How to re-create this recipe:
Ingredients:
(Serves 6-8)
- 5 Oranges (Preferably Minneola Oranges…This will yield about 2 cups of Orange Juice)
- 1 Cup of Simple Syrup (1 Cup water + 1 cup sugar)
- 2 Tsp’s of Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 a cup of non-fat heavy cream
- Zest of 1 Orange
- Candied Fennel Seeds for garnish
To Make the Simple Syrup…
- Combine 1 cup of Water with 1 Cup of Granulated White Sugar in a small stockpot. Bring to medium heat, stirring occasionally until all the sugar dissolves. Make sure to cool down your simple syrup.
Putting it together:
- Set up a Juicing machine. Rinse off all your oranges. Grate the zest off 1 of your oranges into a small bowl and set aside. Peel the other 4 oranges and juice all 5 of them.
- Pour all the Orange juice into a 8.5 x 11 inch rectangular glass baking dish. To that dish add your Orange zest, 2 tsp’s of Vanilla Extract, your simple syrup and the 1/2 cup of heavy cream. With a whisk, whisk all the ingredients together until they appear well blended.
- Put the dish in the freezer uncovered and freeze for about 5 hours. After 4 hours take a fork and scrape the surface of the Granita so that it forms a slushy like consistency. Place back in the freezer. It should be ready 1 hour after that and you can serve it and garnish with as much Candied Fennel as you would like.
Nourishment for your body: Fennel Seeds are renowned to aid in digestion and the seeds are typically steeped to make tea to treat various gastrointestinal issues. These seeds also reduce pain (stomach cramps) and swelling while promoting hydration of the body. Like every other Orange, Minneola Oranges are an excellent source of Vitamin C, folate, potassium and fiber.
Tips when cooking: If you do not have a Juicing machine there are a variety of simple tools for sale that make juicing easy. You can buy a hand held regular orange juicer or a Manual little citrus juicer. I was inspired to make this recipe during a recent trip to an Indian grocery store. I absolutely love Fennel ! I grill it, shave it raw to eat in salads (including the fronds), saute it with other veggies, and use Fennel Fronds as a garnish . I typically use Fennel seeds when I make Lamb Meatballs, a sauce or a stew. When I stumbled upon these candied Fennel Seeds I got really excited and knew that I wanted to use them in some type of dessert. Besides the candied Fennel Seeds having beautiful colors and seeming to be screaming SPRING IS HERE, the flavors of this particular granita seem to compliment the Fennel Seeds really nicely.