Watermelon Granita

Granitas are one of the underrated concoctions of the frozen desert realm. We all love ice cream, sorbets, and gelato but sometimes an Icey granular desert hits the spot, and no I’m not talking about shaved ice. If you don’t know, granitas are very similar but way better. We aren’t shaving unflavored ice then pouring sugar on top, we’re taking a fruit juice then turning that into an icy desert. Here we won’t have to deal with that weird unflavored frozen water on top and artificial sugar bomb on the bottom. In this recipe we’re using watermelon as the focal point then pairing it with a bunch of citrus and a hint of angostura bitters. Watermelon already has the maximum refreshment badge but we’re just pushing its potential just a little bit more without losing its essence. 

Through the years I’ve found a few different ways to make granitas and I’ll be sharing them with you. In my opinion one isn’t better than the other but they give us different results that may be more ideal for different people or applications. The first one is a traditional way of making a granita that lends tiny ice granules. The second produces a slightly fluffier result with chunkier granules while the third gives us very fine ice granules resulting in a very smooth granita, a technique I found from Heston Blumenthal. 

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Recipe 

Ingredients 

Watermelon juice 1 ½ C + 3 Tbsp. (400g)

Sugar 1C (120) 

Water 1C (225)

Lime 4Tbsp (50g)

Angostura 2 dash 

Peel from ½ a grapefruit (15g)

Peel from 1 lemon (11g)

Procedure

Base 

• Blend about 2 to 3 cups of watermelon on high speed then strain until clear. Reserve the amount of juice listed above. 
• Combine sugar and water in a pan and let simmer until dissolved 
• Turn off the heat and add the lemon and grapefruit peels and allow to cool until room temp. 
• Add watermelon juice and angostura bitters and let sit and infuse  for 30 minutes or overnight in the refrigerator 
• Remove peels and add lime juice 

Granita 

Method 1

• Pour the base into a wide dish and place in the freezer. 
• After two hours give the base a stir to mix any liquids that have separated 
• Allow the base to freeze completely solid ( 4 to 5 hours), the wider the dish the quicker it will freeze 
• With a fork  scrape the frozen base with a back and forward motion creating tiny ice granules. 
• store granita in the freezer

Method 2 

• Pour the base into a wide dish and place in the freezer. 
• Allow the base to freeze undisturbed for about 1 to 1 and a half hours.
• After the initial freeze, some of the liquid should be thinly frozen
• With a fork stir the granita in a circular motion until all the ice is evenly mixed in with the unfrozen liquid 
• Repeat this process once every hour until the the base has turned into small ice granules  
• The longer you wait between stirring the chunkier they will be
• store granita in the freezer

Method 3 

• Pour the base into an ice tray and allow it to freeze completely into ice cubes  
• Place the base cubes into a blender and blend on low speed. 
• With a blending tamper quickly mash the cubes down so they all get crushed.
• Once the cubes are all broken down, quickly remove from the blender  into a new container.  
• store granita in the freezer

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This summer we had a record breaking heat wave in Oregon hitting 117 at its highest, so like any smart person I avoided turning on the oven and stove top for a few days and bought a giant watermelon. This granita was  birthed at that time, while the rest of the melon ended up as breakfast for multiple days in a row . It’s a lovely way to enjoy watermelon and a perfect refreshment for any hot day. The Goal was a citrus forward granita that also played around with implications of bitterness. Originally the grapefruit was the only bitter flavor in there but on a whim of improvisation I threw in some angostura bitters and it was great. The bitters help balance and tame the sweetness while giving a hint of complexity and aromatic nuisance. We don’t lose the watermelon in a pool of acidity either since the  lemon and grapefruit peel are infused into the base opposed to the acidic juice. 

Finding the right watermelon

Everyone has their own techniques for finding the perfect watermelon and often one of them is the good ol slap. I’m definitely one of those people that you see circling around the produce section slapping and tapping everything, but it works, mainly for watermelon. You want a hollow sound with a bit of reverb. You literally got to pick the thing up, put your ear to it, and give it a few good slaps. Really listen for the sound too. The more you do it the easier you’ll be able to recognize the hollow resonant sound. According to Oxford language The definition of resonance is “the quality in a sound of being deep, full, and reverberating”. This is literally what you want in your watermelon. Another method of mine is looking for the yellow spot on the melon. The bigger it is the longer it sat on the vine ripening; meaning, a tastier watermelon. The spot should also be a deep yellow opposed to the whitish ghostly spot. The melon with the most scratched up deep yellow spot is the one for me.

Granita applications

Granitas are a great refreshing dessert but they have a few more uses and applications than just being eaten plainly. They are often used as a palate cleanser between courses on some menus. A refreshing granita can be great after a heavier savory course leading into something lighter, not saying you have to have a 7 course menu at home for dinner but a granita can definitely give your next dinner party a bit of flare. You can even pair it with a bit of sparkling wine or a crisp spirit like gin or vodka for a slightly boozy hit. Granitas are also often used on top of oysters. The bivalve mollusks are already great on their own but a light granita on top can really give it a flavor boost. One of the fun parts about having methods that achieve different consistencies is that you can play around with the textures. A chunkier granita may be great on top of an oyster while a fine granita may be nice eaten straight.

You can definitely use this base for more than just this granita as well. A few ice cubes in a glass with it and you’ve got a great refreshment. I reckon the base could also do great in a cocktail. I haven’t explored that route but it  has a lot of potential for something great. The base has a bit of complexity but is still simple enough to work in tandem with different flavors. Bottom line is, you don’t have to only use this tasty base solely for a granita; however, I will say if you have an ice cream maker on your hand this base may surely make a great sorbet. Play around and have fun 

Thanks for stopping by my corner of the web and checking out this recipe. I hope you can find a good looking melon and give this recipe a try, or maybe even make your own version. Much love from fern!

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