3-Ingredient Blood Orange Granita

Somewhere between sorbet and Hawaiian shave ice, granita is a lot like a snow cone—an adult snow cone that’s chic and not limited to the summer months. The Fearless Baker author Erin McDowell crafted up a blood orange granita that hits all the right notes: seasonal, sophisticated and dead simple to make. (It’s only three ingredients, including water!)

“This is a really refreshing, really easy recipe,” McDowell tells us, “and you can make it two ways. You can just mix it together and freeze it solid, then use a fork to scrape it into tiny crystals. Or you can stir it periodically while it’s freezing to make larger crystals [as pictured]. Either way, it’s delicious and easy—one way just requires zero attention, and the other you have to think about a little bit.”

We prefer the stir-as-you-go method for its satisfying texture, but we make up for the added effort by using bottled blood orange juice, which you can find at most grocery stores. (Just make sure it’s 100 percent juice and not from concentrate.)

“This is a nice thing to serve at the end of a dinner party,” McDowell continues, “especially in the New Year as something lighter than a traditional dessert.”

It also happens to be really delicious with Champagne. Just saying.

3-Ingredient Strawberry Ice-Cream Shell

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup water

3 cups blood orange juice (freshly squeezed or bottled, see intro)

1. In a small pot, combine the sugar with the water and bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.

2. Stir in the blood orange juice, then transfer the mixture to a medium shallow baking dish (like a cake pan or a casserole dish). Transfer to the freezer. For the easiest method, freeze it fully, undisturbed (you’ll scrape the mixture later to create small crystals), about 4 to 5 hours. For large crystals, stir the granita every 30 minutes to 1 hour as it freezes, about 2 hours total.

3. To serve, scrape the frozen granita with a fork, if frozen solid, then spoon the crystals into serving dishes. If you stirred it while freezing, just spoon it into serving dishes.