Granités

Granité is French for “granite,” and the dessert is named for the stone because of their similarity in appearance. It is known as granita in Italian. A granité is a semisolid mass of small but visible ice crystals that are formed by occasionally scraping or stirring a liquid that has been placed in the freezer. This liquid is scraped or stirred at various times during the freezing process to prevent the liquid from freezing into a solid block of ice, and so it forms small ice crystals instead. Ideally the liquid is scraped or stirred with a fork every 15 to 30 minutes in a freezer that is set to –18°C / 0°F. It is important not to let the semi-frozen liquid sit for too long in the freezer, especially toward the beginning of the freezing process. The flavors and sugar can separate from the remaining ingredients and then the flavor and sweetness will not be evenly distributed throughout the finished product. Although the granité’s ice crystals should be very small, they are still visible. This is one of the big differences between granités and sorbets, in which ice crystals are minuscule and should not be visible to the human eye.