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
Recipe Details
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.
Video
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!
I love a great toffee recipe that I don’t have to use my candy thermometer! I am making this as my “bring” for our Thanksgiving reunion! Thanks for sharing such a great recipe!
I was trying to remind myself of the proportions of butter to sugar for almond roca as I’ve misplaced my recipe when I came across your page. I’d never tried using brown sugar, I may just have to. 🙂 I’ve noticed that rushing the cooking process by turning up the heat will give a blonder toffee than if the temp is brought up more slowly with a lower temp. It also will lack in the toasted flavor if cooked faster. I’ve always used a 60% dark chocolate chip (ghiradelli) with excellent results and no issues with the chocolate falling off (as long as I let the toffee cool for 10 min. before putting on the chocolate). I also seem to always forget the salt and haven’t had an issue with set up of the toffee. I’m off to try my hand at substituting brown sugar to see how that changes things. 🙂 Maybe I’ll try a batch with white sugar and maple syrup too. Mmmmm, maple toffee sounds good…
Great Recipe! Like everyone else I made a tweak or two. I used chocolate chips for the top and pushing them down seems to keep the separation away. Second, I added a tablespoon of light corn syrup just to control unwanted crystallization.
Oh, this is very dangerous!!! I’m trapped inside and have all the ingredients to make this. Our can of Almond Rocha just ran dry. Think I will love this!!!!!!!! Thank You
Mine turned out ugly but will retry this recipe. I must have over boiled the butter/sugar mixture and did not stir it constantly. Not giving up =).
I’ve been making almond roca for years–got the recipe from a family friend. My mom tried a few times and she failed, so i am now the family almond roca maker.
A few comments–my recipe is 2 cups of white sugar and one pound of butter. I always buy unsalted butter, but you need salted for this to work. I always have to add 1/2 tsp salt to my butter, so with Lori’s recipe, you may need to add 1/4 tsp salt if using unsalted butter.
I also don’t use a candy thermometer, but the watching the toffee is key. Again, this might be slightly different since this recipe calls for brown sugar, but the mixture usually will initially be separated, then come together and really be kind of sticking to itself in the pan. When I swirl it with my wooden spoon, it all kind of moves together. I know it’s ready when the mixture starts sticking again to the edges of the pan itself of just sticking all to itself. For me, it can take from 15-25 minutes to make (on medium heat), and it’s really just something i have to watch in the pan and judge when it’s starting to stick to the edges of the pan that it’s done.
I always use semi-sweet chocolate chips and dump them on shortly after (~5 min) I pour the toffee into my jelly roll pan. Generally I only make this for Christmas, so i usually just put the pan out in the garage to cool. When I did make it for friends in May, I put the pan in the freezer to cool. I would be hesitant to mail it to people in the summertime for fears of it melting.
One final note–store it in its own container, not with other Christmas cookies. I’d never had this happen until this year, but I stored the almond roca with other Christmas cookies to make a cookie plate, and the toffee ended up soft (should be nice and hard). Still tasted ok, but not at all like I wanted it to be. 😉
Also, i have family with nut allergies, so I’ve been making “almond” roca without almonds the past few years. Maybe this now technically is a “brickle”–just toffee and chocolate, but it’s still almond roca to me. 🙂
So I tried the recipe according to your “printable” recipe and it failed miserably. The butter and sugar remained separated the entire cooking process, even with constant stirring, it reached the 300 mark and burned. I tried again and realized a huge difference is that instead of melting the butter first as it says in the printable recipe directions and then adding the brown sugar, it works best to melt sugar and butter together (more like I saw in your picture directions). That way the sugar and butter combined together right from the start and create the nice gooey toffee that I saw in your pictures.
Help please I need some help I made this last night and my toffee came out chewy was wondering if I cooked too long or not long enough? You can email me back I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks
It sounds like the toffee did not cook long enough.
Just made this! Amazing!!!!! Hubby loved it! Making more tonight 🙂
You should add some corn syrup (maybe a tablespoon) to your recipe to prevent crystallization.
Also, adding a tiny bit of cream of tartar at the beginning, and a bit of baking soda at the end causes bubbles in the toffee, resulting in a lighter end product.
The first time I made this I had terrible results. I was SO disappointed! I always use a candy thermometer and so I cooked it to exactly 300. But it was separated and not right at all. But I’ve made several of your recipes before and always had great results so I forced myself to try it again. The second time I didn’t use a thermometer and instead cooked it for exactly 12 minutes like you said – making sure that it looked like yours did in the pictures. Worked like a charm! These taste amazing and are going in my gift baskets. Thanks for your detailed instructions and helpful pictures!
I’m so glad to hear that- thank you!!!
Made a double batch of this last night (my first almond roca attempt ever!) & it turned out delish!! Mine took quite a bit longer than 12 minutes to get to 300 degrees (at 12 minutes, it was still too much like caramel – probably took closer to 15-17 minutes). I was able to just eye-ball it as well, and when the butter had just started to pull away from the sugar, I pulled it off. Since it continues to heat a bit more afterward, it almost separated too much, but I poured it over the almonds anyway, threw on a half semi-sweet, half milk chocolate chips mixture, waited a few minutes and spread it out over the toffee with the back of a spoon, & then put it in the refrigerator. I checked on it this morning and popped a piece off of the corner, and it tasted so yummy! I’m not sure why the poster above me has to be so negative – the recipe says to turn it down to medium low when it starts to GENTLY bubble… by the time it heats up to medium high, if you’ve been diligent about stirring it, it shouldn’t burn. If you’re worried about it burning while your burner temperature works its way back down to medium low, remove it from the burner for a few seconds, or lift it above the burner while you stir.
OK… Made it and it is as delicious as I remember it being! However, the chocolate layer won’t stick to the toffee layer… what can I do???
Sometimes a light dusting of cocoa powder between the toffee and chocolate helps to adhere.
The quality of butter matters. Use a good name brand butter. Store brand butters are just fine for many things, but when it comes to making almond roca I have never had a batch turn out well that I made with a store brand butter. It either separates or it sugars….or both!
I agree!
I actually did read through all the comments and I do not have a candy thermometer. Do you recommend taking it out at the 9 minute mark , just before I notice the oil separate from the sugar?
I tried to make this but the oil separated from the sugar. Does that mean it was cooking for too long?
It started separating around the 9 minute mark – does that mean next time I should take it off around then?
It looked like the right consistency around the 8 minute mark… I put a small blob on a small plate and tasted it, it was still a little gooey but a minute later the oil started separating (at 9 minutes).
Also I noticed right from the beginning my mixture looked darker than yours, does that mean I used too much brown sugar?
I also do not have salted butter on me, but I used regalar butter with a small pinch of salt, is this okay?
Thanks, I would really appreciate your feedback! 🙂
I really wish I was a candy expert and could answer all of your questions. Usually problems with how it turns out are related to temperature- yours might have been done sooner than 9 minutes, etc. Type of butter used would only affect the flavor. Reading through the comments may help- others have offered tips along the way.
I finally got the nerve to try this recipe and it turned out great! I was nervous because of all of the comments, but it worked for me! Thank you for a wonderful treat!
Glad to hear!
Worked like a charm first time! Except I chopped it upside down and all the chocolate fell off. I also used too much butter and had to pour it off. Maybe that’s why the chocolate was loose.
Sooooo good!
I just made a batch last night using another recipe and it turned out very well. The recipe called for 2 tablespoons of water to be added together with the butter and sugar. Some has said that it would prevent the butter from separating. Perhaps that will be the solution for some of the readers.
Thank you for the tip!
The altitude makes a difference as does your stove. But what really makes a difference is your pan. Use a heavy duty pan. I use an old presto pressure cooker sans the lid. Some pans burn the mixture before it gets to hard crack stage. If a batch fails make Caramel sauce with it. I have made delicious caramel and hot fudge ice cream topping from my failures, just add milk and thin back down. People alway s want the recipe for my oops.
Ok so I made this yesterday, you know just to start getting ready for Christmas……..not to eat it all or anything;) my toffee and chocolate did separate a bit and the toffee was a little grainy. I will try making it again, just wondering if you think I maybe got the toffee too hot? It still tastes super yummy and is amazing ontop of ice cream!
I’m not an expert on candy making, so I’m afraid I cannot pinpoint your problem… but this one does take a little practice to perfect!
ok now THIS will definitely be on the list of things to make for the holidays …. do we start with Thanksgiving or wait till Christmas??? oh heck looks like both!
thanks for sharing.
My mom loves Almond Roca. I think I will make this for her. Yum.
Just gave this recipe a try and 12 minutes at medium/medium low was way too hot for the toffee. I didn’t understand what you meant by, “if it gets higher than 320, it will not remain solid.” Now I know that means when the mixture starts to separate (the oil starts to separate from the sugar). I didn’t use a thermometer, but I never had the stove higher than medium and it started to separate around 7 minutes.
Could you please update your instructions accordingly so other people don’t burn their toffee? The sugar/butter mixture separated or broke when it overheated. I don’t think your description was very clear.
Thanks!
Just did- thank you!
Suddenly my brown sugar keeps curdling. What is causing that?
It probably has something to do with the temperature. Candy making can be tricky!