This is my first blog post! I'm pretty excited to get started. I hope you enjoy my blog adventure. :)
We purchased a watermelon for the 4th of July. We can't celebrate the 4th without watermelon. It was very good, so we purchased another one. It was much larger than the first one. Needless to say we had oodles of watermelon in the fridge. I thought it would be fun to make something with all the watermelon. Granita came to mind. After reading several recipes, I decided on Paula Deen's.
I pureed the watermelon in the food processor. It worked pretty well, until I put too much watermelon in the bowl. I didn't think it was too much until I started pulsing it and watermelon juice started coming out of the lid! Oops! I guess the fill line is there for a reason. Live and learn. The next batch wasn't as messy. Other than my food processor mistake, the granita came together very easily. I couldn't wait 6 hours for the granita to fully freeze, so I ate some while it was still a slushy consistency. It was delicious and refreshing! The first bite tasted so much like watermelon (for obvious reasons) that I kept waiting for the watermelon texture but it wasn't there.
We ate quite a bit of the granita before I took the picture above. My first experience with granita was a success! I plan to try another flavor soon. I will keep you posted on that (no pun intended).
Watermelon Granita
8 cups chopped fresh watermelon
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (I used bottled 100% lime juice)
In the work bowl of a food processor, process watermelon until smooth. Strain through a fine sieve, reserving 4 cups of juice. Discard solids. In a small saucepan, combine water and sugar. Bring to a boil, boil 3 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Let cool completely. Pour watermelon juice, simple syrup and lime juice into a 13 x 9 inch baking dish, stir well, and place in freezer. Freeze for 6 hours or until no liquid remains, scraping with a fork every 2 hours.
Hat Tip - Paula Deen via Rachael Ray Show
