HORCHATA AGUA FRESCA RECIPES

Steps:

• Rinse the rice in a colander. Place in a blender and add enough water to cover by an inch; soak 5 or 10 minutes. Add the vanilla and cinnamon and blend until finely ground. Drain the liquid through colander into a pitcher.
• Return the ground rice to the blender. Add the condensed milk and about 2 cups water and blend again. Drain into the pitcher. Discard any remaining rice.
• Add more water to the pitcher, one cup at a time, until it has the right amount of sweetness for you. Add ice and serve cold.
• Note: you can add 1 cup sugar or so and 1 cup milk, instead of the sweetened condensed milk . I suppose you could use rice or even soy milk, but I haven't tried it.

Steps:

• In a mixing bowl, add the rice, whole milk, sweetened condensed milk, cinnamon sticks.
• Pour hot water into the mixture and stir until the sweetened condensed milk dissolves.
• Allow mixture to come to room temperature. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap then refrigerate the mixture for a minimum of 2 hours. Refrigerate up to 12 hours for a more concentrated flavor.
• Uncover the mixture. Remove the cinnamon sticks and discard.
• Strain the mixture to separate the rice. Reserve the liquid.
• Add the rice and 1.5 cups of the strained liquid to your blender. Blend for 3 minutes until the rice is liquefied.
• Strain the blended rice back into the reserved liquid. Blend the horchata mixture again if the mixture is gritty.
• Serve over ice with a sprinkle of cinnamon.