Dessert Italian

Coffee and cardamom granita (granita al caffe turco)

Name: Coffee and cardamom granita (granita al caffe turco) recipe
Cuisine: /italian
Ingredients: 750ml coffee; 220g caster sugar; 6 cardamom pods, crushed; 250ml thickened cream

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Jan 16, 2025

"The scents of mothballs and seeds lingered around my great-grandmother. Cloves for sweet breath, fennel for digestion, cardamom for coffee. She was from the Dardanelles in Turkey. Cardamom coffee is a Turkish thing, and it reminds me of the milky coffee my great-grandmother spilled into saucers ‘on accident’ which, as a small child, I was permitted to sip. Order a mezza con panna, especially around the province of Messina, and you’ll get a glass fifilled with half coffee granita and half unsweetened whipped cream. ‘Mashallah!’ (‘Praise God!’), she would have said." - Victoria Granof

Recipe note: You’ll need a 2L metal baking dish or cake pan.

This recipe is an edited extract from Sicily, My Sweet by Victoria Granof, published by Hardie Grant Books, AUD$49.99. Available now.

3 cups (750ml) freshly brewed espresso or very strong coffee
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
6 cardamom pods, crushed
1 cup (250ml) thickened cream, whipped

Method

1.

Measure the freshly brewed coffee into a large bowl. In a small saucepan, bring the sugar, cardamom pods, 1/4 tsp fine salt and 1 cup (250ml) water to the boil over high heat. Turn heat down to medium and boil gently for a good 5 minutes. Whisk this mixture into the brewed coffee, cover the bowl loosely and let cool to room temperature.
2.

Strain cooled coffee mixture into a 2L metal baking dish or cake pan; discard the cardamom pods. Freeze for 1 hour, or until mixture has begun to freeze around the edges. With a fork, stir and mash the frozen granita, combining it with the unfrozen part. Do this again 30 minutes later, then every 15 minutes when it really starts freezing quickly. Depending on your freezer, it should take about 2 hours 30 minutes for granita to freeze fully to a fine, flaky texture.
3.

Whip thickened cream until stiff, and keep in the fridge until ready to serve.
4.

Serve granita in glasses, topped with a thick lashing of whipped cream.