Minted Citrus Granita Recipes

MINTED CITRUS GRANITA

Steps:

• Place 8- or 9-inch square glass baking dish in freezer to chill. Meanwhile, in 1-quart saucepan, heat 1 cup of the soymilk and the sugar just to boiling over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Add tea bags and push into soymilk mixture; let stand 5 minutes. Discard tea bags.
• Stir in remaining 2 cups soymilk, the orange peel and lemon peel until well blended. Pour into chilled dish; freeze 30 minutes. When ice crystals begin to form at edges of dish, stir mixture with fork. Freeze about 3 hours longer, stirring every 30 minutes, until completely frozen.
• To serve, scoop into individual dessert bowls. Garnish with mint leaves.

MAPLE CITRUS GRANITE

Steps:

• In a saucepan, mix water, sugar, lemon juice, orange juice, maple syrup and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer without stirring until all the sugar has dissolved, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove pot from the heat and let syrup cool completely. Add the lemon, orange zest, mint leaves, and pour into a shallow baking dish or plastic container and place in the freezer. (The 6 cup capacity shallow plastic containers with a lid that measure 6 inches by 10 inches by 2 inches deep, and which you can get in grocery stores would be ideal for the purpose.)
• Check after about 2 hours and stir the mixture. After about 4 hours, the mixture will have begun to set up, and you can score the surface by turning a spoon backwards and using the tip to scrape the frozen syrup into "ice curls." Repeat this scraping process periodically, every 2 hours or so, until all of the syrup is scraped into the consistency of water ice. Serve after 8 hours.

MINT JULEP GRANITA

Steps:

• Put 6 or 7 glasses in the refrigerator to chill.
• Cook 3 cups water, the mint and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved, about 2 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a medium bowl, pressing on the mint with the back of a spoon to extract all the juices. Let cool completely, or chill over an ice bath.
• Stir in the bourbon, and pour into a 3-quart (9-by-13-inch) glass or metal baking pan. Cover with plastic wrap, and freeze overnight.
• Scrape the surface of the ice with a fork in long, light strokes to create a snowy texture. Break up any remaining lumps. Freeze the granita again for at least 2 hours before serving. Fifteen minutes before you are ready to serve, put 6 to 7 glasses in the refrigerator to chill. Serve the granita in the glasses, garnished with fresh mint leaves.

CITRUS-GINGER GRANITA

Steps:

• Stir water, sugar, ginger, lemon zest, and lime zest together in a saucepan over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves and mixture is bubbling, 5 to 10 minutes; cool slightly.
• Stir the ginger mixture an orange juice together in a pitcher; pour into a 9x13-inch baking dish.
• Place dish in the freezer; scrape and stir orange juice mixture with a fork once every hour until granita is evenly frozen and crystallized, about 6 hours.

MINT GRANITA

Steps:

• Bring water, mint, and sugar to a boil in a 1- to 2-quart saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 3 minutes. Add lemon juice and pour through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing hard on solids and discarding them, then cool.
• Freeze mixture in a 1 1/2- to 2-quart shallow nonreactive metal container, stirring and crushing lumps with a fork every 30 minutes, until evenly frozen, 2 to 3 hours. Scrape with a fork to lighten texture, crushing any lumps. Spoon into glasses or bowls.

MINTED LEMON GRANITA

Steps:

• In a saucepan combine the sugar and the lemon juice, bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved, and let the syrup cool. In a blender or food processor purée the mint with the syrup, transfer the mixture to 2 metal ice-cube trays without dividers or a shallow metal pan, and freeze it, stirring and crushing the lumps with a fork every 30 minutes, for 2 to 3 hours, or until it is firm but not frozen solid. Scrape the granita with a fork to lighten the texture and serve it in chilled goblets.

FANCY SCHMANCY CITRUS GRANITA

Steps:

• In a small saucepan, bring the sugar and 1 cup water to a simmer over medium low heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat. Stir in basil and let syrup stand for about 15 minutes.
• Now stir together orange juice, lemon juice, grapefruit juice, vanilla and salt in a medium bowl. Pour basil syrup through a fine sieve into the citrus juice mixture; discard basil.
• Move the mixture to a 9"x13" shallow glass or nonreactive dish. Chill in the freezer until edges are frozen, about 1 1/2 hours. Remove from the freezer; scrape with a fork, pulling from the edges into center. Return to the freezer. Repeat process every 30 minutes until the mix is the texture of shaved ice, about 4 hours. Spoon into serving bowls and garnish with a basil sprig and lemon wheel, if using. This makes it fancy! Now eat it up!

MINTED CITRUS GRANITA

Steps:

• Place 8- or 9-inch square baking dish in freezer to chill.
• Meanwhile, in 1-quart saucepan, heat 1 cup of the soymilk and the sugar just to boiling over medium-high heat, stirring frequently.
• Add tea bags and push into soymilk mixture; let stand 5 minutes. Discard tea bags.
• Stir in remaining 2 cups soymilk, the orange peel and lemon peel until well blended.
• Pour into chilled pan; freeze 30 minutes. When ice crystals begin to form at edges of pan, stir mixture with fork. Freeze about 3 hours longer, stirring every 30 minutes, until completely frozen.
• To serve, scoop into individual dessert bowls. Garnish with mint leaves.