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.
What size hershey bars did you use, the single size, or the big bars?
regular sized– like you buy at the checkout counter.
I love almond roca, and I’m super excited to try out this recipe. I just have one question. Can I use dark chocolate chips to substitute for the Hershey’s bars? but should I use the cocoa powder as you suggest in order that the chocolate does not separate from the toffee.
Thanks!!
Yes, that should probably work out just fine, though I’m worried about the chips melting as easily as the chocolate bars do… and I’d still try the cocoa powder.
My husband & I went home to Maine to visit my family and I wanted to bring homemade candy as gifts to everyone. I found this recipe and it was so easy to make! I made two batches. I found candy boxes at Michaels and filled them with the rocca. All of my family LOVED it! Thanks for sharing this recipe, I will be making it again and again!
Almond Roca is by far my FAVORITE candy! YUM and THANKS for sharing!
I made this last night and it was delicious – it started to smoke at about 11 minutes, so I took it off before it started to burn. I made a couple changes and it still turned out perfectly. I am obsessed with the chocolate/bacon craze that seems to be everywhere, so I added a few bacon bits into the mixture as well as a little maple syrup. I used unsalted nuts, so I also sprinkled some sea salt on the top of the chocolate. YUMMY!
Love the bacon and maple addition!
I just finished making the Almond Roca, it turned out perfect and it is so good. Much better than other recipes that I have made in the past. It was hard to wait for it to cool!. My adult grandson requested this for his birthday present. Works for me,
Sorry, I tried this twice and it just doesn’t work out with the timings or the temperature suggestions you have made. The sugar and butter separates before it gets to either 12 min or 300 degrees. Must be missing something here…any dieas? I’m surprised that i didn’t get this right, being pretty well experienced in the kitchen…
not sure… I added lots of extra tips for help. None of that helped?
“This should keep just fine ….. for a couple of weeks.”
yeah right – there is no way they will last that long! lol these are too yummy! i saw this recipe on facebook just before christmas and asked my daughter to make them for me as her gift to me – great gift idea. my only complaint is they are WAAAAAAYYY too good!!!
lol, glad you liked it so much. I had a tough time staying away from it too!
Without ever having eaten Almond Roca, I wanted to make this as soon as I saw the recipe. Since we didn’t leave our house for Christmas (shocker! but we live out of the country so no family to visit) I had to wait until I could make it and take it somewhere – yay for Bunco. This is like crack! Soooo good. I timed and used a thermometer for the butter/sugar mixture and it took me close to 15 minutes to get it to 300 degrees. Also, the butter here is a bit funky so my only problem was that my butter separated some from the sugar and rose to the top over the chocolate. It wasn’t as pretty as your pictures but tasted like heaven!!!!! Good thing you warned of how good it was and I’m glad the whole pan isn’t here with me. Thanks for this fabulous recipe! Making the Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake for next months Bunco 🙂
Huge score! Turned out great – I didn’t have any problems with the cooking and used cocoa as recommended to prevent separating. This was way yummy and super easy and will become a holiday staple at our house!