Looking for an easy dinner party dessert? Here’s a tried and tested recipe that uses our favourite ingredient, coffee. It’s very straightforward to make, and provides a light, refreshing end to the meal.
Granita is an Italian dessert consisting of roughly crushed, flavoured ice, which is often made with fruit juice. Our version is – of course – made with coffee.
The secret to this recipe is to use good quality coffee beans and freshly made coffee. You need no specialist equipment other than an ice-cube tray, a food processor and a domestic freezer. Start this recipe in plenty of time, ideally the day before you need it, to give the ice plenty of time to freeze.
Start by making the coffee. You’ll need half a litre (500ml) of strong, full flavoured black coffee, made from your favourite coffee beans. Stir in two rounded tablespoons of caster sugar until dissolved, then let the liquid stand until almost cold. Pour it into the ice-cube tray, and freeze until hard.
When you’re ready to serve, put a scoop of good quality vanilla ice cream into each serving dish. Turn out the coffee ice cubes, and crush them roughly in a food processor. If you don’t have a food processor, wrap the cubes in a clean tea towel, put them on a chopping board and bash them with a rolling pin. Spoon the coffee ice round the ice cream, and serve. If you like, you can add a drizzle of flavoured syrup before serving – caramel, Irish cream and hazelnut all work well.
For a wide range of top quality coffee beans, suitable for all uses, please visit our coffee beans page at the Wholesale Coffee Company website. We also stock a range of flavoured syrups, perfect for making coffee drinks or for using in recipes.