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1
Chop the almonds until they are broken into chunks with a food processor or blender.
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2
Remove half and continue to grind the remaining portion into a coarse meal- Set both halves aside for later.
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3
Melt butter with salt on medium heat.
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4
Stir sugar in slowly.
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5
Continue cooking and stirring for approximately 15 minutes.
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6
At first, the sugar will sink to the bottom and not melt.
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7
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.
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8
When it turns tan, stir in the chunks of almond and vanilla, darkening the mixture further.
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9
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!
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10
The temperature should be about 280u00b0/Hard crack stage and if butter starts to rise to the top, take mixture off the heat immediately.
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11
Stir it briskly once off the heat then pour into a 11x15 baking sheet that has been lined with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
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12
Cut 1/2 the chocolate up and melt over a double boiler and spread over the surface of the cooling toffee.
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13
Dust surface with 1/2 of the almond meal.
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14
Once cooled and hardened, melt the remaining chocolate, flip toffee out of the pan, and coat the bottom.
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15
Repeat dusting of almonds.
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16
Don't get all stressed if the toffee breaks-- it's supposed to be handy-size chunks.
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17
Refrigerate until hardened thoroughly and finish breaking into piece.
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18
Continue to refrigerate or freeze until ready to serve/given as gift/eaten!
