I scream. We all scream for ice cream.
So, you would think that I spent most of the months of June and July thinking about ice cream that I would remember the order I made the ice creams, or at least the order they were served. Not a chance.
I made granita, because it is light, refreshing and delicious. It is also one of the recipes that is perfectly edible in the normal manner of things once it has turned into a soupy mess. And granita is lactose free, gluten free, and well, pretty much most objectionable things free, making it good for a couple of my friends who have problems with such things.
This granita was raspberry and lime. Just like a rickey, with the sweetness of the raspberries overshadowed a bit by the sensation of lime. The picture is of me taking the mass and raking it back to its crystalline beauty.
Making a granita is easy. Take fruit, water and sugar and heat/puree/sieve until you have the consistency you want and then put in a long flat dish and freeze and rake every 30 to 60 minutes. It is a remarkably forgiving dish.
I also made my favorite sherbet from the Perfect Scoop, Lemon Buttermilk. It is a dieters sweet delight. The last time I calculated the calories for this treat it was under 100 calories for a 1/2 cup scoop. Of course that changes with the brand and fat content of your buttermilk, but it is a light flavor though too sharp with the tang of buttermilk for some.
I think next year I will make a frozen lemon bar for one of the desserts and a few more hand held items like ice cream sandwiches. I also still want to make tartufo, chocolate dipped ice cream balls. I was planning on making a second ice cream pie this year, but instead just made two pumpkin ice cream pies. The obvious choices are a key lime and a lemon meringue ice cream pie, because they will all happily coexist with the marshmallow sauce.
This ice cream, because it is lower in fat content, freezes much more solid than most of the other ice creams I made. This isn't normally a problem, but if you have the ice cream in the freezer for a long time you'll need to take it out 5-10 minutes before serving to make it scoopable.
Four ice creams to go!
Raspberry Lime Granita
2 pints raspberries
1 cup water
0.5 cup sugar
1-2 limes
Puree the raspberries and use a sieve to strain out the seeds. In a separate pot, heat the water and sugar and stir until dissolved. Zest the lime into the water. Juice the lime, and add it to the water. Stir in raspberry puree.
At this point, you can adjust the flavors to your level of tartness, lime-iness, etc. Taste the mixture. If it is not lime-y enough, you can either add the juice and zest of a second lime or you can take lime oil, just a scant 1/4 teaspoon, and add it to the mixture. If it is too sweet, add a bit of additional water and lime juice. If it is too tart, heat a small amount of water with additional sugar (1/4 cup at a time) and once dissolved add to the mixture.
Freeze the mixture in a long pan. After an hour, rake the ice crystals into the center of the pan. Repeat every 30-45 minutes until it is completely frozen.
Once melted, this is delicious as a sauce spooned over other ice creams or puddled under other desserts.
