. Let them sit a minute or so until melted, then spread chocolate around carefully. Sprinkle with the remaining toasted almonds, and gently press them into the chocolate.
- Cool completely, and then break apart into chunks with a sharp knife. Store in a covered container.
Notes
- TIPS:
This recipe is gluten-free adaptable- just be sure to use a brand of chocolate that is known to be GF. - If you like the sweet-salty combination in desserts, use roasted almonds that are salted (then you can chop them and toast them lightly in a dry frying pan). If you don't care to have much salt, use unsalted natural almonds. I went for the salty kind and LOVED it.
- If you don't have a 7x11-inch pan, it's okay to use a 9x12-inch pan. You probably won't want to go all the way to the edges with the almonds, toffee and chocolate or it will be thin. Leave about an inch all the way around.
- Speed up the cooling process by placing the pan in the refrigerator.
- If you are in a place where it is very humid, you will likely have trouble getting your toffee to set. Toffee doesn't like humidity. Try it on a dry day!
- Edited to add that some people have trouble w/ the chocolate separating from the toffee. This is kind of normal in almond roca since the toffee is so buttery. I've been told that one way to avoid that is to give the toffee a light dusting of cocoa powder before placing the chocolate bars on top. The powder apparently acts as an absorbent for the butter and allows the chocolate to adhere more easily to the toffee. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm told that it works!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
my hubbys’ all time favorite.
i’ve always wanted to do these with macadamia’s–expensive but so worth it don’t you think?
Easiest recipe ever (candy thermometer made me 100% confident of the toffee) to make a killer favorite treat. Just made it today, 1st time, the pan is cooling outside. Taste tests are a success… “The waiting is the hardest part!”
I made it, I love it, I can’t stop eating it!!!
Thanks Lori, a new Christmas favourite!
One of my childhood favorites, too! I couldn’t believe this could be so easy, and I’m a convert now. Wish I’d seen the cocoa powder tip, because my chocolate layer did separate, but the candy tasted so good I didn’t care. Just posted my efforts with a shout out to you for the recipe. Thank you!
I am by no means a chef, but a decent baker. I have never tried making a candy (nor do I have a candy thermometer laying around). But I must lay claim that my first batch of these came out near perfect. Not to mention, they were a HUGE hit at our Christmas dinner party this past Sunday.
I pulled the toffee off the stove right at 12 minutes while keeping it at a slight boil (perhaps 1-2 bubbles a second) and stirred it continuously throughout. I did have some difficulty getting it to spread evenly in the pan (I used a 12×10 round-ended pan with three large bars of Hershey); after pouring it in it immediately started to solidify. But I eventually got it to go. It left a nice sticky mess on everything!
The only difference I’ve noticed is that we need to keep our bars in the fridge, otherwise they lose their crunch. Also, refrigerating them brings out the salty flavor of the salted almonds, they are delicious like this.
Any suggestions for the next go-round so that I don’t have to keep them in the fridge? Perhaps I wasn’t at the right temperature for the toffee?
Perhaps… glad you were able to have success without a candy thermometer, but it might have been temp that is preventing the toffee from hardening completely at room temperature.
I made my first batch last night and it came out so good!!!! I didnt use a thermometer for the brown sugar and it came out fine I let it boil on med heat and pulled out right before the 12 minutes, the chocolate and the caramel did not separate at all and I used hershey chocolate bars, the one thing that it was kind of difficult wa getting the almond rica out of the container!!!! I put it in the freezer for about 30 mins and I just couldn’t take it out, after poking it for about 10 minutes finally some pieces started to come out, my advice is eat this after it has cooled completely or even the next day it tastes so much better the next day yuuuuuummmm!!!! 😀
I’ve made mine with bittersweet chocolate – the batch I made earlier this week was great and I just finished making a batch for hubby to take to work tomorrow.
I was thinking of making it with a dark chocolate, but am concerned now that I’ve read your comment about using cheaper brands whether it will work. Have you ever tried it with a dark chocolate?
I haven’t- but Hershey’s makes a dark chocolate too!
I made it the other day. It was so easy to make and so yummy to eat.
I didn’t have any chocolate bars, but I always have a stock of couverture chocolate chunks on hand. Once I made the toffee part, I melted 6.25oz of chocolate and poured it over the toffee. I did not temper the chocolate.
I let it sit for several hours and then popped it in the fridge for about 20 min just before removing it from the pan. The toffee did not easily release from the pan. I had to use a knife to break it up to get it out. As I broke the toffee up, much of the chocolate separated from it. I see that this happened to other readers as well.
If I make it again (I’m pretty sure I will), I think I will dip individual pieces in tempered chocolate and then sprinkle with chopped almonds.
Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Hi Lacey, For what it’s worth- I’ve read some other recipes for almond roca that recommend using a cheaper brand of chocolate (like Hershey’s bars). Premium brands – because they have different percentages of cocoa or cocoa butter, can tend to cause problems when paired with the toffee. Make sure your pan is well buttered- mine popped right out of the pan in one big slab!
Made this just now. A HUGE disaster!!!!! The butter completely separated from the brown sugar at 7 min in and just pooled at the end of the pan that I didn’t fill. What did I do wrong?
I would imagine it had something to do with the temperature. I made mine without a candy thermometer with success, but you might wish to stick an instant read thermometer in there just to make sure it’s *about* the right temperature for toffee. Pull it off the heat when it has reached the hard-crack stage (300 degrees F)- if it gets higher than 320, it will not remain solid.