Chocolate Almond Toffee
There is a holiday for everything, especially when it comes to food. And believe it or not, today’s is the delicious but somewhat obscure “National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day.” Yep, really.
I can’t find any info on the “holiday” aside from the fact that it was probably dreamed up by a confectioner. But do we really need an official reason to eat dark chocolate and almonds? No, we don’t.
I actually made this for the first time several years ago for another site I was writing for, and I went a little overboard on the almonds sprinkled over the top, as you can see in the picture (which was taken at the last minute, if you’ll excuse how awful it looks). I’ve toned it down a bit over the years but it’s still just as delicious. Just be extra careful if you’ve got anyone with braces eating it (ask me how I know).
This also makes a great treat to give out to neighbors around the holidays.
Instead of the called-for milk chocolate chips I used Ghirardelli 60% Cocoa Bittersweet Chocolate Chips (which I could live on) and I think it made the toffee that much better. And no, this is not a sponsored post 🙂
Chocolate Almond Toffee
1 cup unsalted butter, cut up
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 T light corn syrup
2 T water
1 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup finely chopped almonds
12 oz milk chocolate chipsLine a 15x10x1 jelly roll pan with nonstick foil, foil coated with nonstick spray, or parchment paper.
In a medium saucepan, heat butter, sugar, corn syrup and water. Heat over medium heat to melt butter, then increase heat to medium-high and insert candy thermometer. Cook for about 12 minutes until golden brown and temperature reaches 300 degrees. Do not stir. Remove from heat and remove thermometer. Carefully stir in the 1 cup of almonds.
Quickly pour toffee onto prepared pan and spread to edges (mine didn’t actually make it to the edges but the free-form thing looked fine anyway). Let stand in the pan on a wire rack for about 30 minutes.
Melt half of the chocolate in the microwave on high for 1 to 1-1/2 minutes, stir until smooth. Spread over top of cooled toffee and refrigerate for 20 minutes until firm.
Once bar is firm, flip over onto a sheet of wax paper or parchment paper and remove the foil. Microwave the remaining chocolate, stir until smooth and spread over toffee. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup of finely chopped almonds. Slide back onto the pan and refrigerate 20 more minutes.
Once the bar is firm, break up into pieces and store in an airtight container at room temperature up to one month.
