Candy Recipes - Brittle, Brickle and Toffee

Almond-Encrusted English Toffee

Makes 25 servings.

1 pound raw almonds (whole, skin on)
1 pound unsalted butter
1 teaspoon fleur de sel sea salt or kosher salt or 1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 cups granulated sugar
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate

Chop the almonds until they are broken into chunks with a food processor or blender. Remove half and continue to grind the remaining portion into a coarse meal- Set both halves aside for later.

Melt butter with salt on medium heat. Stir sugar in slowly. Continue cooking and stirring for approximately 15 minutes. At first, the sugar will sink to the bottom and not melt. Eventually, the sugar and butter will melt into each other into a pearly, puffy mixture (make sure your pan is large enough) and then will continue to darken from buttery yellow to tan. When it turns tan, stir in the chunks of almond and vanilla, darkening the mixture further. Continue stirring until the almonds are toasted. You will be able to tell by the scent. Be very careful at this point that the almonds do not begin to burn! The temperature should be about 280 degrees F/hard crack stage and if butter starts to rise to the top, take mixture off the heat immediately.

Stir it briskly once off the heat then pour into an 11 x 15-inch baking sheet that has been lined with aluminum foil or parchment paper.

Cut half the chocolate up and melt over a double boiler and spread over the surface of the cooling toffee. Dust surface with 1/2 of the almond meal. Once cooled and hardened, melt the remaining chocolate, flip toffee out of the pan, and coat the bottom. Repeat dusting of almonds. The toffee is supposed to be in chunks.

Refrigerate until hardened thoroughly and finish breaking into pieces. Continue to refrigerate or freeze until ready to be given as a gift.