There are few drinks as refreshing on a hot day as horchata. Horchata is a cold, sweet drink from Spain made of milk and ground rice. Unless you’ve had horchata, it’s hard to picture what a drink with those ingredients would taste like. But if you have had horchata, you’re probably no longer reading this as your eyes are glazed over with visions of paper cups full of cold, refreshing horchata right now.
Given the scientific fact that horchata is one of the most delicious creations known to mankind, we decided to take it a step further and blow your mind with a fusion of horchata and homemade ice cream. Imagine the refreshing cold, refreshing taste of horchata and the cold, refreshing taste of homemade ice cream in a single bite. There is nothing better. Brace yourself for the recipe:
Ingredients
- 2 cups of whole milk
- 1 cup of long grain white rice, uncooked
- 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups of heavy cream
- 3/4 cup of granulated sugar, divided
- 5 egg yolks
Preparation
- Place the milk, uncooked rice, cinnamon, and vanilla in a blender and pulse for about 30 seconds, or until the rice is coarsely ground. Transfer the contents of the blender to an airtight container and put in the refrigerator overnight. Breaking the grains of rice and soaking them overnight helps the milk absorb the flavor of the rice.
- Meanwhile, in a saucepan over medium heat, bring the heavy cream and 1/2 cup of sugar to a simmer, stirring constantly, until the sugar is completely dissolved into the cream. Remove the pan from heat and set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks until they are pale yellow and a little fluffy. Add the remaining sugar and whisk a bit more until incorporated.
- Now what you’re going to do is called “tempering” the eggs. If you ever want to impress a famous chef in conversation, casually drop the term “tempering” on them. They might not be all that impressed though, we’ve never held a conversation with a famous chef. You want to temper the eggs to gradually warm them up so they don’t fry when they hit the heat and result in clumps of egg in your ice cream. Chunky egg clumps are typically undesirable in ice cream.
To temper the eggs, add two tablespoons of your hot cream mixture into your egg mixture and stir it. Then, add a couple more tablespoons of cream and stir again. And then, a couple more. When your egg mixture is almost as hot as the heavy cream mixture, pour the eggs into the sauce pan with cream.
- Return the saucepan to medium heat and stir constantly until the creamy mixture thickens enough to coat the back of your spoon. Approximately two to three minutes.
- Pour your newly made custard through a strainer to filter out any clumps and put in an airtight container in the refrigerator, right next to your rice mixture, overnight. Your ice cream will set quicker and come out smoother if it is already chilled when it goes in the ice cream machine.
- After chilling overnight, pull the rice mixture from the fridge and pour through the strainer to remove the rice grains. Mix the rice milk in with the custard and stir until smooth. Pour mixture into the ice cream machine, according to your machine’s instructions.
- Enjoy your incredible horchata ice cream and don’t share it with others if you don’t want to.