Coffee granita
Granita is one of the simplest frozen desserts there is: no machine needed, just a shallow tray, a fork and an alarm every forty minutes. Regular scraping of the freezing coffee creates coarse crystals — something entirely different from a smooth sorbet.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Brewing the coffee 10 min
- Cooling 30 min
- Freezing and scraping 210 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneBrew strong coffee
Brew 600 ml of genuinely strong coffee — stronger than you would normally drink. Freezing mutes flavour, so weak coffee frozen gives you brown water and nothing more.
Ingredients: 600 ml coffee · 120 g sugar · 1 pinch salt · 1 tsp vanilla extract
Stronger than usual — freezing dulls the flavour.Dissolve the sugar and cool
Stir the sugar, salt and vanilla into the hot coffee until everything dissolves. Cool to room temperature — 30 minutes. Warm coffee in the freezer raises the temperature and lengthens the freezing.
Ingredients: 600 ml coffee · 120 g sugar · 1 pinch salt · 1 tsp vanilla extract
TipA pinch of salt will not make the granita salty — it softens the bitterness and brings out the coffee's aroma.
Pour into a shallow tray
Pour the coffee into a metal tray so the layer is no more than 2 cm deep. A shallow metal tray freezes far faster and more evenly than a plastic box.
Ingredients: 600 ml coffee · 120 g sugar · 1 pinch salt · 1 tsp vanilla extract
Scrape with a fork every 40 minutes
Put it in the freezer and every 40 minutes scrape the frozen edges with a fork, mixing them into the middle. Repeat 4–5 times over about 3.5 hours until the whole tray is loose, dark crystals.
Ingredients: 600 ml coffee · 120 g sugar · 1 pinch salt · 1 tsp vanilla extract
TipIf you miss a scrape and it freezes into a block, cut it into chunks and pulse briefly in a blender.
The fork breaks the ice into coarse, loose crystals.Serve with whipped cream
Spoon the granita into cold glasses and top with unsweetened whipped cream. Coffee granita with cream is a Sicilian classic, and unsweetened cream balances the sweetness of the ice. Dust with cocoa.
Ingredients: 200 ml whipping cream (30%) · 1 tsp cocoa
Before you start
For breakfast
In Sicily, especially in the east of the island, granita is a summer breakfast, eaten with a soft brioche that you dip into the ice like a croissant into coffee.
Other flavours
The same method works for lemon juice and water, mint infusion or watermelon purée. Sugar ratio: 20% of the liquid weight.
Storage
Granita is best the same day. Overnight it sets into a block — scrape it again with a fork before serving.
