Nightglow Window

Almond Roca

Jack and Charlotte Layman (Christy's deceased grandparents) started making Christmas Almond Roca in 1937, their first year together. Every year since then it has been a family tradition, carried down through their three children and now to the grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Today, we're at Debbie's new house in Springville in the South Sierra to carry on the tradition and do a whole helluva lot of stirring.

We'll make 40 batches today. Since each batch takes about 25 minutes and we can make only three batches at a time, it's going to be a long day.

Recipe verbiage by Aunt Marsha. I shot the photos

Jack And Charlotte's Almond Roca

-- 1/2 pound Challenger Butter
-- 1/2 pound Nucco Margarine
-- 2 cups white sugar (25 pounds makes 30 batches)
-- 1 cup chopped Almonds (Chop in blender and save the fine "almond dust" for later.)
-- One package semi-sweet chocolate (or sweet chocolate)

Melt the butter in a heavy aluminum pan at 200˚ The butter/Nucco combo seems to work best and avoids burning.

Blend almonds. The larger cut almonds on top will go into the mix. The "dust" at the bottom will be used later.

Add sugar and increase temperature to 375˚ Stir continuously. (You'll be stirring continuously from here on out, so get used to it.) The butter will be separated for a while.

After the sugar and butter mix, the mixture will start to boil and it will look "light and frothy" and lemony in color. Start timer for 15 minutes. Within the first five minutes it will start to settle down (not so light and frothy). After approximately 10 minutes the color will change from light lemon to light beige. At around 15 minutes it stops sticking to side of the pan and is slightly darker in color, going to light brown.


At this point turn temperature up to 400˚ and stir in the almonds. If the butter starts to separate, use slow deliberate strokes to mix back in. (At this point, it always seems to separate.) After two or three minutes reduce heat back to 375˚. After 7 to 9 minutes it should be "chunky peanut butter" in color.

You can test it by scooping a small bit and putting into ice water from a moment to harden. Test by "crunch" and also by color for "doneness."

Spread out on cookie sheet (one with closed corners), spread flat, and let cool. (It will take a while until it's completely cool. We stored it in an unheated room that sped up the process a bit.)

When cool, paint one side of the Roca with chocolate. (Don't paint it on too thick like I did, because it has to dry before you can paint the other side. If it's too thick, the drying process will take too long.)

Uncle Bob lays down a nice thin coat.

Then he sprinkles the almond dust on top and lets the whole thing dry for another 30 minutes.

After the first side is dry, flip it over and repeat "painting and dusting" step.

When Roca is completely dry, break up into bite-sized pieces. Separate into 10 ounce bags.

Humidity does affect the crunch so get it bagged as soon as possible to keep it from getting soggy.


The annotated recipe.