Coffee granita + 1st blogiversary!

By Tali Simon | August 8, 2012

It’s been exactly one year since I officially welcomed all of you to More Quiche, Please. And hasn’t it been fun? I’ve shared nearly 200 recipes that now make up a recipe index with 45 categories, held three giveaways, and developed a Facebook presence.

Things are looking a lot prettier around here, too. (Remember these ugly things?) Let’s just say I’ve since learned the value of good lighting, proper framing, styling props, garnishes, and photo editing. And it can only get better.

Speaking of fun, want to see some stats from the first year?

Total visits: 35,500+
Page views: 84,000+
Highest traffic day: May 24, 2012 (two days before Shavuos)
Most popular recipe posts: Utterly perfect potato kugel, chewy red velvet cookies with white chocolate chips, and French onion quiche
Most popular categories: desserts and main dishes

But about the granita.

I went back and forth over what would be good enough to share for the blogiversary. I thought about what would be fun, festive, celebratory, special…there were lots of ideas, but nothing quite made the cut. I just wasn’t excited enough about them.

It took a glorious coffee granita piled high with freshly whipped cream and chocolate shavings to really get me excited.

We’ve done homemade iced coffee and its cousin, the iced coffee milkshake. And no, this is not the same thing. The flavor of the coffee comes through most strongly in the granita — and because it’s coffee enhanced with iced coffee and vanilla sugar, it’s even better. (Tell me that makes sense, the coffee enhanced with iced coffee. Just say it.)

Oh…but it might melt a little if you take it outside. Which you probably won’t, unless you’re photographing it.

The part that makes this melt-able is kind of its best feature, though. A granita is a granita because of its texture — those endless (coffee) crystals that fall just short of ice.

Making a granita is like waking up your drink every time it starts to fall asleep. It’s like messing up its hair, over and over again. And the poor coffee just can’t do anything about it. Except turn into a granita, which is the most refreshing thing ever on a hot summer day.

And that it does to perfection.

Thank you for reading, commenting, Facebook-liking, emailing, and bookmarking in More Quiche, Please’s first year. Looking forward to an even better second one!

Coffee granita
Yield: 3 or 4 servings

Ingredients

1½ cups boiling water
3 Tbsp instant coffee
1/3 cup vanilla sugar
½ cup prepared iced coffee (homemade or store-bought)*
6 Tbsp liquid Rich’s whip
Chocolate shavings, for garnish

*To make pareve iced coffee, substitute soy milk or water for milk.

Directions

1. Whisk together coffee, water, and sugar until coffee and sugar grains are dissolved. Add iced coffee and stir. Pour mixture into a 9×13 dish, cover, and place in the freezer.

2. After one hour, remove from the freezer and check to see whether slight crystals have started forming along the edges of the dish. Scrape off with a fork into the liquid and return to the freezer.

3. Every 30 minutes for the next three hours, remove the dish from the freezer, scrape the mixture gently with a fork, and return it to the freezer. Scraping the mixture over and over again creates gentle coffee crystals that melt in your mouth while imparting full-bodied flavor.

Wondering what happens along the way? It went like this for me:

- 1 hour: slight crystals along the edges, but still 98% liquid
- 1½ hours: more crystals, especially along one side, but still 90% liquid
- 2 hours: much more crystallized, about one-third ready
- 2½ hours: almost entirely crystallized, about 80% ready
- 3 hours: perfect slushy consistency: ready!

4. Pour liquid cream into a container or bowl with high sides. Beat with a hand mixer on high speed for five minutes, or until liquid thickens and soft peaks form.

5. Spoon granita into the glass of your choice (tall milkshake glasses, stout ice cream dishes, or any ol’ cup will do) and top with a dollop of freshly whipped cream. Using a regular vegetable peeler, “peel” the side of a chocolate bar directly over the cream so the shavings drop right onto it. Add a tall spoon and serve right away.

On storage: Have leftover granita? Keep in mind that you’ll need to scrape it again right before serving, and that will be much easier to do if it’s stored in a container with a wide base.