Easy Almond Roca...In Your Microwave!

Making quick and easy Almond Roca in your Microwave!

Conventional thought may be that making homemade Almond Roca can be time consuming and generally, just a pain.  Here's a quick way to make your own easy Almond Roca in under 10 minutes utilizing only your microwave.  This couldn't get easier....seriously.  Give it a shot! Ingredients: 1 cup sugar 1 cube of salted butter (1/2 cup) 1/4 cup of water 2 heaping cups of whole, roasted, sea salted Almonds (fills a paper bowl almost overflowing, as pictured below) 4-5 Hershey milk chocolate bars (in these pictures, we were using bulk milk chocolate, but the Hershey bars will be easier to use) **This process needs to happen quickly and having everything staged, measured, and ready to go will produce a better end result.  Read through the entire process before beginning!** Be sure to have your foil, almonds, and chocolate ready to go! Before cooking your easy Almond Roca, put a sheet of aluminum foil on the counter roughly 14-16" square.  This will be where you put your hot mixture onto after cooking and stirring in the almonds.  You won't have time to do this after your mixture comes out of the microwave. 1 cup of sugar, one stick of butter (1/2 cup), and 1/4 cup water in clear glass bowl Place sugar, butter, and water in a clear glass bowl.  Using a clear glass bowl is VERY important for two reasons.   First, the clear glass will allow you to see your mixture as it cooks in the microwave.   Secondly, anything other than a glass bowl will melt...ask us how we know!   Once your ingredients are combined in your bowl, place it in your microwave for 6-10 minutes on the highest setting.  This seems like overkill but its a necessity! Depending on the power of your microwave, we have seen anything from 6 to even 14 minutes to achieve the proper color of your batch.  While the mixture is cooking in the microwave, it will begin to boil and be a light yellow color, like your butter.   Keeping an eye on the mixture as it is cooking is important, especially for the first batch, as you don't know exactly how long it might take in your own microwave.  If you let it cook too long, it will burn and ruin your batch (don't waste putting nuts in it, just throw it away and start over).   A good way to see that the mixture is almost ready to remove is that the level will drop and you will start to notice a color change.  You need to pull it out when the mixture becomes a tan color (see the photos for a better reference). This is the general color that the mixture will look like when cooking. Watch for it to begin to brown. Once the level drops and the mixture begins to brown, stop the cooking once you reach a color close to this! The mixture is now absolutely molten hot, is roughly 20 degrees cooler than the sun, and will melt your face off....BE CAREFUL!  Use an oven mitt or something like that to grab the bowl with!  We accept no responsibility if you don't read the previous sentences... Immediately upon removal from the microwave, pour your measured whole almonds into the glass bowl and quickly stir them with a metal spoon to cover them with your cooked mixture.  This needs to be done quickly as it will start to harden as it cools off!  Pour the contents of the bowl onto the foil and begin to spread it out with your metal spoon. Mix the almonds into your molten concoction, evenly coating the nuts. Use spoon to spread the Roca over the aluminum foil. Do this quickly, but try to flatten it as much as possible. Once you have spread it out to one almond thick, its now time to cover it with your chocolate.  Place the chocolate bars over the entire surface, and the heat from the mixture will melt the chocolate, allowing you to spread it around for uniform coverage (use a spoon, fork, whatever you want to). Once spread, add your chocolate! If you wanted to mix it up, try this same recipe with walnuts, cashes, pecans, whatever!  You can also sprinkle chopped almonds on top of the chocolate while it is still hot and melted. Chocolate evenly spread, ready to cool and harden! Now, all you need to do is let the batch cool off.  Clear a shelf and place the batch in your refrigerator.  After about an hour or so (when the chocolate hardens), it is ready to be broken up and eaten!  Now make 10 more batches because it's so easy and good!   Wow your mother-in-law, rub it in your neighbors face, and spread the holiday cheer with this easy almond roca!  :) You're done! Enjoy!