You can tell when summer has officially hit because those lines at the snow cone stands are a mile long no matter what time you pass them. People flock to those stand for cups of the piled high shaved ice coated with their favorite flavored syrups. And honestly, what’s better that flavored ice on a hot summer day?
Not much!
Unless you can have that cool frozen treat right in the comfort of your own home. As long as you have a freezer, pan and 2 forks that’s all you need. No thousand dollar shaved ice machine or any other special equipment. We’re talking basics!
This isn’t your typical snow cone. This, my friends is a granita.
A little backstory about the meager granita, just in case you haven’t heard of it before now. It’s a frozen treat that originates from Sicily. Typically, it’s a combination of water, sugar and whatever you want to flavor it with. Fruit, sweet tea and mint, some of your favorite beverages. The options are truly endless. After you’ve established your flavor profile, mix it together, pour it in a shallow dish and pop it in the freezer. Every so often, remove the mixture from the freezer, gently scrape with a fork and returned to the freezer. In the end you’re rewarded with an Italian style frozen icee.
Snow cone stands have nothing on granitas. Instead of taking ice cubes, grinding them up and pouring flavored syrup on them, the actual ice in granitas is made out of the actual flavoring, allowing you to enjoy the full flavors of your treat until the very last drop…no watering down of the flavors here!
Since my little guy is currently obsessed with any and all things involving ice; slushes, icees, ice pops, and snow cones and the list truly goes on an on. I decided to make this granita utilizing flavors that would appeal to him, and this particular recipe only requires 2 ingredients. That’s right, 2!
His drink of choice at practically every meal is lemonade, so that was an obvious ingredient. And, every time we go to the store he’s always eyeballing those brightly colored fruit flavored drinks, so I quickly snagged a bottle of blue stuff since it’s his favorite color.
Tangy, tart lemonade combined with sweet, blue fruit punch; the combination is truly delicious. Mixing this up and pouring that beautiful crystal blue beverage over ice is perfectly refreshing and tasty; but once it’s frozen and put into snow cone form it is the perfect treat to help us beat the heat and bring out the kid in all of us!
Pool Punch Granita
Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cups Blue Hawaiian Punch
1 1/2 Cups Yellow Lemonade
Directions:
Pour punch and lemonade in an 8×8 pyrex dish, stir to combine and place in the freezer. Allow to chill for about 45 minutes, remove from freezer and use a fork to gently scrape the ice and break up any chunks. Return to freezer and repeat the scraping process every 15-20 minutes for about 2-3 hours, until you’ve reached the desired consistency and texture. Spoon in bowls and serve.
*Alternately, if you just can’t wait a couple of hours for it to freeze, just mix it up and pour over ice. Or you could put the drink and ice in a blender to make a quick icee.
*This could easily be made into an adult beverage by adding a splash of your favorite spirit.
Recipe source: A Lynsey Original
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