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.
Great recipe so simple and delish love it thank u 🙂
I also did this recipe with 1cup butter and 1 3/4 c light brown sugar based on Internet searches for similar recipes. I don’t know how much of a difference that makes compared to the 1:1 ratio here. I also saw 1:1.5 and 1:2 (butter to sugar).
My first cut into my slab also made the toffee bottom separate from the chocolate top. I think it has a lot to do with the chocolate cracking away before even reaching the toffee layer. As I worked my way through the slab I got better. I tried using a hot knife which was a bit too cumbersome having to warm it up between each slice. What worked best was to just quickly saw my serrated knife back and forth- the friction melts the chocolate, and then the toffee layer breaks when it’s ready to along the line you are scoring in. There were still a few casualties, but far less than the first method. Don’t use force to cut it apart, just let your knife do the work for you.
If I were to make this again (and I just might do so very soon depending on if it survives the next couple days) I would try to work my chocolate layer a little deeper into the toffee layer rather than having it sit just on top.
Overall a very yummy recipe. Fiddly, yes, but I think it gets better with practice.
I agree- better with practice!
Didn’t work well for me. The butter never got incorporated into the sugar. It reached 302 and I took it off but it wasn’t the nice light brown color that yours was. I used dark brown sugar, but that shouldn’t make a difference. It was really liquid with butter on top. Just never set up well.
BTW~ I WILL be trying the brown sugar recipe! I think it will be really good!
My mom started making this when I was in high school (I am now 41). The directions she had ~ although she used white sugar~ said it is done when it is the color of peanut butter…don’t know if that will help some. Or if it is different for brown sugar.
Could this recipe be doubled??
I’d stick with one batch, and then make another if you’re successful with the first.
I was reading the reviews and saw that some had the butter and sugar separate. I made a similar recipe about 10 years ago, it stated that if it separated just keep stirring over the heat and it would come back together. Well mine separated, I kept stirring and within about 2 minutes it did just that it came back together. I hope this helps.
I will try your recipe (as I lost the other one from 10 years ago). It sounds like it should turn out great.
This turned out PERFECT, as always Lori, a recipe worthy for the box. Thanks so much for the wonderful photos !! I made your Christmas recipes last year, and this year I went to your website first !! I’ll be using your recipes for other meals too !! They all are out of this world good.
So first batch I made worked great. Was a big hit with my family. My second batch didn’t work out for some reason it was still to soft and sugary.
Not wanting to waste all that product I took another pot of quarter stick of butter half cup of milk got it nice and hot ( not boiling ) and added price by price the failed Rocca and melted it all. Boiled it again for about 6-7 minutes and poured into pre greased pan thru it into the fridge. ( fudge like was very good )
Cookies made outta
2nd failed batch. Guess got to hot liquified. Not wanting to waste anothe batch of failed mix ( no chocolate lay was in this batch ).
Took the failed. ( 1cup butter and 1 cup brown sugar and layer of almonds )
I put it into a bowl let it cool
In another bowl I mixed
2-1/4cup white flour
1-1/2tsp baking powder
1tsp salt
In second bowl ( cooled failed mix )
I added 2-3 teaspoons vanilla mix well
Add 1 Egg mix well
Slowly add flour mixture ( I added in five dumps )
made into balls smaller than a golf ball got about thirty to thirty two cookies
Almond cookies
Cooked at 360-365’f 10-12 mins
Awesome nice cookie
Wow! Thanks for your tips on what to do with a failed batch! Glad the first one worked out. It all has to do with temperature.