Some rather gourmet Granitas

Originating in Sicily, a granita is rather like a coarse-grained sorbet. It works well as a light option for pudding, or an accompaniment to some fresh fruit in summer. It also makes a wonderful palate cleanser between courses, especially when you want to make an impact. 

There are various kinds of frozen dessert created in slightly different ways; for example, ice cream is made by freezing a dairy-based mixture, such as cream or custard, while it’s being either regularly stirred or churned to break up the ice-crystals as they are formed. This creates a smaller crystal and therefore a smooth, creamy-textured ice cream. Sorbet-making uses the same process, but the mixture is based on water or fruit juice. The base mixture of a granita is very similar to that of a sorbet, but the freezing process involves less stirring. This means that larger ice crystals are allowed to form, giving granita a coarser texture than sorbet. 

Don’t think that a coarse texture means an unsophisticated dessert, however. There is a huge scope for subtle flavour combinations in a granita, and it looks fantastic piled up in a martini or wine glass with a couple of appropriate garnishes. Including alcohol in your granita is not an absolute necessity, although I've done so in both of mine. However, it does stop the ice from setting too hard, creating a pleasingly slushy texture rather like a grown-up Slush Puppy; and of course, the fact that it’s frozen doesn’t stop it getting you tipsy...

Granita really is a fantastic opportunity to get creative with flavours, so without further ado, here are a couple of suggestions to get you started.

Apple and Mint Granita

Lovely for summer (spring’s just around the corner folks!)

Ingredients

1 litre of apple juice, preferably unsweetened and not from concentrate

A few sprigs of mint

A couple of cooking apples

A squeeze of lemon or lime

200g sugar

A dash of calvados or apple vodka (optional)

Method

Chop up, peel and deseed the apples and cook them with 100g of the sugar and a little water until they are very tender or falling apart. If necessary, blend them until they’re sufficiently mushy. Leave to cool. 

Meanwhile, put the apple juice, mint and the rest of the sugar in a large pan with some lemon juice and your choice of alcohol if using. Bring slowly to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Leave to cool to room temperature so that the mint infuses, then sieve or pick out the mint stems and add the apple pulp.

Put the resulting mixture in the freezer (you can use the pan you boiled it in as long as it’s freezer-safe) and allow it to freeze, stirring every 20 minutes or so. You won’t need to stir so often if you’ve included alcohol, and the granita may take longer to freeze.

Before serving, fluff the granita up with the tines of a fork so that the ice crystals are of a roughly even size. Serve in a martini glass with a sprig of mint and perhaps a twist of apple or a couple of raspberries.

Mulled Wine Granita

This is a very easy recipe I did as a palate-cleanser on Christmas Day. It also makes a great light dessert. 

Ingredients

1 bottle of red wine

1 orange

1 lemon or lime

1 cinnamon stick

2 star anise

4 cloves

135g granulated sugar

125ml water

Method

Zest and juice all the citrus fruit. Put the wine in a large pan and add all the other ingredients. Gently heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Bring very briefly to the boil (take the pan off the heat as soon as it starts to bubble). Then put the pan aside for the spices to infuse, and leave it until it’s cool. 

Pour the wine through a sieve into a freezer-friendly container and pop it in your freezer. If the pan you boiled it in is ok to freeze you can use that. You need to leave it until set – for at least six hours, depending on your freezer. Give it a stir every one or two hours if you can. It will set eventually, but not particularly hard, as the alcohol stops it from freezing solid. 

Serve in a glass, decorated with a cinnamon stick if you've got enough. You could also use a twist of orange, a couple of skinned segments, or even a star anise of two (but don't let your guests bite into them!). This granita also looks very striking served over a scoop of vanilla ice cream, although I can't say that the flavour combination is everyone's cup of tea...

So that was granita. Remember to experiment, and Happy Freezing!