Skip to main content

Almond Roca


Our recipe for almond roca is from Bruce's mother, Ann Bratney.  Her mother learned the recipe by watching it being made through a candy shop window and adapted the recipe from that.  Can you imagine?!  Ann grew up with her mom making this recipe every Christmas.  My husband learned by watching his mom do the same thing.  Now, Bruce makes it every year and we give it out for gifts, a much anticipated gift by all.  There is a particular method on how it is made and Bruce insists you must follow this certain technique for it to turn out perfect.  So, I will post the recipe, but according to Bruce, if you don't follow his specific technique, it won't turn out which is why, when someone wants the recipe, we must personally show them how to make it!  But here it is…
1 cup water
4 cups sugar
2 pounds salted butter
1 pound almonds (3-1/4 cups) + extra to chop and sprinkle on top at the end
1 7 or 8 oz. milk chocolate Hershey bar
1.  Mix water and sugar in a large pot, bring to a slow, rolling boil.  Throughout the entire cooking process, keep mixture at a slow, rolling boil, continuously stirring.
2.  Add butter to sugar/water mixture, 1/4 pound (1 stick) at a time so sugar/water continues to boil at a slow, rolling boil.  Keep syrup boiling all the time and keep stirring until all the butter is added.





Lining up the butter to start stirring it into the sugar/water.



3.  Add the almonds, handful at a time, maintaining a slow, rolling boil.  Keep slow boiling and stirring until the nuts become crisp and batter turns a light brown color to the hard crack stage or 300 degrees.
(Up to this point, this process takes 75 to 90 minutes)

4.  Pour batter onto a slab and spread to about 1/2 inch thick.  (we use two round pizza pans)
5.  Spread a large 7 oz. milk chocolate Hershey chocolate bar on top or enough to cover the top.  Spread evenly as the chocolate melts.  Sprinkle the top with chopped almonds.
6.  When cool, break up into pieces (but not too small) with a large knife.


Allow 3 hours total from start to finish.

Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 6, 2011 at 5:08 AM

    Yum! We haven't made ours yet. It's funny how everyone makes it a little different. My parents put corn syrup in it. I think our recipe is like yours, but we must be making half batches, and it takes about an hour. I might try doubling it this year. Is it too heavy to pour out? Do you need two people? Looks delicious :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sylvia, RDNDecember 6, 2011 at 6:59 AM

    Of course your parents use corn syrup! They're from Iowa!!

    It's not too heavy to pour out but sometimes Bruce asks me to spread it faster onto the pans as he pours it. Otherwise, I never touch his precious creation! And sometimes we double this recipe and have two pans going at once. We give a lot away as gifts.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownDecember 23, 2011 at 9:58 AM

    I thought this recipe was as secret as the coca cola recipe. There was some fear that if the boat went down during a family cruise that the recipe/technique would be lost. Thank you for sharing this on the web.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sylvia, RDNDecember 23, 2011 at 7:09 PM

    We just made our 6th batch of almond roca tonight (while talking to Nick & Sachiyo in Japan on Skype). I see no need to keep the recipe "secret" like some people do with family recipes. Good recipes have good stories to go with them, thus, they make for great sharing opportunities that I, for one, am happy to provide!

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownDecember 26, 2011 at 10:18 AM

    wonderful site - great recipes. I think you need to go you tube with this.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sylvia, RDNDecember 26, 2011 at 5:33 PM

    It would be a long Youtube, like an hour and a half! We have thought about it…we could edit it, cut ahead, etc.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Meatloaf by Mark Bittman

Once again, I turned on the television yesterday and saw that Mark Bittman was on the Today show and was making his version of  meatloaf .  This must be meatloaf season.  It was surprisingly similar to the  Pioneer Woman's version  who was also recently on.   I was a little surprised of his version because Mark Bittman is into healthy eating and has lost a lot of weight and improved his health by changing his diet which he writes about in his book,  Food Matters .  His meatloaf recipe also included bacon and cheese!  I must be doing something wrong.  The thing to remember, which he writes about in his book, is that you can eat healthy without going extreme or changing your whole life.    If you don't know who Mark Bittman is, he is a food writer and a four star chef with multiple cookbooks who loves to eat but changed his food philosophy to improve his health.  He tells his story in Food Matters and provides a plan for responsible eating that covers a no-nonsense rundown on
4 comments
Read more

Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Oatmeal, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have very many gluten-free cookies on my blog because quite frankly, I usually don't like gluten-free.  But occasionally, I do find a good recipe and this is one that is from the back of the Trader Joe's oatmeal and it's a good one.  My friend brought some over to our house last weekend when Nick and family were here for our birthday celebrations  and we all loved them. My friend lives a few blocks away and we walk the neighborhood together on weekends.  We can easily go 5 miles in no time, talking non-stop.  She loves exploring our neighborhood as much as I do and we discover so many favorite little spots.  We even found a property with a horse (or more like a pony, I should say.)   The views are always quite lovely, too.  Bruce and I had our thirty-ninth wedding anniversary on July 18th and I made a point of walking past the house where we had our wedding reception.  I told my friend, "Thirty-nine years ago today, there was a big party go
2 comments
Read more

Waking Up in Vegas

and just like that...we were Waking Up in Vegas.   Just like the Katy Perry song. We went to her 78th performance which was her second-to-last Las Vegas residency show entitled "Play".  That was perfect for us because we went to Vegas simply to play.  Her concert was a great finale for us because it was high energy and full of silliness, just the way Katy Perry is.  And we were feeling it after three nights in Las Vegas. "Get up, and shake the gutter off your clothes now, That's what you get for waking up in Vegas".    Here's what she said about her show: "I created this show after the birth of my daughter, Daisy Dove. When I met her, it was like all the love I was ever searching for finally showed up. This show is for everyone’s inner child and for the hope that maybe if we could all see life through the eyes of a child, we would be free. Because never forget, love is and will always be the key,” she said. We went to Vegas spur of the moment because Br
Post a Comment
Read more