Thursday, August 2, 2012

Granita di Caffe con Panna - A real eye opener!

Ingredients:                                                   Difficulty Rating:  Easy

·         1 ½ cups brewed espresso
·         2 cups of water.   (1.5)
·         about 1/2 teaspoon lemon
·         1 teaspoon vanilla extract
·         about 1/3 c sugar (to taste)   (1/4)
·         1 cup heavy whipping cream   3/4
·         1 Tablespoon powdered sugar.

Preparation
  Make a simple syrup - this can be made ahead of time and stored to use it as needed.
-           Mix the sugar with 1 cup water and bring to low boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

When the sugar is dissoved add the coffee and then the last cup of water, lemon and vanilla. 
-           Pour it into a baking dish that is big enough to be sure the coffe mixture is not more than 1 inch deep. 
-           When it is cool, put it in the freezer.
-           After about 45 minutes, check the mixture.  If the top has any ice, drag a fork through it to break up the ice. 
-           Continue doing this every half hour for about 3 hours.  Keep dragging the fork through the mixture to keep it from forming into a big hunk of coffee ice.  Instead it will be like rich coffee snow.
-           Right before you serve it, whip the cream with the powdered sugar until peaks form.
-           Serve in chilled dessert bowl or chilled cocktail glass topped with a dollop of whipped cream.

Alternative - if you just can't spend the time scraping the ice, pour it into an ice cube try.  Pop out the cubes as you want to use them  and  pulse them in a blender.  Don't 'blend' or you'll just get very cold espresso, pulse until it is snowy.

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