Making Lemon Granita!

Granita Al Limone

What is lemon granita? 
From the book: "The Granita is a cold dessert that is of typical Sicilian sweets. It is traditionally a semi-liquid concoction of water, sugar, and fresh lemon juice. The origins of Granita date to the Arabian domination of the island. The Arabs introduced an iced drink flavored with fruit juice or rosewater, often prepared with the snow collected in Mount Etna, and kept in "nivieri", freezers built of stone." (Grazia, 170).

What this means: Granita has many different variations and dates back to when Arabians controlled Sicilia, and in older times when stone was used as a freezing tool.

picture from the book of Lemon Granita

Ingredients;

The first step was to boil sugar and water for one minute to create a syrup. Once it had boiled, it was time to take off all heat and then add the lemon juice in. 

doesn't this look scrumptious?

boiling wow!

After that, all you had to do was put the syrup mixture into a bowl and freeze it for 2-4 hours. However, the recipe states that you should mix up the ice every hour, and only continue once it reaches a uniform consistency. I basically waited for it to resemble the picture which took 3 hours. I also bought an extra lemon for the sake of the picture #89cents@fredmeyer 

The final result:

fun quote from my dad: "why are you using shot glasses"

Review: YESSSSSSS it finally looks like the picture! I think this was maybe an overly simple recipe but that's fine with me. This was definitely my favorite Italian dessert to make because it tastes the best, looks the best, and was the easiest! It tastes like lemonade, but better. It is somewhere between maybe a lemon slushy and lemonade yet is quality. 

Questions: What is your favorite cold/ice drink? Do you still drink them in the winter?

p.s do you like the yellow background? Yellow and lemons are fun. Three best things in a girls life (or maybe just mine); lemonade, mac n' cheese, and cats.

Citation: Barilla, Academia. Italian Desserts and Pastries: Delicious Recipes for 100 Authentic Sweets. Vercelli: White Star, 2014. Print.