new culinary adventures

I received a beautiful new ice cream maker as a Christmas gift this year from my parents and I couldn't wait to bust it out and try my hand at homemade ice cream creations! Every year for Christmas I make homemade almond roca along with my Christmas cookies. This year I didn't have it in me for an afternoon of toffee making so it just didn't get done.Only once I unwrapped the machine I had an urge to whip up a batch of almond roca ice cream. The ice cream machine is really easy. The hardest part is waiting for the cream mixture to get cold and the frozen freezer bowl to freeze. I made a basic vanilla ice cream and mixed in broken up almond roca after the churning stage and then stuck it in the freezer to harden up.

Now my worry is that we will be eating ice cream more often. I bought some good yogurt to try making frozen yogurt instead. Let's hope, for my waistline's sake, it tastes yummy!

The almond roca. This is pretty easy. To make this you need a candy spoon, candy thermometer, deep saucepan, bowl of cold water, 9x9 glass pan with ground almonds lining the bottom, semi sweet chocolate chips. Melt a stick (1/2 cup) butter in the sauce pan on a little lower than medium heat. Add 3/4 cup packed brown sugar and stir like crazy until the mixture is a hard crack on your thermometer and it's pulling away from the sides of the pan. Dribble a little in the cold water to test the crunchiness of the roca before you take it off the heat. Quickly pour the candy on top of the almonds and spread a little so it's not too think in places. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and let them melt then spread the chocolate all over the candy. Sprinkle with almonds and refrigerate until cool. Voila, almond roca-way better than the store bought stuff.**warning. I may make this recipe sound super easy. On one hand it is. On the other hand I've been making almond roca every Christmas since I was tall enough to stand at the stove and stir the candy spoon. Years of practice makes the timing of candy making easy. If you try this and the first time it doesn't work. Let me know. I probably have some tips for you. But seriously, this stuff is to die for so you should try this!