Best 5 Meyer Lemon Granita Recipes
**Tantalize your taste buds with our delectable Meyer Lemon Granita, a symphony of flavors that will transport you to a sun-drenched Italian piazza.** This refreshing treat combines the vibrant zest of Meyer lemons with a hint of sweetness, creating a taste sensation that dances on your palate. It's the perfect way to cool down on a hot summer day or add a touch of elegance to your next party. With just a few simple ingredients and minimal effort, you can craft this culinary masterpiece in the comfort of your own home. Embark on a culinary journey with us as we guide you through two tantalizing recipes – a classic Meyer Lemon Granita and a boozy Meyer Lemon Granita that will surely become your new favorite summer indulgence.
**Classic Meyer Lemon Granita:** This timeless recipe captures the essence of simplicity and purity. Savor the natural flavors of Meyer lemons as they burst in your mouth, leaving a refreshingly zesty trail. With just four ingredients – Meyer lemons, sugar, water, and lemon zest – you can create a delightful granita that will become a staple in your summer repertoire.
**Boozy Meyer Lemon Granita:** Elevate your granita experience with this delightful adult variation. Infused with the subtle warmth of vodka, this granita offers a sophisticated twist on the classic recipe. The addition of vodka not only enhances the flavor profile but also adds a touch of elegance, making it the perfect accompaniment to your next gathering.
**Delve into our culinary treasure trove and discover the secrets to crafting these delectable Meyer Lemon Granita recipes. Indulge in a sensory adventure that will leave your taste buds craving more.**
AUTHENTIC SICILIAN GRANITA AL LIMONE
Lemon granita is one of my favorite things about Sicily. It's easy to make at home if a trip to the island isn't possible. Using Meyer lemons, which tend to be sweeter than regular lemons, helps replicate the flavor of authentic Sicilian lemons. Serve as an after-dinner refresher or afternoon pick-me-up. And for a nice twist, add a small scoop to your iced tea, like they do in Sicily.
Provided by Buckwheat Queen
Categories World Cuisine Recipes European Italian
Time 3h40m
Yield 10
Number Of Ingredients 5
Steps:
- Pour water and sugar into a saucepan. Heat over medium, stirring until sugar melts; do not bring to a boil. Remove from heat when the sugar has completely dissolved and the water is no longer cloudy. Add lemon juice and stir until combined. Refrigerate until cold, about 30 minutes.
- Pour into a freezer-safe dish that has a tight lid. Cover and put into the freezer until it begins to freeze around the edges, but is still slushy in the center, about 45 minutes.
- Lightly stir the crystals from the edge of the granita mixture into the center using a fork and mix thoroughly. Replace the lid. Close the freezer and chill until granita is nearly frozen, 30 to 40 more minutes.
- Mix lightly with a fork as before, scraping the crystals loose. Repeat freezing and stirring with the fork 3 to 4 times until crystals are separate and the granita is light, dry, and fluffy.
- Serve each portion with 1/2 of a lemon wheel and fresh lemon zest on top.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 95.3 calories, Carbohydrate 28.3 g, Fat 0.2 g, Fiber 2.9 g, Protein 0.8 g, Sodium 3.4 mg, Sugar 20.6 g
MEYER LEMON GRANITA RECIPE
While some people are house proud, I'd probably be better described as lemon happy. Right outside my kitchen window stands a Meyer lemon tree. It's not too tall -- maybe 10 feet at most. Nor, to be honest, is it particularly beautiful. It's slightly off balance, with an aspect that is more shrubby than sculptural.But what fruit! The Meyer lemon has a taste that is like a combination of regular lemon and some other softer, sweeter citrus, such as orange or tangerine, with maybe a little of the brassy quality of a pink grapefruit. For me, this is the taste of winter in California.And though I've always prized the fruit from my tree, this year I've gone completely around the bend, counting and hoarding lemons like Humphrey Bogart in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre."For years, I have nurtured my little Meyer tree as if it were some prized bonsai. The first several summers we lived in this house, it was terribly afflicted with whiteflies. So every other week, I'd go out with a sprayer full of insecticidal soap and wash off the leaves, one at a time.This babying has been repaid a hundredfold. What my Meyer lacks in eye appeal it more than makes up for in fecundity. Every year, the tree becomes so laden with fruit it sometimes seems the lemons outnumber the leaves. I can't find enough ways to use them all. In fact, in late spring, I've taken to setting out boxes of the fruit at the curb, free to anyone passing by.But there will be no lemon giveaways this year, I can promise you. Last summer I pruned my Meyer, a painful but necessary action. With improved air circulation and better exposure to sunshine, the tree's future looks brighter and healthier. That's good for both of us in the long term, but disastrous in the immediate. Decimated by the pruning, my normal bounty of fruit has become sparse.*Hoarding the goldFor the first time, I have to think seriously about how I'm going to use my Meyers. I have only 100 lemons on my tree (yes, an improbably exact number, but I have counted them twice). Using one of these to clean off the cutting board -- something I have always done without thought -- is out of the question. Even squeezing them over fresh fish seems profligate.Like the old country song says: "You don't miss water till the well runs dry." There is nothing like sudden poverty to make you focus on what really matters. With only 100 lemons to last the season, I have to concentrate on what it is that makes Meyer lemons so special and how I can best cook to emphasize that.Though we may think of the Meyer as having been discovered by the Chez Panisse crowd, it has been treasured by California foodies since shortly after its arrival at the turn of the 20th century. Granted, it was given a rebirth when Alice Waters and her crew adopted it as a signature ingredient back in the 1970s, but it was actually discovered in China -- the home of so many fine citrus fruits -- and brought back to the United States by a Department of Agriculture plant breeder named Frank Meyer (my father-in-law's name, a coincidence?).It was a wildly popular backyard fruit in the teens and '20s, but it was found to be a carrier of a virulent citrus disease with the operatic name tristeza and so was virtually eradicated. Almost all of the Meyers you'll find today are from an improved, virus-resistant variety developed at UC Riverside in the 1950s.Meyers differ from common grocery store lemons -- predominantly the Eureka or Lisbon -- in a couple of ways. First, they look different. They are rounder, without the pronounced point at the blossom end that other lemons have. Their golden-orange peel is thinner and more delicate, with an almost baby-skin softness (at least until the end of the harvest, when it can get puffy and coarse). They are noticeably juicier: 40% juice by weight as compared with Eureka's 30%.But taste is the important thing. Meyers are sweeter and less acidic than other lemons, with a flavor that is much more nuanced.While most lemons give a lightning bolt of acidity, Meyers are more like California's soft, golden winter sunshine -- bright, yes, but not brutal.Botanists lean toward a lineage for Meyers that includes either oranges or tangerines, and there's evidence for that theory in the fruit's flavor. As Harold McGee points out in "On Food and Cooking," Meyer lemons share with most citrus the distinctive flavor notes given by the chemicals limonene (citrus) and pinene (pine), but also have a distinct whiff of thymol (thyme). The only other popular citrus with this herbal note is the tangerine.You'll find traces of this in the juice, but as with most citrus, it's most pronounced in the peel. Meyer skins are rich in oil and transmit the fruit's distinctive floral quality well, so when cooking with them, I like to use preparations that emphasize that -- favoring fragrance over plain old tartness. The best way to do that is to simmer the zests in sugar syrup or cream. In just a short time you'll start to smell that irresistible perfume.That's the secret behind this granita, which perfectly captures that distinctive Meyer flavor. If you've ever wondered whether one variety of lemon could really taste all that different from any other, try this. It couldn't be easier to make. You don't even need an ice cream freezer -- because of its relatively high sugar content, the mixture will form a perfectly fine-grained slush just stirred with a fork.When these lemons are cooked with cream, the effect is slightly different. In this panna cotta, the Meyer stays in the background, waiting until the very end to assert itself. It rounds out the sweet, slightly green nuttiness of the pistachio without overwhelming it.And if you really want to see what a Meyer can do with the flavor of butter, try using it in this lemon curd, which I make three or four times every winter. Rich and creamy with a perfect balance between lemon and butter, it can be used on scones or toast or, my personal favorite, as a filling for a tart.Because of Meyer lemons' relative lack of acidity, I don't like to use them in savory dishes -- at least not by themselves. Make a vinaigrette with a Meyer lemon and you'll find yourself admiring the nuance, but noticing that something important is missing. That something is zip. If you use a Meyer lemon this way, back it up with a little Champagne or Sherry vinegar.If you don't have a tree in your backyard (or a neighbor's) and you don't go to farmers markets, you may have a little trouble finding Meyer lemons. Though they are popular almost to the point of cliche in California restaurants, they have not been widely adopted by mainstream agriculture. Both Frieda's and Melissa's, Southern California-based specialty produce companies, supply them to some supermarket chains.But the surest way to acquire a Meyer lemon is to plant a tree. Fortunately, that's not difficult. They're widely available at nurseries, and I've even seen them at hardware stores. They grow easily, with hardly any care. You can even plant them in patio pots. A little water, some sporadic feeding (and, yes, the occasional leaf shampoo), and you'll have Meyers for months. You're best off waiting until spring to plant them, once the ground has warmed.Just don't take them for granted. Take it from me, you don't know what you've got till it's gone.*
Provided by Russ Parsons
Categories DESSERTS
Time 40m
Yield Serves 6
Number Of Ingredients 4
Steps:
- Heat the water and sugar just until clear, about 5 minutes. Add the lemon zest and remove from heat. Let the syrup steep for at least 30 minutes.
- Stir in the lemon juice. Strain the mixture into a shallow 9-by-12-inch glass baking dish.
- Freeze the mixture for an hour. Remove from the freezer and stir with a fork, breaking up any chunks of ice. Return it to the freezer. Repeat 4 or 5 times over the next 2 to 3 hours. Each time, the ice will be a little less liquid and will stick together more. When it is firm enough to hold a shape, it is done.
- Try not to let the ice freeze solid. If it does, chop it into small pieces in the dish and grind it in the food processor. (The result will be lighter and fluffier and the flavor will not be as intense.)
LEMON GRANITA
Steps:
- Clean and wash the lemons. Cut off the top 1/4 of the lemons and shave a small slice off the bottom so it stands easily.
- Using a grapefruit knife, cut out the flesh of the lemon and place in a strainer set over a bowl. Be careful not to cut through the bottom. Stand the lemons on a cookie sheet and place in the freezer and freeze until solid.
- Press the flesh of the lemons through the strainer to extract all of the juice. You should end up with about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of lemon juice. Add the water to the lemon juice. Stir in sugar, a tablespoon at a time, until the mixture is of desired sweetness. Add the thyme and limoncello and let sit for 15 minutes.
- Strain the mixture into a roasting pan or baking dish. The dish should be large enough so the liquid is not more than 1-inch deep. Freeze the mixture for 1 hour. Remove from the freezer and scrape with 2 forks to break up ice. Return to the freezer and freeze until solid, about 2 to 3 hours, scraping with forks every hour or so.
- When the granite is frozen, scoop it into the frozen lemon shells and serve immediately.
MEYER LEMON GRANITA
Peggy Knickerbocker is a San Francisco-based cookbook author. Here's her recipe for a simple, but incredibly refreshing, lemon granita. This classic Sicilian dessert only takes about 10 minutes to prepare and 2-3 hours to freeze. You will need to be around as the granita freezes, as it has to be stirred every half hour or so. Eureka and regular lemons can be used as well, but taste the granita for tartness-you may need to add more sweetener. If you cannot find superfine sugar or agave syrup, place granulated sugar in the bowl of a food processor and pule for 30 seconds until pulverized. This is the perfect anti-nausea treat! -- from the book: Feed the Belly.
Provided by Peachie Keene
Categories < 4 Hours
Time 3h5m
Yield 6 serving(s)
Number Of Ingredients 5
Steps:
- Place the zest, water, mint springs, and agave or sugar in a small, heavy saucepan over medium heat.
- Stir for about one minute.
- Remove from the heat, and allow the syrup to cool slightly in the refrigerator.
- When chilled, strain out the lemon zest and the mint sprigs.
- Stir the lemon juice into the chilled syrup. Taste to make sure the mixture is not too tart; if it is, add a little more sugar.
- Pour the mixture into a 9x13-inch shallow baking dish (metal, ceramic, or glass), so the mixture is about an inch deep.
- Place in the freezer.
- Every 30 minutes stir with a fork, scraping the crystals down from the side of the dish.
- When the granita is slightly slushy, but definitely frozen hard, with small firm granules of ice, it's done. It will take 2-3 hours to get to this stage.
- The granita may be transferred to an airtight container and stored for a couple hours before serving.
- Remove the granita from the freezer about 10 minutes before serving, so it softens slightly.
- Serve in dessert bowls or glasses.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 4.1, Sodium 0.4, Carbohydrate 1.3, Fiber 0.4, Sugar 0.3, Protein 0.1
CUCUMBER, MEYER LEMON AND LAVENDER GRANITA
Provided by Kelsey Nixon
Categories dessert
Time 2h30m
Yield 4 to 6 servings
Number Of Ingredients 6
Steps:
- In a blender, blend the Meyer lemon juice and cucumber together, creating cucumber water. Strain the liquid through a fine mesh strainer to remove any seeds.
- Place 1/2 cup water into a saucepan and add the sugar and lavender. Bring the mixture to a simmer to dissolve the sugar and infuse the simple syrup with the lavender flavor. Then set aside to cool.
- Once the syrup is cool, remove the lavender sprigs and mix the syrup into the cucumber water. Add in the Meyer lemon zest and then pour the mixture into a 9 by 13-inch glass baking dish. Place the dish into the freezer to chill. Every 30 minutes, scrape the mixture with a fork to break up the ice crystals and to keep it light and fluffy. Continue scraping every 30 minutes for at least 2 hours.
- Scrape the granita into elegant glasses and sprinkle with fleur de sel.
Tips:
- Choose ripe Meyer lemons: Look for lemons that are bright yellow with smooth, unblemished skin. Avoid lemons that are green or have any bruises or blemishes.
- Use a microplane zester: A microplane zester will produce the finest zest, which will give your granita the best flavor.
- Don't over-freeze the granita: The granita should be frozen, but not solid. If it's too frozen, it will be difficult to scoop and eat.
- Serve the granita immediately: Granita is best served fresh. If you make it ahead of time, store it in the freezer and let it come to room temperature for a few minutes before serving.
Conclusion:
Meyer lemon granita is a refreshing and delicious dessert that is perfect for summertime. It's easy to make and can be enjoyed by people of all ages. So next time you're looking for a cool and refreshing treat, give Meyer lemon granita a try!
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