Coffee Granita

Coffee Granita
Originally uploaded by bltphoto

Credit crunch cooking

I only chose the title as it was alliterative as most good cooks are careful and thrifty with food whatever the state or the “markets” (wasn’t life simpler when the phrase “the market was bad to day” meant they’d sold out of the caulis on your usual stall and had to got to the pricey but not as good one near the bakers...).

Here’s an idea for a cheap, sophisticated and delish afters, pudding, sweet, dessert....

Coffee Granita.
I made a bit too much coffee yesterday, I could have blasted it in the microwave later but had a mind to make a granita. I made Campari one earlier in the year which was excellent.

I searched around for a recipe; Delia suggested one that used a pint of espresso, but having had loads of Campari granita last time I decided to drastically reduce the amounts involved.

Tip of the Day: when I’m making soup, ices (you know fluid based food) I often measure the initial water/liquid in the bowls I’ll be serving the finished dish in so as to make the right amount (I add a couple of spares for good measure)

Ingredients:
Fresh espresso half a pint 300 ml approx.
50 g of sugar to taste.
A 500 ml plus lidded plastic box for mixing and freezing

I think my cafetiere had about half a pint of java in it.
I was out of loose sugar and only had cubes left so I put a handful of cubes say 10-12 Delia suggests 110 g of sugar for a pint.

Sorry for being slap dash but what I did was taste the mixture to see how sweet it was when it was little too sweet I stopped with the sugar. (Remember cold food tastes blander)

I did add the odd spoon of instant coffee to pep up the flavour because I was using filter rather than espresso.
Next it was into the freezer. After an hour or so you need to check how it is setting and mash up the solid ice at the edge with a fork.

I think it took about 3-4 four hours to set and forked in the frozen ice crystals about 3 times during this time. It’s very simple much less bother than washing up an ice cream mixer actually.

I served it in espresso cups. Even a half pint made a large amount (ice is 9% bigger in volume than water thanks A) plenty in fact for at least 6 people as it’s delish but a strong flavour.

Alternatives.
If I was doing it for larger group I would have perhaps served it with spoon full of good vanilla ice cream or may be a small amount clotted or sweeten whipped cream.

You could swap some of the sugar for a few glugs of Tia Maria in the liquid. The alcohol in the Tia Maria will stop the ice from freezing like the sugar does, so don’t put too much in a couple of measures tops.

Like I say it’s an adult dessert that is easy to make; you could probably make it the day or night before and bring it out of the freezer 10 minutes before you need it and just loosed it up with a fork making it ready to serve.

Spanish food name of week:
Tia Maria is Spanish for “Aunty Mary”