Horchata ice cream with macerated strawberries

Ice cream base

• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream

• 1 2/3 cups milk

• 1/4 cup rice

• 1/2 cup almonds

• 1 stick Mexican cinnamon (Ceylon cinnamon)

• 3 tbsp skim milk powder

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste

• 1 tsp kosher salt

1. Preheat oven to 350f/176c

2. Lay rice, almonds, and cinnamon on two separate trays and place into the oven.

3. The rice is going to need about twenty minutes to toast and you’ll need to stir them every now and then. You want the rice to be a deep golden brown.

4. The almonds will probably need around ten to fifteen minutes to toast. Again you’ll want them to be a deep golden brown, if your almonds are not peeled break one open to make sure they’re toasted throughout. Once toasted reserve half for the topping and the other half for the ice cream base.

5. The cinnamon stick will only need about 5 minutes so plop it on one of the trays and pull it out while you stir the other ones.

6. Once everything is nicely toasted you’re going to break up the rice and almonds so you can use the bottom of a pot and crush them, a mortar and pestle, or do what I did and use an immersion blender and quickly break them up. Just break them into large pieces, nothing like a powder.

7. Combine the milk, cream, almonds, rice, and cinnamon into a pot and place over very low heat. No simmering, no boiling. Just a little bit of steam is perfect. Steep this for 1 hour.

8. When the time is up stir in the sugar, milk powder, vanilla, and salt. Stir until everything is completely dissolved.

9. Strain through a fine mesh strainer and cool completely. You can use an ice bath to cool quickly.

10. Once the ice cream base is completely cool and very cold you can place into your ice cream machine and follow your manufacturer instructions.

Almond topping

• 1/4 cup toasted almonds

• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp sugar

• pinch salt

1. Using a microplane, grate the toasted almonds.

2. Stir in the cinnamon, sugar, and salt.

Macerated strawberries

• 5-6 strawberries

• 1 tbsp sugar

• squeeze of lemon

• pinch salt

1. Dice up your strawberries and place into a bowl. Add the sugar, lemon juice, and salt.

2. Let this sit for a minimum of 30 minutes but up to 1 hour. The longer it sits the more the strawberries will soften and break down and become more syrupy.