Toffee Rocky Road Bars

Last night my hubby-who really lets me go on my strange food explorations and restrictions without complaint- told me he really wanted some dessert. Now, I happen to have a very yummy date sweetened raw chocolate cake sitting in the fridge, but I knew that he really wanted something with a lot more sweet, you know, with straight sugar...(I just tell him that the coconut sap sugar we use is the same thing and he nods and goes along with it.)

So, I thought.

And I thought.

And I looked through my recipes.

And I looked through pinterest. (Did I mention that I am a little obsessed?)

And I thought some more.

And I decided to design a recipe that reminded me of rice crispy treats but without the rice crispy part. What ensued has almost no resemblance to those cereal treats, of course.

But it is good!

So here we go:

Toffee Rocky Road Bars

Start with a 15x9 inch baking dish, lined with parchment, (leave lips to pull the whole thing out by)

In a food processor, crush (leaving it chunky), 2 cups raw (soaked and dried) almonds

Make toffee caramel:

1 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cup butter, grass fed

In a saucepan, begin to melt the sugar, add butter cut up into small chunks and stir until it is well blended and bubbling.

When it is completely blended together and smooth, pour hot caramel over almonds and stir until coated well.

Dump the whole thing on wax paper or parchment to cool. When cool, break up into small pieces. Try not to eat too many of them!

In a double broiler melt,
1 cup soy free dark chocolate chips (or whatever choc you want!)

Then toss that into a bowl with your crunchy almonds and stir until well coated. Let that cool and dry.

Make the marshmallow cream. Check out Mommypotomus' recipe, which I used. It is SO easy!

When you are done mixing, quickly throw the almonds into the marshmallow cream and stir to coat completely. Dump that whole thing into the prepared baking dish and smooth it out so it is even.

Allow it to stiffen, about an hour. Take it out of the pan using that extra paper lip you left, lay it out and cut into little squares.

It looks a little messy, but it is oh so good! (And to tell you the truth, I am not a huge marshmallow fan).