Sicilian Lemon Granita with Brioche
Lemon juice, zest, sugar and water, frozen and scraped into fine ice the Sicilian way, served for breakfast with a soft brioche for dunking.
Granita is a Sicilian frozen dessert of sugar syrup flavored with lemon, coffee or fruit, stirred while it freezes into a soft mass of tiny ice crystals. Wikipedia notes the texture changes across the island, chunkier around Palermo and nearly as smooth as sorbet in the east, and that in Messina it is eaten for breakfast with a brioche. Before freezers, Sicily's ices depended on snow: food histories describe workers called nivaroli packing winter snow from Etna and other mountains into stone pits called neviere and carrying it down in summer (search summaries of Sicilian food sites such as). Many writers trace granita to Arab-era sherbets in Sicily; that link is DISPUTED (see Rules). The brioche col tuppo, a round brioche with a small topknot like a bun of hair, is the classic partner; its own origin is legend.
Why it works the kitchen science
Shallow metal pan
A thin layer freezes evenly and fast, so each scraping makes small crystals instead of one solid block.
Sugar sets the texture
The dissolved sugar lowers the freezing point, so the granita stays soft and spoonable instead of freezing hard.
Step by step
- Step 1
Stir the water and sugar in a small saucepan and warm over low heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves and the syrup is clear, about 5 minutes. Do not boil hard. Let it cool, about 1 hour (or 20 minutes over ice water).
- Step 2
Grate the zest of the 2 lemons, then squeeze and strain enough juice to make 5 tbsp.
- Step 3
Stir the juice and zest into the cold syrup. Pour into a 9 by 13-inch metal pan, so the liquid is shallow.
- Step 4
Freeze 45 minutes, until ice forms around the edges. Scrape the frozen edges into the middle with a fork and stir well.
- Step 5
Return to the freezer and scrape and stir every 30 minutes, 5 or 6 times, about 3 hours in all, until the whole pan is fine, fluffy, slushy crystals.
- Step 6
Fluff once more and spoon into chilled glasses. Serve with a brioche on the side for tearing and dunking.
Sicilian Lemon Granita with Brioche
Serves 4 · about 2 1/2 cups granita plus 4 brioche · 15 min total
Lemon granita
- 1 1/3 cups plus 2 tsp water (335 g)
- 1/2 cup sugar (90 g)
- 5 tbsp fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
- Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
To serve
- 4 soft brioche buns (about 2 oz each), ideally the round topknot kind
Method
- Stir the water and sugar in a small saucepan and warm over low heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves and the syrup is clear, about 5 minutes. Do not boil hard. Let it cool, about 1 hour (or 20 minutes over ice water).
- Grate the zest of the 2 lemons, then squeeze and strain enough juice to make 5 tbsp.
- Stir the juice and zest into the cold syrup. Pour into a 9 by 13-inch metal pan, so the liquid is shallow.
- Freeze 45 minutes, until ice forms around the edges. Scrape the frozen edges into the middle with a fork and stir well.
- Return to the freezer and scrape and stir every 30 minutes, 5 or 6 times, about 3 hours in all, until the whole pan is fine, fluffy, slushy crystals.
- Fluff once more and spoon into chilled glasses. Serve with a brioche on the side for tearing and dunking.
Adapted from GialloZafferano's "Lemon Granita (Granita al Limone)": (335 g water, 90 g sugar, 75 g lemon juice and the zest of 2 lemons, for 4). GialloZafferano churns it in an ice cream maker for 35 to 40 minutes; we give the traditional freezer-and-fork method as the main method, with timings that are ours, and keep the machine as a tip. Sky TG24's recipe (500 ml water, 250 ml lemon juice, 200 g sugar) is linked for comparison and for the brioche pairing. We use store-bought brioche. GialloZafferano. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
Tips
- Ice cream maker: churn the cold mixture 35 to 40 minutes, as GialloZafferano does, for a creamier, Catania-style granita.
- If the granita freezes solid overnight, let it sit 10 minutes and scrape it again with a fork.
- GialloZafferano says it keeps in an airtight container in the freezer for about a month; re-scrape before serving.
- For a coffee granita, swap the juice and water for cooled strong coffee and serve with whipped cream, the Messina "mezza con panna" (Wikipedia).
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Granita comes from Arab sherbets brought to Sicily. Disputed: widely repeated by Sicilian food writers (search summaries), but it is an interpretation of history, not a documented recipe lineage, and Wikipedia's granita article does not make the claim.
- Granita is eaten with brioche for breakfast. Documented for Messina (Wikipedia) and the east coast; Sky TG24 calls the brioche the traditional partner. One food site says plain bread came first until about a century ago (search summary only).
- Granita must be smooth. Disputed: Jeffrey Steingarten, quoted on Wikipedia, says Palermo prefers it chunky and the east nearly as smooth as sorbet.
- The brioche col tuppo was invented in Catania. Folklore: Catania and Messina both claim it, and the stories (a baker in love with a girl's hair bun) are legends.
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