Black Currant Granita (Printable Version)

A crystalline frozen dessert bursting with tangy black currant flavor, ideal for summer refreshment.

# What You Need:

→ Fruit

01 - 3 cups fresh or frozen black currants

→ Sweetener

02 - 3/4 cup granulated sugar

→ Liquid

03 - 1 2/3 cups water
04 - 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

# Steps:

01 - Rinse the black currants thoroughly. If using fresh currants, remove stems.
02 - In a medium saucepan, combine the black currants, sugar, and water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Stir occasionally until the sugar dissolves and the currants burst, about 10 minutes.
03 - Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
04 - Puree the mixture using a blender or immersion blender until smooth.
05 - Strain the puree through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl, pressing to extract as much juice as possible. Discard seeds and skins.
06 - Stir in the lemon juice.
07 - Pour the strained mixture into a shallow metal baking dish and place in the freezer.
08 - After 45 minutes, use a fork to scrape and break up any icy edges. Return to the freezer.
09 - Every 30 to 45 minutes, scrape and fluff the mixture with a fork until the granita is fully frozen and fluffy, about 4 hours total.
10 - Serve immediately in chilled glasses or bowls.

# Expert Advice:

01 -
  • The texture is like eating flavored snowflakes that melt into pure concentrated sunshine on your tongue
  • Black currants bring this sophisticated tartness that regular berries just cannot match
  • You mostly freeze and occasionally fork, making it ridiculously low effort for something so elegant
02 -
  • Metal pans freeze faster and more evenly than glass, which genuinely affects the final crystal texture
  • The scraping process sounds tedious but those 4 hours of fork work are exactly what transforms this from flavored ice into ethereal flakes
  • Room temperature granita melts faster than you would expect, so serve immediately after the final scrape
03 -
  • Set a timer for the scraping intervals because I promise you will forget otherwise
  • The finer your sieve, the silkier your final texture will be, so do not skip this step
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