Cranberry Granita with Orange Cream

// September 6th, 2009 // amatuer chef

We … let me just explain when I say we I am referring to the 5 of us that live together in the East Village – Me, my husband AJ, my 2 younger brothers Brian and Cheese and my good friend Mikey.  So we decided to have one of our infamous rooftop barbecues this weekend.  As usual we have a ton of food that Mikey will be grilling, one of the things I am making this weekend in the dessert.  I wanted to make something light (as we will be stuffed) and refreshing because if how hot it has been outside.  So I searched and found a recipe on epicurious for a Cranberry Granita with Orange Cream.  Sounded delicious so I though I would give it a try and … it was a HIT, everyone loved it!

Ingredients:

2 cups of Cranberry Juice Cocktail

1/2 cup of sugar

1 1/2 cups of cranberry sauce (like everyone eats for Thanksgiving)

1/2 cup of Orange Juice

2 teaspoons of orange peal

3/4 cup of chilled cream

Preparation:

Bring the cranberry juice and sugar to a boil.  Stir often so that the sugar doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.  Remove  from heat and let it sit.  Puree cranberry sauce for 1 minute.  Then add cranberry juice and sugar mixture and puree for two minutes more.  Pour into an 8×8 pan and freeze until firm or at least 4 hours.  (I used two smaller pans and it worked just fine)

Remove from freezer and scrap with a fork make the frozen cranberry mixture it a flaky goodness.  Now its time for the orange cream.  I have to admit, I ruined mine at first because the ornage syrup I put in was too hot and curdled the cream.  So make sure that the orange syrup is cooled before you put it in the cream to whip.

For the orange syrup combine orange juice and 3 tablespoons of sugar and bring it to a boil in a small saucepan.  Boil the mixture until is reduces to about 1/4 of a cup.  Remove from heat and let it cool.

Now its time for the cream.  In a bowl whisk together cream and 3 tablespoons of the cooled orange syrup.  Whisk for about 4 minutes.  You will know the cream is ready when you remove the whisk and the cream has soft peaks.

Enjoy:

Place a generous amount of cranberry granita into a glass top with a spoonful of cream drizzle a bit of orange cream on top and garnish with some shredded orange peel.