Holiday Almond Roca Food

EASY HOMEMADE ALMOND ROCA

Steps:

• Over Medium heat, melt butter in a large pot.
• Add corn syrup, water and sugar to pot and cook until temp reaches 290 degrees OR until the mixture becomes the color of a brown paper bag (about 15-20 minutes) stirring constantly with a wooden spoon (mixture will rise and bubble quite a bit).
• Remove from heat and Stir in 1/2 of the Almonds.
• Turn mixture onto a greased cookie sheet WITH EDGES!
• While the mixture is cooling, melt the chocolate over low flame until all the chips are gone, and chocolate is smooth.
• Score the Almond butter mixture into the shape you desire (I just scored into rectangle shapes).
• Pour the hot chocolate over the almond mixture and spread evenly.
• Sprinkle with remaining almonds and allow candy to cool completely and chocolate to harden before breaking apart and serving.
• Note: I let mine refrigerate over night after breaking the into squares, and they had a better texture this way, we thought.

ALMOND ROCA

Steps:

• Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
• Sprinkle 1/2 the chocolate and 1/2 the almonds onto the prepared baking sheet.
• Melt sugar and butter together in a stainless steel pan over low heat; increase heat to medium, stirring constantly, until boiling. Heat mixture to 310 degrees F (155 degrees C) or until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms hard, brittle threads, 30 minutes to 1 hour.
• Pour butter-sugar mixture over chocolate and almonds on baking sheet. Sprinkle remaining chocolate and almonds over butter-sugar mixture. Cool to room temperature and refrigerate until set, about 1 hour. Break into pieces.

HOLIDAY ALMOND ROCA

Steps:

• Line a large cookie sheet (or two smaller) with aluminum foil, or lay aluminum foil over a large area on the counter or table.
• Cook butter, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan to hard crack stage (285-290F), while stirring constantly.
• Once heated, pour onto the aluminum foil lined surface.
• Spread out to about 1/4-inch thickness.
• Sprinkle with chocolate chips, let sit until beginning to melt, then spread chocolate out.
• Sprinkle the top with almonds.
• Let cool for 2 hours, then break into pieces.

ALMOND ROCA

Steps:

• In a large heavy saucepan, gently boil syrup, sugar, butter and water until"hard crack"; appears on a candy thermometer, 300F (150C).
• Do not stir.
• This step takes at least 20 minutes.
• Remove from heat, add almonds and stir well.
• Spread on an ungreased cookie sheet and, before candy is allowed to cool, sprinkle with chocolate chips.
• As they melt, spread the chocolate chips evenly over the candy.
• Cool in the refrigerator or freezer.
• Break into bite size pieces.

HOMEMADE "ALMOND ROCA"

Steps:

• DIRECTIONS.
• Place whole almonds in a freezer bag. Put this freezer bag in the second bag. Using the flat side of a meat tenderizer, hammer the almonds to crush them. You want some almond pieces to be large, some to be small.
• Measure 1.5 cups of crushed almonds and set aside.
• Measure 1 cup of crushed almonds into another container. Set aside.
• Set a cooling rack on the counter, with the sheet pan on top. Leave on the counter till ready to pour the toffee.
• Place the butter, then sugar, then water in the non-stick pot. Set the heat to half way between medium and medium-high (about the position of the 22nd minute on the clock).
• Allow ingredients to come to a boil WITHOUT STIRRING. DO NOT stir.
• Mixture will continue to a bubbly, rolling boil.
• Once the center of the mixture starts to turn form an opaque color to a very light caramel, add 1.5 cups of crushed almonds. The temperature will be about 245 to 250 degrees.
• Begin stirring the mixture once you add the almonds.
• Continue to stir until the mixture turns to a slightly darker color.
• As you stir and the mixture darkens, you will notice the mixture at the edge of the pot start to darken more than the mixture in the center. The sugar will be about 285 to 290 degrees. It's ready to pour.
• Pour the mix along the center part of the pan, lengthwise. Set the pot on a trivet or an unused burner on the stove.
• Using the wooden spoon or an icing spatula, quickly spread the mixture toward all the edges of the pan. Don't cover the entire half-sheet pan otherwise the toffee will be too thin.
• The toffee will set / harden some while spreading. You will be able to coax it a little to cover any holes created while spreading the mixture.
• Take the Hershey chocolate pieces and arrange over the toffee, working from the edges inward, in a circular pattern.
• After a minute, spread the melted chocolate to cover the toffee.
• Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of crushed almonds over the chocolate.
• Wait 5 minutes.
• Lay 1-2 sheets of wax paper over the pan.
• Use a clean spatula or your hands (CAREFUL -- the pan is hot) to gently press the nuts into the chocolate.
• Leave in a cool room for about 30 minutes.
• Set in the fridge or in a VERY COLD room for several hours to allow the chocolate to set.
• If placing candy in the fridge (overnight is fine), bring "almond roca" to room temperature before serving.
• Note: When refrigerated, the toffee will lighten in color. This is fine. The candy will have to come to room temperature to regain its darker color.

MARBLED ALMOND ROCA

Steps:

• Sprinkle almonds on a greased 15x10x1-in. baking pan. Bake at 300° for 15 minutes or until toasted and golden brown; remove from the oven and set aside. , In a large saucepan over low heat, cook butter and sugar for 5 minutes. Add water and corn syrup. Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook, stirring occasionally, until a candy thermometer reads 300° (hard-crack stage). Quickly pour over almonds. Sprinkle chips on top; let stand for 1-2 minutes or until melted. Spread and swirl chocolate over candy. Cool completely; break into pieces.