Showing posts with label frozen dessert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label frozen dessert. Show all posts

Thursday, November 8, 2018

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 (3/4 cup is enough - keep trying to decrease)
Pinch of salt
2/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder  (used TJs cocoa powder)
4 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped (chips melt without chopping)
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.

Sunday, July 1, 2018

Peach or Nectarine Granita

From The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

The fruits taste less sweet after they're frozen, so the sweeter they are from the beginning, the better.  Making a frozen dessert doesn't get any easier than this.  Serve  with vanilla ice cream or frozen soy milk, and it'll be like a creamsicle.  Otherwise, it's great surrounded by berries, perhaps sweetened by a drizzle of honey.  Allow a few hours to a day for proper freezing.

Ingredients:
6 ripe nectarines or peaches
1 1/3 cups water
1/2 cup sugar

Directions:
1) Slice the fruit in half and twist to remove the pits.  Cut into chunks and cook with 1 cup of the water in a medium, non-reactive saucepan over medium heat, covered, stirring occasionally, until they're soft and cooked through, about 10 minutes

2) Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar.  Let cool to room temperature.  When cool, puree the mixture in a blender with the remaining 1/3 cup of water, until smooth.  I don't recommend using a food processor for this, as the liquid can leak (at least in mine!).

3) Freeze according to the instructions for the Mojito Granita.