Strawberry Granita
Submitted by shiloah
Strawberry granita made from just three ingredients, no ice cream machine needed. Fresh strawberry puree and simple syrup frozen and scraped into glittering, refreshing ice crystals. Pure summer in a glass.
YIELD
8 servingsPREP
15 minCOOK
10 minREADY
3 hrsGranita is the easiest frozen dessert there is: no ice cream machine, no custard, no fuss. Just ripe strawberries puréed with a cooled simple syrup, frozen in a pan, and raked into icy, glittering crystals with a fork.
The whole technique lives in the scraping. As the mixture freezes, you drag a fork through it every ten minutes or so, breaking up the ice and pulling the frozen edges into the liquid center. That repeated scraping is what gives granita its signature fluffy, snow-like crystals instead of a solid block.
A wide, shallow pan chilled in the freezer first does a lot of the work, spreading the mixture thin so it freezes fast with plenty of surface to scrape.
It tastes purely of summer strawberries, bright and sweet, barely sweetened beyond their own flavor. Serve it within a few hours in chilled glasses, while the texture is at its lightest. Compared to a richer sorbet, it’s cleaner and icier on the tongue.
Pro Tips
- Chill the pan before you start; a cold, wide pan freezes the mixture faster and gives more surface to scrape.
- Scrape with a fork every 10 minutes so you build fluffy crystals, not a solid sheet of ice.
- Serve within a few hours for the lightest texture; granita firms up the longer it sits.
- If it freezes rock-solid, cut it into chunks, chop fine, and refluff before serving.
Variations
- Add a squeeze of lemon or lime to sharpen the strawberry flavor.
- Splash in a little balsamic or a grind of black pepper for a grown-up twist.
- Swap strawberries for watermelon, raspberry, or peach.
Ingredients
Directions
Place a non-reactive roasting pan or gratin dish in the freezer.
Rinse and hull the strawberries.
Purée in the blender or food processor and measure 2½ cups puree.
Bring sugar and water to a boil in a saucepan, stirring occasionally to dissolve sugar.
Cool the syrup and combine with the puree.
Pour into the prepared pan and return to the freezer.
When the mixture starts to freeze, stir every 10 minutes or so, scraping the frozen mixture from the bottom and sides of the pan and mixing it with the as-yet-unfrozen mixture.
When there is no longer any unfrozen liquid in the pan, pack the granita into a chilled container and press plastic wrap against the surface.
Serve within a few hours for best texture.
If the granita freezes to a solid block, pop it out of the container and cut into thick slices with a stainless steel knife.
Chop the slices finely, replace in the container and freeze until serving time.
Serve the granita in chilled stem glasses.
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