Mexican Hot Chocolate Brownies with Horchata Ice Cream

Last week I posted a favorite brownie recipe I've made now a few times and decided to include it in a family dinner but with a twist.  I have been experimenting this week with nut and rice milks and one of my dinner guests had been over earlier in the week and really liked my horchata, a mexican rice milk.   So I thought I;d try giving the horchata a whirl in my vintage ice cream maker.  It was a success!  For the brownies I changed my original recipe only slightly, substituting half the chocolate with mexican chocolate, reducing the sugar and slightly increasing the flour.  In San Diego it is very easy to find the mexican chocolate used to make a traditional hot chocolate drink.  This chocolate usually comes in round bars and has sugar and spices such as cinnamon.  I purchased mine at trader joes.  Common brands are Ibarra and Abuelita.  For the horchata ice cream I simply ran one batch of my horchata in my ice cream maker.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Brownies

2 ounces of dark chocolate
2 ounces of mexican chocolate
1 stick of butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour

Het over to 350' and prepare 8x8 baking pan by greasing and flouring or lining with parchment paper (I love parchment paper).  In double boiler (a smaller pot in a larger pot of warm water) melt chocolate and butter, stirring occasioanlly until smooth.  Do not overheat.  Once smooth, cool slightly and then beat together with sugar, eggs and vanilla.  Gently stir in flour.  Pour your batter in to prepared baking tin and bake for 10-20 minutes until you can insert a butter knife and no batter remains when you remove the knife.

Horchata Ice Cream

1 cup of rinsed basmati rice
4 cups of water
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Soak rice in water for 12-24 hours.  Blend on high for several minutes and then strain, discarding the pule.  Blend again adding the sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and salt.  Place this in your ice cream maker.  The resulting treat will be more similar to a water based gelato or sorbet.