Toffee

1 large chocolate bar like Hershey's or your favorite chocolate bar grated on a box grater or food processor.
2 cups whole almonds that you roast and chop.  I sometimes use already roasted and salted almonds chopped.

Using a cookie sheet, lightly spread 1/2 of the chopped almonds followed by 1/2 of the shaved chocolate.

Then prepare the toffee:

1 lb. butter
melt and slosh around sides of pan
add:
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup karo syrup
add carfully in the middle of the melted mixture:
2 1/2 cups sugar

Cook on medium heat until sugar is melted, melting the sugar slowly is an important step in all candy making, turn to medium high heat bringing to a rolling boil and cook until carmely brown and registers a hard crack. Once it starts boiling do not stir. If you don't have a candy thermomoter (highly recommended) you can pour a small amount into ice water to check, it should not stick to your teeth, if it does it's not quite ready. Take off stove and pour over nuts and chocolate in small stream covering all of the cookie sheet. You will not be able to spread the toffee so slowly drizzle going in a circle and filling in until the pan is empty.  Do Not scrape the pan, it could turn the toffee to sugar. After the toffee is in the pan, sprinkle the rest of the shaved chocolate followed by the chopped almonds. Top with aluminum foil and press down gently. Cool completely, chop toffee with the tip of a knife to break into medium size pieces.

This recipe is not hard but does take some practice to get it right.  Don't give up, it's worth the effort to learn how to do it.  Please add your hints and tricks to this post so that everyone can make this Hickman family speciality.

Try using pecans and different kinds of chocolate for something different.