How to make homemade horchata and fartons

Instructions

FIRST DAY

Soak tigernuts.

1. Wash tigernuts very well to remove any dirt they may have.
2. Pour them in a bowl, cover with water and cover with cling film. Leave to soak for 18-24 hours in the refrigerator.
3. I recommend changing the water 2-3 times during this step.

SECOND DAY

Prepare horchata (tigernut milk).

1. Strain tigernuts.
2. Put tigernuts in a food processor or blender and pour the liter of cold water.
3. Process tigernuts together with the water until they become a paste. You will have to blend them following the appropriate steps according to the appliance you use. The ideal is not to overheat the mixture by abusing the processing time. It should be ready in 2 minutes using a program that gradually increases the speed.
4. Place a strainer over a bowl and place a cheesecloth over it. Pour in the mixture.
5. Take the ends of the cheesecloth and start pressing so that the tigernuts expel all the horchata. We will have to exert a lot of pressure to squeeze them well.
6. Pour horchata into a bottle and refrigerate for at least 4-6 hours before serving.
7. Shake or stir well before serving.
8. NOTE: Do not discard processed tigernuts. In the notes section I tell you what you can do with them.

Make fartons dough.

1. In the bowl of the KA or a stand mixer, add the flour along with the egg, water and sugar. Knead until a homogeneous dough is formed.
2. Add the yeast, knead at low speed for 3-4 minutes.
3. Incorporate the salt and knead again until the gluten is well developed. It will take about 15 minutes.
4. Once we have a developed gluten, pour the oil.
5. Knead at speed 1 until we obtain a perfect gluten development. The dough will be completely strung on the hook leaving the sides of the bowl clean.
6. Remove the dough from the bowl of the mixer, knead gently and place in a previously greased bowl. Cover with film or its lid, and let rise at room temperature until it grows 1/3 of its volume. In my case it was 1 hour to 86ºF/30ºC (it was very hot...).
7. Refrigerate until the next day. In my case it was 11 hours to 39ºF/4ºC.

Temper the dough and preshape.

1. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it temper for 1-2 hours before working with it, depending on the outside temperature. In my case I left it for 75 minutes to 77ºF/25ºC. The dough should triple its volume.
2. Dump the dough out onto a clean work surface and gently degas the dough.
3. Divide the dough into 14 pieces of 38-40 g each.
4. Preshape each piece by placing the pieces of dough, if any, in the center. Gently roll the dough.
5. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes.

Shape fartons.

1. Lightly dust a work surface with flour and stretch one of the pieces with a rolling pin.
2. Stretch it into an oval shape.
3. Roll the piece on itself, on the longer side. Seal the dough joint.
4. Place both hands on the piece and slide each of them to one side. In this way we will give length to the piece and at the same time we will obtain a uniform thickness.
   We will give a length of approximately 25 cm.
5. If we observe that the piece is tense, let it rest while shaping other pieces. After a few minutes, stretch again by sliding your hands until the desired length is achieved.
6. Place the pieces on a tray lined with baking paper. Leave a small space between them so that they can grow during final fermentation.
7. Cover with cling film and let them double in size. In my case they were 3 hours to 82ºF/28ºC.

Bake.

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF/175ºC with heat up and down.
2. While baking fartons, prepare the glaze. Mix  powdered sugar with water and set aside.
3. Place the tray with the fartons in the oven at medium height and bake for 12 minutes. Its interior temperature should be around 190º-194ºF/88º-90ºC to be perfectly baked.
4. Take them out, brush with the glaze on the surface and put them in the oven for 2 more minutes. In this way we will fix the glaze.
5. Remove and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Serve horchata & fartons.

1. Serve horchata, chilled, in glasses or tall glasses. Remember to shake or stir well before serving.
2. Serve with freshly made fartons.
3. Enjoy!

Notes

• It is very important to use good quality tigernuts and if they are with denomination of origin, much better.
• We must wash the tigernuts well to remove possible impurities and dirt.
• The longer we soak the tigernuts, the more they will be hydrated and the better they will be grinded. The ideal is to leave them for 18-24 hours. It is important that they have enough water to cover them and change the water 2-3 times during these hours.
• During the soaking process, tigernuts should preferably remain refrigerated to prevent them from fermenting.
• We must process tigernuts with very cold water to ensure that blades' friction does not overheat tigernuts and cause them to lose their qualities. The processing time will depend on the machine we use, but it should not exceed 2-3 minutes at medium speed at the beginning and higher at the end.
• Once processed, we can taste it and sweeten it if we wish. If the tigernut is good quality, it will not be necessary to add sugar or add very little.
• Optionally we can add some cinnamon powder or even lemon peel.
• To extract tigernut milk, we can use a mesh, cheesecloth or cloth strainer. These three utensils will allow us to extract all tigernut milk without small portions of the crushed tigernut. In case of using a strainer, many small pieces would pass through, which would make it unpleasant to drink.
• Tigernuts pulp, once pressed to obtain horchata, can be spread on a baking tray and let it dry at room temperature. We can do it in the oven at low temperature if we wish. Once dry, blend it again to obtain a finer texture and we can use it as if it were gluten-free flour to make sponge cakes, cookies, shortcrust pastry, crackers...
• It is recommended to let the horchata stand for 4-6 hours in the fridge before serving. The flavors are enhanced, in addition to cooling well.
• Dehydrated tigernuts should be stored at 39º-46ºF/4º-8ºC. In my case I bought 1 kg and I keep them in the refrigerator.
• Respect all the steps, resting and rising times to obtain a good result both in flavor and in texture and sponginess.
• Olive oil can be replaced by another variety of vegetable oil if you wish. But I recommend using this variety, whenever possible.
• When shaping fartons, do not manipulate the dough excessively in order to prevent it from tensing and resisting. If this happens, let it rest before continuing to work with it.
• Sugar glaze should be applied as soon as the fartons are taken out of the oven. Then dry for 2 more minutes to fix it.
• To enjoy a perfect combination, we must serve fartons freshly made and very, very cold horchata.

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