This traditional holiday goodie combines chocolate, toffee, and almonds for a delightfully crunchy treat!
Learning to make the perfect toffee
My mom’s favorite candy is Almond Roca. And this is a GREAT copycat recipe. It’s a is a family favorite that we make EVERY year.
Warning, Candy making is super tricky. Candy making is affected a lot by the barometer range. I have a ton of tips and tricks down below.
My mom always made two batches. The first never seemed to work, but the second always did. Still not sure why one did after one didn’t.
When I moved to AZ, the Dry, DRY desert, it worked EVERY TIME. I finally did some research and learned all about candy making. AZ, with barely any barometer change is the perfect place for candy making!
Just take me to the Homemade toffee Recipe already!
If you’d rather skip my tips and tricks for candy making, along with links to my other candy recipe and get straight to this delicious treat – simply scroll to the bottom of the page where you can find the printable recipe card.
Tips to Make the Perfect Toffee
– Keep your eye on the barometer! You want a dry, low pressure day for candy making.
– Get a good candy thermometer – yes there are tricks like watching for smoke, or looking for the perfect color or even the cold water test… but for the BEST results get a thermometer – cheap and easy to use.
– ADJUST the recipe for your altitude – recipes are written for sea level so adjust to where you live.
– Get your molds, and scraper ready before the toffee is done so that you can pour the candy out immediately.
– I pull the candy off the heat 5 degrees early because as I stir the almonds in it will continue to cook in the pot and reach the final temp
– If you cook all the way up to 310 and notice it’s getting hotter quickly put the pan in some cold water to stop the cooking or spray the pan with cold water right away (don’t get water IN the pot though)
How to adjust candy making for high altitude
- Bring water to boil and mark the temperature.
- Water boils at 212 degrees, for me the water boiled at 192 degrees – a 20 degree difference
- Now adjust every recipe you make that uses temperatures down by the difference.
- So when this recipe calls for 310 degrees I am going for 290!
Homemade english toffee Recipe
If you love almond toffee as much as I do, I’d love a 5 star review. Be sure to share on social media and tag me if you make it @ashleemariecakes! If you want to stay updated on new recipes sign up for my newsletter and join my Facebook Group!
If you love Almond Roca you’ll love these other Holiday Goodies!
Sandies | Almond Roca | Andes Mints
Buttery Caramels | Danish Butter Cookies | Caramel Brownies
Connect with Ashlee Marie Online!
To watch me make this Toffee recipe in a cooking show play the video in the recipe card. There should also be a short teaser auto playing for you.
You can find all my cooking show style recipe videos on YouTube, or my short recipe videos on Facebook Watch, or my Facebook Page, or right here on our website with their corresponding recipes.
English Toffee Recipe
Instructions
- Mix the butter and sugar in a sauce pan and cook over medium/high heat
- Continue to cook without stirring until the candy thermometer is at the “Cracked Stage” on candy thermometer or when it’s caramel colored and starting to smoke.
- Stir in the Almonds.
- Line a 9×13 glass pan with parchment paper
- Pour the candy into the pan
- Let it cool a just a bit and sprinkle half the chocolate over the top, it will melt and you can spread it around.
- Top with finely chopped almonds
- Once that side is set flip it over, melt the rest of the chocolate and spread it over the second side.
- Top with finely chopped almonds
Tricia Jones
I featured your yummy recipe on my blog today. Thanks so much for linking up to the Holiday Recipe Link Party.
http://leafytreetopspot.blogspot.com/2010/12/holiday-recipe-round-up.html
Ashlee
Thank you so much for the feature! It’s one of my all time favorites. But, like all candy, if the weather is off it doesn’t work!
Maggie
Hi! What type of chocolate are you using? Choc chips, baking bars, chopped or simply Hershey chocolate bars, chopped?
Ashlee Marie
My mom uses hershey’s bars, I use callebaut, guittard, merckens, peter’s, trader joe’s or ghirardelli chocolate wafers (these are the brands I always have around so I just grab whatever is open, often mixing a few brands together). NEVER chocolate chips as they are made to hold their shape and not melt at high baking heats. So they don’t melt well without burning.
Leah
Love your recipes.
Ashlee Marie
Awww thank you so much! You are so sweet
Dale
Do you temper the chocolate to prevent bloom?
Ashlee Marie
it depends on the type of chocolate your using, I just use hershey’s dark chocolate so it doesn’t need to be tempered but if your using high quality chocolate then yes you should.