Peach and Honey Granita Recipe

Peach and honey granita in white dessert bowl with spoon, peaches and vinegar bottle on teal surface

American Vinegar Works Peach and Honey Granita

Granitas are an Italian treat that exist in the neighborhood of a snow cone and sorbet. Originally from Sicily they are found throughout Italy and beyond. They make for a sophisticated and light dessert, heat wave refresher, or a fun midcourse palate cleanser. The flaky ice crystals also make for a fun textural experience.

Granitas can be made from numerous bases and fruits. Here we are using stone fruit, our Honey Wine Vinegar for acid, and raw honey for sweetness.

 

As an adult dessert we particularly like to serve this granita with a small frozen (i.e. syrupy) gin carafe at the dinner table to allow guests to pour on a little gin into their granita. Barr Hill’s gin is as our favorite for this purpose—not the least because they continue our theme of honey in this recipe.

This recipe features our Honey Wine Vinegar.

Peach and Honey Granita

American Vinegar Works

Servings

4–6 People

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

4 hours 40 minutes

Cuisine

Italian (Sicilian-Inspired)

Category

Dessert

The Peach and Honey Granita is a sophisticated Sicilian-style frozen treat that sits somewhere between a sorbet and a snow cone. By using fresh peaches, raw honey, and Honey Wine Vinegar for a bright acidic kick, this dessert offers a light and refreshing textural experience. It is as much a mid-course palate cleanser as it is a refined summer dessert.

Peach and Honey Granita

Ingredients

  • ¼ cup of honey

  • ¼ cup Honey Wine Vinegar

  • 3lbs of peaches

  • Pinch of fleur de sel

  • Thinly sliced mint for garnish

  • Optional: chilled gin

Directions

  1. Peel and pit the peaches.  Blend peaches, honey, Honey Wine Vinegar, and salt in a blender or food processor.  The result will be very liquidy/watery. That is normal. The flavor is strongly guided by how good your fruit it so you may need to adjust sweetness or acid a bit.  That said, this is not a double chocolate cake with whipped cream type of dessert and plays more in the fresh and subtle space (until you add the herbal gin…)

  2. Pour liquid into a freezer safe shallow pan—think a casserole, Pyrex or baking pan.  You are looking for a puree depth of about ½” to 1”.

  3. Put the pan into your freezer and let it sit undisturbed for about 40 minutes.  The liquid should have started to freeze at this point.  You want to open the freeze and drag a fork over the ice formation to begin to break it up into small iced flakes.  Think Japanese Zen garden sand raking—not New England sidewalk ice breaking.  

  4. Put the tray back in the freezer and repeat the steps above every 30 minutes for the next 4 hours or so.  As you progress you will see the granita take on it flaky ice texture and ultimately become a “grainy” ice crystal frozen but loose consistency. 

  5. You’re ready to serve or keep it in the freezer (covered) until dessert.  Serve it with some thinly sliced fresh mint if you have some around. Gin optional but pretty fun, especially if you enjoy the herbal notes.