Almond Roca

From Mom. Just asked her to send it to me and I thought I'd post it here so we can all access it!
Almond Roca

1. Toast 1 ½ cup slivered almonds until light brown (about 10 – 15 minutes at 300 degrees), stirring occasionally. Let them cool and then grind them in food processor, stopping while you still see some chunks. Disengage and shake the processor bowl so that the large chunks rise to the top. Rake the chunkier half into one container and sprinkle them onto a cookie sheet, so that you cover about 2/3 of the sheet in its center. You will be pouring hot butter/sugar into this cookies sheet, so put a towel underneath if you need to protect the surface under the sheet. Put the fine-ground remainder in another container.

2. Place in a large (2 qt. size or so) microwave-proof container 2 sticks of salted butter, 1 1/3 cup of sugar, 1 T. Karo and 3 T. water. Microwave this for 3 minutes uncovered. Stir it with a spoon until the ingredients are uniformly distributed. Then cover the container with saran wrap and microwave for another 9 minutes, 30 seconds, or until the contents are a toasty brown. DO NOT STIR!

3. Pour the contents, without stirring, onto the cookie sheet, covering the almonds. Some liquid will separate. (None does if you use unsalted butter, but the taste suffers, and none does if you simmer the ingredients on a cooktop, but that takes 2 hours. One possibility is to add about 1 t. salt to the 2 sticks of butter as you melt them.) After the candy has cooled somewhat, you can tip the sheet so that the separated liquid flows off.

4. After the candy has cooled completely (you can hasten this by putting the cookie sheet on top of crushed ice), melt about 6 oz. of semi-sweet chocolate in the microwave and spread it on the candy, sprinkling on the finely ground almonds as you coat each side. Cool the candy and break it into pieces.