Many people are familiar with the fact that M&M’s were originally created for soldiers overseas. They needed a candy that wouldn’t melt and stick to their hands while they were in combat. What many people don’t know, however, is that the same goes for almond buttercrunch, a delicious toffee treat. J.C. Haley, the co-founder of the company Brown & Haley, created almond buttercrunch and decided to ship it on over to American troops serving in World War II. He had the, admittedly genius, idea of storing the buttercrunch in tins, so it would stay fresh for the soldiers. It wasn’t long before the candy became a hit across the country — such a hit, in fact, that June 29th is National Almond Buttercrunch Day! [photo via allrecipes]
When the sweet invention first came out, Brown & Haley called it “almond roca” because almonds were available only through export from Spain, and “roca,” the Spanish word for “rock,” referred to the crunchy texture of the candy. But now it’s almond buttercrunch. Even the name sounds delicious, right? Well, lucky for you, making almong buttercrunch is extremely simple and requires only a few ingredients: butter, sugar, salt, and almonds. The butter and sugar — a dangerously delicious combination — combine to create a toffee that’s poured over crushed almonds. And, once cool, the creation is broken into bite-size pieces. You can even dip these nuggets into chocolate. So, without further ado, we present you with an amazing almond buttercrunch recipe:
Ingredients
- 2 (11.5 ounce) packages milk chocolate chips, divided
- 2 cups butter
- 1 pound brown sugar
- 1 cup blanched slivered almonds, divided
Directions
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees F (95 degrees C). Grease a 14 x 18 inch cookie sheet.
- Sprinkle one package of chocolate chips on prepared pan. Place in warm oven until chips melt, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven, and spread melted chocolate over bottom of pan; set aside.
- In a large heavy saucepan over medium-high heat, combine butter and brown sugar. Stirring constantly, heat to 300 to 310 degrees F (149 to 154 degrees C), or until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms hard, brittle threads. Immediately remove from heat.
- Stir in 3/4 cup slivered almonds and pour onto pan with melted chocolate; spread mixture evenly<
- Sprinkle remaining package of chocolate chips over the almond layer. The heat from the almond layer will melt the chocolate chips; spread melted chocolate evenly. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup almonds over chocolate.
- Cut into squares, or allow to harden in a solid sheet and break it apart like brittle. Cool completely before removing from pan. Yields 3 ½ pounds of candy.
Of course, depending on your taste buds, you can tamper with this recipe as much as you want. Don’t like almonds? Try any other type of nut. Not a fan of milk chocolate? Use semi-sweet chocolate chips or a dark chocolate Hershey bar. You can play with the recipe as much as you want, or you can stick to the original. It’s up to you. No matter what you choose, you’ll be chomping down on this yummy treat in no time.
