Toasted Almond and Honey Granita
Recipes from the cookbook Mince by Sue Hamilton and Dana Alexander
Published by Penguin Group NZ
On holiday in the UK, Dana tried this delicious dessert and fell in love. We developed this version incorporating New Zealand Manuka honey for extra goodness and flavour. This is a very easy dish to make. In effect, it’s an almond sorbet. It takes only moments to prepare, a little while to freeze and seconds to demolish. This is delicious, winter or summer.
(Serves 8)
Below right: An extract from Minced with photography by Alan Gillard. Published by Penguin Group NZ. Copyright © Sue Hamilton and Dana Alexander, 2010.
Ingredients
- 1 cup blanched almonds
- ½ cup Muscovado sugar
- 600 ml water
- 2 tbsp manuka honey
- chocolate ice cream
- cocoa powder (optional)
- toasted flaked almonds
- for garnish (optional)
Method
Preheat oven to 180 °C.
Toast almonds until golden brown. Keep a close eye on them and turn frequently to ensure they toast evenly and don’t burn. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
Using a food processor blend almonds to a fine crumb. Add a good tablespoon of sugar and then gradually add enough water to make a paste. Keep adding water until you have a runny almond cream.
Dissolve honey and remaining sugar in rest of water, add to almond mixture and combine well. Pour whole mixture into a shallow dish and then freeze. Every so often, run a fork or spoon through the mixture so that you get ice flakes.
To serve, scoop granita out of dish and spoon into bowls or glasses. Top with small scoops or quenelles of ice cream, dusted with cocoa powder for extra richness if wished.
Also nice topped with flaked toasted almonds.
Note
We mastered the art of making ice-cream quenelles in pretty short order, using two spoons. Take a scoop of ice cream in one spoon then press the other spoon against the scoop. Scoop the ice cream out of the spoon into the other and repeat a few more times until you have a lovely oval shape. If it all goes wrong, just use a conventional ball of ice cream.