Fresh Fruit Granitas
A layered fruit ice that is loaded with flavor. These granitas are made with fresh watermelon, blueberries, and lemon, and are the ideal way to beat the summer heat. They are loaded with fresh summer flavors and are so easy to make. Just a few simple ingredients for granita you will swoon for.
Fruit ice is something I tried for the first time while visiting Italy, and I have been hooked ever since. If I had known how simple it was to make at home, I probably would have been eating it all day ever day of the summer for years. It is so refreshing, and such a wonderful way to enjoy summer flavors.
A granita, or fruit ice, is essentially fruit blended with liquid and sweetener, then frozen into little flakes of icey goodness. It is essentially a rough snow cone, but instead of a syrup used to flavor the ice, the ice is actually made from a fresh fruit.
Amazing right???
Getting Festive
In the summer I like to get festive with my fresh fruit granita, so I used watermelon, blueberries, and lemons to make a Red, White, and Blue granita. Which I love for the 4th of July, but honestly, it is so good I will eat it in August, September, June… you get the idea. No need for it to be July to enjoy this amazing fresh fruit granita.
One thing to note is the different fruits may give it a slightly different consistency. For example, the blueberries are going to be a slightly thicker granita than the watermelon granita because they have less liquid in them. You could strain them to get rid of the skins, and then have a more similar consistency, but I like easy, so I say skip it. You will love the flavors.
Lemon granita has always been my favorite. When I am wandering the streets in Italy, like I was with my kids last year (read about Rome with Kids here), I am almost guaranteed to have a lemon gelato or lemon granita in my hand. If the weather is super hot, it is always a fresh fruit granita because trust me when I tell you it is the best way to cool off.
I would say I have a very limited range of degrees in which I feel comfortable. And as soon as I am outside that range I am either grabbing a blanket and a hot chocolate, or a nice cold treat. My cold treat of choice is this fresh fruit granita. Make it and I am pretty sure you will find yourself agreeing with me!
Tips for Making Fresh Fruit Granita:
- Use a shallow pan. This will help it freeze more uniformly. I have Nordic Ware baking sheets that I used. I could tell you all the reasons that I love my baking sheets for cooking but we are freezing, not baking. Trust me they are great for baking and work for this recipe as well!
- Scrape with a fork after the first hour of freezing to get those individual ice crystals.
- Use your favorite fruit flavors. The formula is pretty simple, it is a base of fruit, some sweetener, and a liquid. The more liquid-y the fruit, the less added liquid you need.
- Clean out your freezer before hand so you have a flat surface to set your pan of granita. This will help it freeze evenly.
- Scrape more than once if your granita wasn’t as frozen as you need at the one hour mark.
- Return to freezer if you do not use it all.
More summertime recipes to try:
Fresh Fruit Granitas
Ingredients
Watermelon Granita
- 4 cups fresh watermelon
- 1/3 cup lime juice
- 1/3 cup white sugar
Lemon Granita
- 4 cups water
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2/3 cup lemon juice
- zest of one lemon
Blueberry Granita
- 4 cups blueberries
- 1/2 cup grape juice or white grape juice
- 1/3 cup sugar
Instructions
- For each individual granita:
- Add ingredients to a blender. I love my Blendtec Blenderbecause it is powerful enough for all my recipes and makes quick work of it for this recipe.
- Blend until smooth.
- Pour into a shallow pan (I used baking sheets, but you could use a 9x13 casserole dish)
- Cover with foil
- Put in freezer for 1 hour.
- After an hour, use a fork to scrape the top of the granita to get individual ice crystals.
- Return to freezer, freeze another 2 hours.
- Scrape with fork again, and break it up into chunks.
- Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.
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Pin to your Summer Treats board on Pinterest:
Katherine says
Amazing for sure! I need to try this. Pinned!
Karly says
Crying tears of deliciousness. These. Look. Amazing. The absolute perfect summer treat!
Rachael says
Oh gosh, they really are. I first had granitas in Italy, and have been hooked since.