Strawberry granita
A seasonal granita made from ripe strawberries — icy flakes that taste of fresh fruit.
The strawberries are sprinkled with sugar and left to release their juice, then blended with water. Granita has less sugar than sorbet, so the strawberry flavour comes through even more strongly. It also works as a layer on top of vanilla ice cream.
Type: Granita · Servings: 6 · Difficulty: Easy
Equipment
Ingredients
- 600 g strawberries (hulled)
- 130 g granulated sugar (sucrose)
- 200 g water
- 20 g lemon juice (fresh)
Making the mix
- Slice the strawberries, sprinkle with the sugar and leave for 1 hour to release their juice.
- Blend with the water and lemon juice. You can strain out the seeds.
- Refrigerate the mix for at least 1 hour.
Method — No-machine method
- Pour the chilled mix into a shallow metal or glass container (2–3 cm deep) and put it in the freezer.
- After 45–60 minutes, once the edges have frozen, scrape them with a fork and mix them into the centre.
- Repeat the scraping every 30 minutes until everything has turned into loose, icy flakes (about 3–4 hours in total).
- Before serving, fork the granita through once more and spoon it into chilled glasses.
A metal container chills faster than glass. If you forget the granita for too long and it freezes into a block, let it soften for 10 minutes, then scrape it with a fork or pulse it briefly in a food processor.
Total time: 6 h 15 min
Method — Compressor ice cream maker
- Switch the ice cream maker on 5–10 minutes ahead so the bowl can pre-chill.
- Pour in the chilled mix and churn for 20–25 minutes until you have a thick, glossy, still flowing ice slush.
- Serve straight away — this is how the smooth granita is sold in eastern Sicily (Messina, Catania), from rotating dispensers.
An ice cream maker gives a smooth, creamy granita. Don’t churn it too long — granita shouldn’t be as firm as sorbet. Any leftovers will set in the freezer; fork them through before serving.
Total time: 2 h 40 min
Stages
- Preparation
- 15 min
- Resting
- 1 h
- Cooling
- 1 h
- Freezer with stirring
- 4 h
- Total time
- 6 h 15 min
Serving and storage
Serve in a glass with whipped cream, on vanilla ice cream or with fresh strawberries.
Granita is best on the day it is made. It keeps for a few days in the freezer but sets hard — let it soften for 5–10 minutes before serving and scrape it again with a fork.
Tips
- Granita should contain less sugar than sorbet — about 16–20 °Bx. A refractometer measures it precisely; without one, taste the mix: it should taste like a distinctly sweet drink, not like syrup. Fruit varies, so add a little more sugar if needed.
- A few basil or mint leaves blended with the strawberries give the granita a summery aroma.
- Frozen strawberries work too — thaw them and use them with all their juice.
Why it works
When you scrape with a fork, the ice breaks along the crystal boundaries. With 16–18 % sugars in the mix, a thin layer of sweet, unfrozen syrup remains between the crystals and the flakes don’t fuse into a block. Below about 12 % sugars, the granita would set rock hard.