Almond Roca

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp light corn syrup
1/2 lb butter (2 sticks - NO substitutes!)
1/2 lb. slivered almonds (2 cups)
1/2 lb. bar of regular Hershey's dark chocolate (7 oz okay)

Do not attempt to make this on a humid or rainy day. Do not double the recipe, make one batch at a time.

1 Melt butter with sugar, syrup and water in a pan (such as a large non-stick frying pan) on medium to medium-high temperature. Stir continuously with a wooden spoon. When butter is melted, add the almonds.

2 When mixture comes to a rolling boil, set your timer for a minimum of 10 minutes and keep stirring (no more than 15 minutes). The mixture will thicken and turn darker in color. The almonds will roast. Keep stirring and cooking until you hear it crackle. If you don't cook it long enough it will not harden, so keep stirring and listen for the crackling sound.

Elise's note: I have found it very hard to distinguish between the boiling sound and the crackling sound in this recipe. A better guideline for me is by color. When the mixture turns a warm amber color, at about 11 or 12 minutes into the boiling, that's the time to pour it out. Wait too long and it will burn.

If you try to make this, please read all the comments listed below. It's actually trickier than one would think.

3 When the mixture crackles, pour the mixture out onto a large cookie sheet and spread it as thin as possible with a fork. While it is still hot, break up the chocolate into chunks and distribute it over the almond mixture and let it melt. Spread it evenly on the top.

4 Let it cool to room temperature. When cool you can lift the whole thing off the pan and break into small pieces.