How to Make Horchata

While Dude and I were in Arizona, I had my very first taste of horchata at a teeny Mexican restaurant called Moreno's.  If you've never had it, horchata is this amazing milky, kinda spicy drink made from rice.  If you like chai tea, you'll love horchata. 

Since we got back to Pittsburgh, I've been dying to find some really good horchata and have been failing at every turn. 

I tried the grocery store boxed version and it tasted like milk water that had been fermenting inside of a gym sock. 

We've been to three different "authentic" Mexican restaurants (as authentic as you can get in Pittsburgh) and only one offered horchata and it was not great. 

After that last failed attempt to purchase horchata, I gave up and decided to make some myself. 

Making your own horchata is insanely simple.  It requires ingredients that you probably have in your pantry right now and no special equipment other than a big jar and a blender.

• 1 cup of plain, white rice
• 1 3" cinnamon stick (or a couple smaller ones)
• 2 cups of hot water

 I told you!

First up, measure out your rice and water.

Dump the rice and water into a tall container and then let it sit on your kitchen counter overnight.

Once you've let this mixture sit for at least 12 hours, you'll need to blend it all together.

Dump everything, including the cinnamon sticks, into a blender and blend on the highest speed for at least 3 minutes.  I blended mine for about 5.

 
After blending, you'll still have some gritty-ness left over from the rice. 

No one wants gritty horchata, so it's time to strain!


Sorry about that awkward sentence.  Moving on...

Set up a fine mesh strainer over top of a large bowl.

Put some cheesecloth, muslin, or in my case, a flour sack kitchen towel, in the strainer.

Then slooooowwwlllyy pour the horchata into the towel.  The good stuff will drip through and you'll be left with this paste in your towel.

But there's still perfectly good horchata left in there, so when there's about a cup of liquid left in the towel, pick everything up and squeeze out the rest of the liquid.

Now you'll be left with a bowl full of mostly grit-free horchata.  I opted for one more trip through the strainer before I completed this next step, but you be the judge.

This is what got caught the second time around, with no towel.

Lastly, mix your horchata with one cup of almond milk.  If you don't care for almond milk, you can substitute water, but I think the almond milk gives it a creamier consistency.

I've got a major sweet tooth and just the (sweetened!) almond milk wasn't enough for me, so I whipped up a batch of vanilla simple syrup to add to the finished horchata.

Yes, you could just add sugar, but I never have good luck getting sugar to blend with cold liquids so simple syrup was an easy decision for me.

Simple syrups are pretty simple to make...I guess you could have guessed that on your own just based on the name, huh?

All you do mix equal parts of sugar and water and then boil on the stovetop until all the sugar is dissolved.  Allow it to cool to room temperature and add whatever flavoring you prefer.  In my case, I added a teaspoon of vanilla.

I used a bit less than half a cup of simple syrup to sweeten my horchata.

If you have the willpower of 1,000 men and women, put the horchata in the fridge to rest for an hour or two.

But if you're impatient like me, pour some over ice, add an extra dash of cinnamon and enjoy!

And what goes better with milk than cookies??

Was this horchata as good as Moreno's?  Probably not, but was it better than any horchata I've had since we got back to Pittsburgh?  You bet!!!

Background Noise for This Project:  Sherlock - Season 1, Episode 1:  A Study in Pink