As the candymaking cavalcade continues, I decided to make the Cocoa and Sugar Dusted Chocolate Almonds from page 109 of the Handmade Holidays special issue. This sounded very simple (always the curse of death).
![almond-paper Almonds after cooking](https://puttingitallonthetable.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/almond-paper.jpg?w=225)
Almonds after cooking
The first step is to cook the almonds with sugar, water and cinnamon in a pot on the stove. Then pour it onto baking sheets and stick it in the freezer. So far, so good. Getting it off the baking sheet was another story. I had it on waxed paper, which kept ripping as I tried to get the nuts off.
The next step is to melt semi-sweet chocolate and stir the nuts into it. Martha says to then put the almonds on a wire rack. Now, picture how small an almond is. Then picture the racks you own. Would an almond not fall through that? Definitely. Mr. MarthaAndMe came up with a solution – he
![almond-wrap Mr MarthaAndMe's Solution](https://puttingitallonthetable.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/almond-wrap.jpg?w=300)
Mr MarthaAndMe's Solution
wrapped fishing line around and around a wire rack. He is oh-so-clever.
Once we had this in place, I mixed the almonds with the chocolate. Not so great. The chocolate sort of solidified and got all chunky. When I put the almonds on the rack, they looked like nasty pieces of something unpleasant
![almond-choc Unsightly mess](https://puttingitallonthetable.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/almond-choc.jpg?w=300)
Unsightly mess
I will not name here. Not to mention, I did not need the stupid wire rack thing – setting them on waxed paper worked just as well since they were not drippy.
Because the chocolate was not nicely coating the almonds, I first stuck it in the microwave to try to soften it a bit, but that did not seem to help (and I was worried about the sugar coating dissolving). Then I put it over a pot of boiling water. This helped a little. I ended up rolling each almond by hand to smooth out the layer of chocolate on it. This was a major pain and I admit it made me complete cranky.
Next you cool the almonds and then roll half of them in cocoa powder and half in powdered sugar. This was easy.
![almond-final The results](https://puttingitallonthetable.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/almond-final.jpg?w=300)
The results
The taste test? Well, I think the almonds needed to cook longer in the sugar mixture because they were not as crunchy as I would have liked. I’m not sure using raw almonds was the way to go here, Martha. I think regular almonds might have worked out better. I was thoroughly disgusted by this entire project by the end. What should have been simple took forever and did not turn out as I envisioned.
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I love almonds! I bet these were super tasty!
I’m going to have to taste them again now that I am past the frustration of making them! I think they did have a really nice flavor. I like the sugar coating with the cinnamon. They just needed to cook longer than the recipe said, then they would have been really crunchy and fully flavored.