Nothing is more perfect in the dog days of summer than granita: flavored snow, flakes of sweet ice that melt in your mouth. Unlike homemade ice cream and sorbet, granita requires no special equipment. With a metal bowl or pie plate and a fork, you're on your way to some special slush.
This version, made with black-skinned seedless grapes, was inspired by the Concord grape sorbet in the September 2009 issue of Gourmet magazine. Concord grapes are more of an east coast thing; out here they're hard to find, while black seedless grapes are readily available and oh-so-sweet this time of year. If you find Concords, by all means use them - the flavor is more delicate and the color will be about the same.
More fruit desserts: Strawberry shortcake * Peach blackberry cobbler * Lychee coconut rice pudding
Black grape granita
- 3 cups black seedless grapes
- 1/3 cup sugar
- juice of 1 lemon
Put the grapes, sugar and lemon juice into the blender. Blitz on high speed for 2 minutes. Pour the pureed grape mixture into a fine-mesh strainer set over a bowl, and work the puree through with a wooden spoon or spatula so the bits of skin stay in the strainer. This may take a few minutes of stirring and pushing, but be patient.
Pour the strained grape puree into a shallow metal baking pan, pie plate or bowl. Place in the freezer and set a timer for half an hour. When it goes off, take the bowl out of the freezer, scrape all the frozen bits off the edges of the bowl or pan, and stir. Put the pan back in the freezer for another half hour, and repeat. As you do this, the mixture will turn from liquid, to frozen around the edges, to slushy, to snow. It will probably take two and a half or three hours of stirring every half-hour or so, but the more you do it, the better the texture of your granita in the end.
When the granita has achieved a true snow-like texture, move it into a sealed plastic container large enough to hold it without having to pack it down, and freeze. Eat within a few days. If the granita freezes solid (and it shouldn't, if you've done it right), let it thaw until you can mash the ice crystals with a fork, and start the freezing process anew.
Comments
Sounds refreshing. To streamline the process a bit, you could just let it freeze solid and then scrape it with a fork or the side of a spoon. Works well, and no stirring every so often:)
Jenni - I've tried that, but I don't like the texture as much - more like flavored ice chips, less like actual slushy snow. Do you find it to be the same?
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