This juicy fresh strawberry granita is SO refreshing and craveable and ridiculously easy to make! Bursting with flavour, it’s the ultimate easy, no-cook strawberry dessert.
So fresh, so juicy, so…easy to make! This 2 ingredient strawberry granita is the ultimate warm weather treat.
Are you ready to be blown away by one of the most refreshing, juiciest, most flavourful desserts on the entire planet? Nope, I’m not exaggerating, my friends…let me introduce you to this incredible strawberry granita.
This gorgeous treat is giving my fave 5 minute strawberry sorbet a little friendly competition in the running for my absolute favourite desserts. On those days when it’s just too hot to think, a little bowl of granita feels like heaven. And if you’ve got people coming over for dinner, granita can be made the day before and stashed in the freezer – plus, it looks so fancy when you serve it that people will never guess it took essentially 5 minutes to throw together. If you really want to up the chef vibes, I’ve even got a couple of easy flavour variations you can play around with in the recipe.
If you’ve never had granita before, it’s an Italian-style fruit ice. You may have had shaved ice desserts where flavour syrups are poured on top…but for a granita, the ice is already infused with flavour because it’s made from blended fruit or juices.
Making granita feels a bit like alchemy because all you’re doing is blending up gorgeous ripe fruit with a bit of sugar and some water (hello, 2 ingredient dessert!) and yet it tastes like SO much more than that. It’s exactly the kind of magic that inspired me to write my newest plant-based cookbook, Plant Magic. And if you fall in love with granita after making this, you’ll want to try the mojito granita from the book next!
Okay, let’s get to it…
How to make this epic strawberry granita, step by step
Let’s talk ingredients: when a dessert is just strawberries and a touch of sugar, there is nowhere to hide. Ideally, your strawberries will be really, really yummy. I’m talking juicy, red and bursting with flavour. The riper, the better…in fact, this is a really good recipe to use up almost overripe fruit.
Oh, and the dietitian in me wants to talk sugar. I use straight up cane sugar in this recipe, just a bit, because it it’s neutral flavour won’t assert itself on the strawberries. Maple syrup will, so will stevia. If you need to avoid sugar for medical reasons, maybe just skip it altogether. It will still be lovely, just with a slightly less intense flavour.
All you need to make this granita is strawberries and a bit of sugar, but if you want to get fancy, try adding thyme leaves!
The riper the berries, the more flavourful the granita! Just blend, blend, blend.
Step One: blend up your strawberries and sugar with water on high until they’re completely liquified, about 30-45 seconds. If you’re adding a flavouring, add it now and then give it a quick blitz to combine. Taste the mixture, it should be really flavourful. If not, you could add another tablespoon or two of sugar because things taste less sweet when frozen.
Step Two: pour the strawberry mixture into a square glass or metal baking dish (8 inch or 9 inch) and pop it into the freezer for an hour.
Step Three: using a fork, scrape and mix through any little ice crystals that have formed on the surface. It won’t even be close to frozen at this point, don’t worry!
Step Four: Repeat the freeze one hour + fork scraping step until all you’re left with is mounds of ice flakes, about 4-6 hours total. One ready, transfer the granita into a resealable container and store in the freezer for up to one month. Yep that’s it: blend, freeze, scrape, enjoy!
Use a shallow square baking instead of a loaf pan for more surface area
If you forget about the granita for more than an hour, don’t worry, you’ll just need a bit more elbow grease to scrape!
When it’s done, all you’ll have left is little icy clusters of strawberry goodness.
More wonderful nourishing strawberry desserts
5 Minute Fresh Strawberry Sorbet with Coconut Cream
Fresh Strawberry Oatmeal Bars with Hemp Hearts
Unbelievably Good Fresh Strawberry Granita
Equipment
Ingredients
Optional flavour variations, choose one
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves½ teaspoon vanilla PLUS ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
Instructions
Notes
The post Unbelievably Good Fresh Strawberry Granita appeared first on Desiree Nielsen.
