ALMOND-ENCRUSTED ENGLISH TOFFEE

Steps:

• 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°/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 a 11x15 baking sheet that has been lined with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
• Cut 1/2 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.
• Don't get all stressed if the toffee breaks-- it's supposed to be handy-size chunks.
• Refrigerate until hardened thoroughly and finish breaking into piece.
• Continue to refrigerate or freeze until ready to serve/given as gift/eaten!