Strawberry Granita

A few weeks ago, my family came to visit. My five year old nephew also visited. This was his first flight and he was excited yet a little nervous about the adventure. My sister told me many stories of the flight. He asked when as they were going through TSA why the had to take off their shoes, was it "so they won't fall off in the air?" It is always so funny to see how a child interprets new adventures.

My nephew also loves snow cones. My mom takes him to the snow cone stand in their town a few times a week. We don't have a snow cone stand in my town, but I know how much he loves them. I figured making granita would be the closest thing to a snow cone as I could get for the week. When he goes to the snow cone stand, it takes him a bit to pick out the one he wants because there are so many names. Darth Vadar, Shrek or Spiderman. How do you choose between those?

I let him name our snow cones. He picked Iron Hide, his favorite Transformer. So without further ado, here is Iron Hide the Snow Cone! Enjoy!!

Strawberry Granita
Printer friendly recipe
Source: The Perfect Scoop

2 pounds fresh strawberries, rinsed and hulled
6 tablespoons sugar
1 cup water
Few drops of a fresh squeezed lemon, optional (I omitted)

Slice the strawberries into pieces and toss with the sugar. Let stand for at least one hour at room temperature stirring occasionally.

Combine the strawberries with the water and few drops of lemon into a blender or food processor and puree' until smooth. Strain the strawberries to remove seeds.

Pour the mixture into a shallow pan (I used a 9 x 13) and place in the freezer. After an hour, check the mixture. Once it begins to freeze, use a fork to scrape the frozen puree that froze around the edges into the center. Return to freezer.

Check the granita every 30 minutes, and scrape again as before as the mixture hardens. It should take about 2 hours of freezing and scraping to finish completely.

When ready to serve, take the granita out of the freezer for a few minutes to make it easier to scrape. Scrape the frozen mixture with a fork and serve.