Sunday, July 10, 2016

Mojito Granita

Cookbook Countdown is a monthly cooking/baking event, which I'm co-hosting with Emily's Cooking (Makan2) Foray.  Everyone is welcome to join us. How does it work? To summarize, you may select a cookbook from your own cookbook collection, to cook or bake from each month. That selected book shall be your cookbook of the month. You may cook any recipes and as many recipes as you want from your selected book of the month. This is a fabulous way of using your cookbooks at least once! For more information on how to join Cookbook Countdown, please click here. 

To link to Cookbook Countdown Specials : BAKE, click here
To link to Cookbook Countdown #7, click here


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For this month's Cookbook Countdown #7, my selected cookbook is The Perfect Scoop, by David Lebovitz. I've made Mojito Granita, and it was such a hit, that I've made it a few times already!



I've used my homegrown mint leaves. The first time when I made this, I've used the full amount of lime juice as stated in the recipe and it was too sour. So I've reduced the amount of lime juice to 1/4 cup the second time round, and it was just perfect. It all depends on the sourness of the limes that are used.



A refreshing, delightful granita, What's not to love, there's mint, lime juice and rum! You will love it too!


Mojito Granita
(adapted from "The Perfect Scoop", by David Lebovitz)
makes about 1 quart (1 liter)
2-1/2 cups (625ml) water
1/2 cup (100gm) sugar
2 limes, preferably unsprayed
1 cup (40gm) lightly packed fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup (125ml) freshly squeezed lime juice (from about 6 limes) (I use only 1/4 cup)
3 tablespoons (45ml) white or light rum

Add the water and sugar to a small, non-reactive saucepan, then grate the zest from the 2 limes directly into the saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. Reverse 5 of the mint leaves, add the remaining mint to the saucepan, and remove from the heat. Cover and let stand for 8 minutes, then remove the cover and let cool to room temperature,
Once cool, strain the mixture into the container you plan to freeze the granita in, pressing firmly on the leaves to extract all the flavourful liquid. Discard the mint leaves. Stir in the lime juice and rum, then finely chop the reserved 5 mint leaves and add them as well. 
Place the dish in the freezer. Begin checking it after about 1 hour. Once it begins to freeze around the edges, take a fork and stir the mixture, breaking up the frozen parts near the edges into smaller chunks and raking them toward the centre.
Return the dish to the freezer, then check the mixture every 30 minutes afterward, stirring each time and breaking up any large chunks into small pieces with a fork, until you have beautiful, fine crystals of homemade granita. If at any time the granita freezes too hard, simply leave it out at room temperature for a few minutes until it softens enough to be stirred again with a fork, and rake it back into crystals. Then return to the freezer.


I'm linking this post with Cookbook Countdown #7 hosted by 




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