Uncle Greg's Almond Roca

Every Christmas, my great-uncle Greg would make Almond Roca, and send a box to family members all over the US. As the next-oldest Greg in my family, I've also taken to making Roca.

• 2 cups sugar
• 4 sticks butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• roughly 10 oz of chocolate, melted in a double-boiler
• about a half-pound of roasted and salted almonds

1. cover a baking sheet with either a sheet of waxed paper or one of them new-fangled Silpat things.

2. Pulverize the almonds. You can do this with a hammer or something, but the best way is to toss them into a food-processor for a couple minutes.

3. Melt the butter in a real big pot. Move it around a bit with a whisk.

4. Add the sugar and vanilla to your melted butter. Over medium-high heat, WHISK IT HARDCORE. And you can't stop, and you won't stop. Your arm will get sore. PUSH THROUGH THAT PAIN, MY FRIEND.

5. After somewhere between five and ten minutes, this toffee-mixture will darken. Here's the real trick -- too light, and the toffee may end up soft and crystallized. Too dark, and it'll taste like burning. You want to take it off the heat right as it's beginning to hit a nice golden-brown.

6. As soon as you've removed it from the heat, immediately pour the toffee onto your prepared sheet from step 1. Let it cool and harden. You may notice that some of the butter's separated, and is sitting on top of the toffee in a clear oily layer. That's not a huge problem; just mop it off with a paper towel or something.

7. Once the toffee's hard, spread half your melted chocolate over one side of it, like you're frosting a cake. Sprinkle half your pulverized almonds from step 2 onto that melted chocolate, then press them into the chocolate with your hands. Let the chocolate cool and harden.

8. Flip that sheet of toffee over, and repeat step 7 on the other side. What you've got now are the layers:
-crushed almonds
-chocolate
-toffee
-chocolate
-crushed almonds

9. Once the whole thing is cool, break into irregularly-shaped pieces, each one about an inch by an inch.

You can store this in the fridge, but it keeps at room temperature pretty well, too, which makes it a really excellent candy to send people in the mail.