Horchata Paletas

Name: Horchata Paletas
Yield: 10
Cuisine: American

RECIPE: Excerpted from Coastal: 130 Recipes from a California Road Trip by Scott Clark with Betsy Andrews, © 2025.
Published by Chronicle Books. Photographs © Cheyenne Ellis

Photo: Cheyenne Ellis

March 10, 2025

In Coastal, a travelogue/cookbook that celebrates California’s Central Coast, Chef Scott Clark, with Imbibe contributor Betsy Andrews, highlights the dishes and drinks that can be found from his home in Half Moon Bay to the Channel Islands. His recipe for horchata paletas, inspired by the sweet rice drink found in coastal taquerias, is a cinch to make. “Just don’t forgo the cheesecloth because that extra filter helps you nail a silky texture,” he writes.

Ingredients

Yield:15

1 cup white rice
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger

Tools:blender, fine-mesh strainer, popsicle molds

Preparation

Soak the rice in 4 cups of water in a covered bowl on your countertop overnight. Put the rice and its water in a blender with the vanilla, cinnamon, and ginger. Rip it on high for 4 minutes to smash up all the bits and pieces. You can’t over-blend it, so just go for it.

Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer lined with a double layer of cheesecloth into a pitcher. Pour in the sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk and give it a good stir to blend everything well. Fill your popsicle molds, leaving some room at the top for expansion, and freeze the paletas at least overnight. Pop one out when a craving hits.