My son and I were turning through a cook book, and he immediately was drawn to a photograph of a granita looking very colorful in a martini glass. He asked, "Can we make that?" I told him, "That recipes uses alcohol, but let's see if we can find something else." To our surprise so many granitas contain champagne, wine or liquor. Here is a simple two recipe granita we used with just two ingredients, fresh squeezed orange juice and a bit of sugar.
Granitas which are essentially an "icee" originated in Sicily and come in a wide range of flavors including lemon, jasmine, coffee, almond, mint and chocolate. Believe it or not they are even served as a breakfast food with brioche and used as a palate cleanser between courses. I think this is a great dessert to serve around the pool!
Ingredients
- The Juice of 6 Large Oranges (About 3 Cups)
- 1/2 Cup of Sugar
Method
Juice the Oranges. Reserve about 1/4-1/2 cup of juice. Place the juice in a sauce pan and heat, whisking the juice and 1/2 cup of sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved. Then, incorporate the sugar/juice mixture into the rest of the juice.
Pour the juice into a shallow pyrex dish and place flat in the freezer. Rake the mixture every 30 minutes for about 2-3 hours until the granita is flaky and all of the juice is well frozen. Serve in martini glasses.
#granita #orange #icy
