I’m not going to pretend to be a food blogger; not even for a second. I’m far too impatient to make my food look pretty (that is, when I do cook), and my kitchen isn’t usually clean enough to take photos in, and I’m sure as heck not going to take the time to set up a nice photography station when I could be eating.

However, I have to tell you about this, and I can’t just post something without photos.  I discovered the best recipe ever for making horchata.

In case you’re not familiar, horchata is a Mexican drink made from rice and/or almond flour, usually sweetened and flavored with cinnamon. It’s usually poured over ice, but I have heard of drinking it warm, too.

The first time I made horchata, I used a recipe that I found via a foodie blog that involved soaking whole almonds and rice in water overnight, then blending it smooth and adding milk, sugar, and cinnamon. Afterwards, you strain it through cheesecloth.

It was delicious, but even after straining it (twice!) through a double layer of cheesecloth, it had the consistency of a smoothie and was truly more like a meal than a beverage. It was very grainy and kind of grossed me out.

This time, I used rice flour and almond flour. The rice flour was from the Mexican grocery store, but I had to go to the health food store to get almond flour.  Amazingly, my first experiment was a success!

2 c. water
2 c. milk
4 T almond flour
4 T rice flour
2 t cinnamon
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 c sugar (or to taste)

In a blender, combine all of the ingredients except for the sugar. Blend for 30 seconds or so. Blend in the sugar to taste.

That’s it.

I didn’t think it needed straining, but you certainly could if you wanted to. Drink it; it’s amazing.

Tags: almond, beverage, cinnamon, cold, drink, flour, horchata, mexican, recipe, rice, sugar, vanilla

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 21st, 2012 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Bits and Pieces, Food, How-To, Tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.