Coffee Granita
Granita di caffègra-NEE-ta dee kaf-FEH
Fine, dark, intensely bitter-sweet coffee ice, scraped into crystals and layered in a glass with unsweetened whipped cream. In Sicily it is breakfast, eaten with a brioche. Everywhere else it is the best thing to do with coffee in August.
At a glance
- Coffee : sugar
- 5:1
- Active time
- 10 min
- Total time
- 190 min
- Makes
- 4 glasses
- Serve
- Frozen, with cream
- Kit
- Shallow metal tray
Ingredients
Note: The sugar is structural, not just sweet. Cut it much below 100 g and the granita freezes into a hard block that will not scrape.
Method
-
Sweeten the coffee hot
Stir the sugar and salt into the hot coffee until completely dissolved. Let it cool to room temperature.
-
Pour into a shallow tray
Pour it into a shallow metal tray so it is about two centimetres deep, and put it in the freezer.
Shallow and metal so it freezes quickly and evenly. A deep glass dish freezes at the edges and stays liquid in the middle.
-
Scrape after an hour
After about an hour, when ice has formed round the edges, scrape it into the middle with a fork and break up any lumps.
First scrape at 60 minutes -
Scrape every thirty minutes
Return it to the freezer and scrape every thirty minutes, four or five more times, until the whole tray is fine, dry, separate crystals.
The more often you scrape, the finer the crystals.
Every 30 minutes, about 2 hours -
Layer with cream
Spoon granita into chilled glasses, add a layer of softly whipped unsweetened cream, then more granita, and finish with cream. Serve at once.
Why this works
Sugar controls the texture. Dissolved sugar lowers the freezing point of water, so coffee with 100 g of sugar per 500 ml does not freeze solid in a domestic freezer. Instead, pure ice crystals form in a syrup that stays partly liquid. Scraping breaks those crystals apart before they can grow and fuse. Too little sugar and the tray sets into a block. Too much and it never freezes beyond slush.
Scraping is what makes it granita rather than sorbet. A sorbet is churned continuously as it freezes, which keeps the crystals tiny and the texture smooth. Granita is disturbed only every half hour, so the crystals grow larger and stay separate and crunchy. More frequent scraping gives finer crystals. Sicilian granita in Catania and Messina is usually made in a churning machine and is smoother. Scraped granita is coarser and closer to what Rome and the rest of Italy serve.
Cold dulls taste, so the coffee has to be strong, roughly twice filter strength, and the sweetness has to be higher than you would like in a hot cup. The pinch of salt lifts both.
The cream is unsweetened on purpose. Against an intensely sweet, bitter ice, plain cream is the soft, fatty contrast. In Sicily, granita di caffè con panna with a brioche col tuppo, the bun with a little topknot, is an ordinary summer breakfast, and the brioche is torn and dipped into it.
Variations
- Granita di caffè without cream: plain coffee ice, drier and more bitter.
- With a shot of espresso: a hot espresso poured over the granita, close to an affogato.
- Almond granita: the Sicilian classic, made with almond milk instead of coffee. Layer the two.
- Spiked: a spoon of coffee liqueur or amaretto poured over before serving.
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Questions
How do you make coffee granita without an ice cream maker?
Freeze sweetened strong coffee in a shallow metal tray and scrape it with a fork every thirty minutes for about two to three hours until it forms fine crystals.
Why did my granita freeze solid?
Too little sugar, or it was left too long between scrapes. Use at least 100 g of sugar per 500 ml and scrape every thirty minutes. If it sets hard, leave it out for ten minutes and scrape again.
How long does coffee granita keep?
Up to a week in the freezer in a sealed container. Scrape it again with a fork before serving.
How is granita eaten in Sicily?
Often for breakfast in summer, layered with whipped cream and eaten with a sweet brioche, which is torn and dipped into it.