Chocolate Granita

From The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

This gives you a very rich taste of frozen chocolate - delish! Doesn't last long in this house!

Container for freezing - preferably 2" high and 8-10" long oblong container

4 cups water
1 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
2/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder  (used TJs cocoa powder)
4 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a large saucepan, whisk together the water, sugar, salt and cocoa powder.  Bring to a full boil and continue to boil, stirring occasionally for 15 seconds.

Remove from heat and add the chocolate.  Stir the mixture until the chocolate is completely melted, then add the vanilla

Pour the mixture into the dish and place in the freezer.  Once it starts to freeze around the edges(check after about an hour), take a fork and stir the mixture, breaking up the frozen parts near the edges into smaller chunks and raking them toward the center.

Return the dish to the freezer, then check the mixture every 30 minutes afterward, stirring each time and breaking up any large chunks into small pieces with a fork, until you have beautiful fine crystals of homemade granita.  If it freezes too hard, simply leave it out at room temperature for a few minutes until it softens enough to be stirred again with a fork, and rake it back into crystals.  Then return to the freezer.

Spoon over ice cream or sorbet, or top with sweetened whipped cream.