Maple-Kissed Horchata #AroundtheWorldwithRice

I made a batch of horchata last week for SEM. You can read about that here. This week, since we were making a traditional Mexican rice, I decided to make another batch of horchata.

Funny story: my co-teacher is from Spain. And when she saw that I was making horchata for class, she was perplexed. In Spain, horchata is not made with rice; it's made with a kind of nut. So, she didn't know how that was applicable to our class.

For this version, I decided to skip the granulated sugar and use some maple syrup instead. I also used less water for a thicker version. The kids - and my husband - thought this was a better horchata.

Ingredients

• 1 C uncooked rice (I used Thai jasmine rice)
• 1 C boiling water
• 2 C warm water
• 1 C milk (you can use any kind of milk - rice, almond, etc. - I used whole cow's milk)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1/4 C maple syrup
• 2 t pure vanilla extract
• 1 t ground cinnamon
• Also needed: food processor or blender, mesh strainer or cheesecloth

Procedure

Add rice and 1 C boiling water to a blender (preferably high-speed blender) and let stand for at least 10 minutes for the rice to soften. Blend for several minutes until the rice is broken up a bit. Pour into a lidded jar and add remaining water. Add in the cinnamon stick and let sit for 2-4 hours.

Add milk, ground cinnamon, vanilla and maple syrup and give it a quick stir to mix it up. Let sit for another 2 to 4 hours – longer is fine, too!

Strain the horchata through a cheesecloth-lined fine mesh sieve and press out the pulp in the cheesecloth. Discard the rice pulp and serve the horchata with ice.