Keeping It Cool Fashion Report 100

Last week we had a heat moving ridge. Rows of 100s marched down the East Declension on the conditions map. I swam exterior equally much as possible. And water ice. I ate lots of ice.

Not ice cubes, but succulent and refreshing granita – Italian ice that you can make so easily in your own freezer. Granita is simply combining water, sugar, and fruit flavorings then freezing it. It'south like a fancy slushy for grownups.

I learned a couple of things in this process that might make this fifty-fifty easier for you.

ane. You really do need to employ a glass dish because you take to apply a fork with some force to get the ice out of the pan and yous don't desire to scoop upwards metal into your granita. I did this.

2. Tastes vary wildly on what makes a expert granita. I acknowledge I sometimes accept a hard time telling the departure betwixt as well sweet and also tart. I would never make it as a lemonade tester. None of the recipes I looked at were remotely similar. In fact, no two descriptions of granita were alike either. So to taste really counts hither.

Since I still had some fresh currants left over from making currant pie, my first batch was a raspberry-currant granita that came out looking more similar a sorbet. I recall this had something to do with the fact that granita recipes telephone call for stirring every hour or and so, and who has fourth dimension for that, really? This is when I used (and most ruined) a metallic pan. Neglect.

It was still delicious, though, tangy and tart and refreshing. I sat on my deck and watched the dominicus become down feeling very … absurd as I ate my cool granita/sorbet. But I was adamant to make a granita that had ice that sparkled similar shards of glass. After swimming across Crystal Lake ane evening, my friend Jenna and I paid a visit to the mall to find me a glass baking dish. (Note: Walking around while still wearing a wet swim suit in a cool mall is but as painful every bit information technology was last summer and every summer earlier that.)

This fourth dimension I wanted to make a lemony, minty granita. This is a swell thought for you lot if mint is at present taking over your garden. Every year I am left with more mint than I know what to do with. The recipe beneath should help, because you need 2 cups of fresh leaves for each batch.

The day I made lemon-mint granita the temperature stayed about 90 degrees F. This gave me the perfect excuse to blast the air conditioner and stay indoors without feeling guilty nigh missing out on a day of summertime.I can't go outside, run into, I take to stir my ice.

The first batch I offered to my friend Ryan who was visiting from Portland, Ore., where it never gets hotter than seventy degrees F. I should have taken his overall overheated misery into consideration before I asked him for his opinion on the granita. "Besides sweet," he said. Determined to please, I halved the amount of sugar and tried again the next day. "Too tart," he said. Then Goldilocks showed up and we all played a round of Bananagrams. (OK, Goldilocks was a no-bear witness. Simply Ryan did win the round – this subsequently dissing my granita twice in a row. Geez.)

Anyhow. Hither are the recipes. Keep them handy. The canis familiaris days of summertime are direct ahead.

Currant and Raspberry Granita
Serves iv

1 cup currants
2 cups (one pint) fresh raspberries
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water

Purée the currants and raspberries in a blender. Press the liquid through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl. Add lemon juice.

In a medium saucepan, bring the water and saccharide to a boil. Boil until the mixture has the consistency of a light syrup, about four minutes. Let to cool.

Stir in the fruit purée and add to an eight″x8″ drinking glass baking dish. Cover with foil and allow to freeze, about 3 hours.

Scoop into glass dishes and serve.

Lemon Mint Granita
Serves 4

one cup water
3/iv to one loving cup saccharide, to taste
two cups fresh mint leaves
1/2 to 3/four cup of fresh lemon juice, about 5 lemons
Zest of 1 lemon

In a medium saucepan, add water, sugar, and mint leaves. Estrus on medium heat and stir until saccharide dissolves. Heat for four minutes on low oestrus (you lot practice not need to boil). Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Remove and discard mint leaves.

Add lemon juice and zest to sugar syrup and stir. Pour into an 8″x8″ glass dish and embrace with foil. Identify in freezer. Stir the granita every hour or so for up to half dozen six hours until frozen.

Scoop out of dish with a fork by raking the ice into shards. Serve in glass dish and garnish with a mint foliage or two.