Orange and Chilli Granita

I know its snowing heavily in some parts of the U.K, and the last thing some people want to see is a recipe for something cold and icy, but in my defence the flakes of chilli in this granita will give you a little warmth, if not a little fire.  

This recipe is an adaptation of my  Lemon and Rosemary version; and its proved to be quite popular amongst my taste testers - the  young nephew and my husband - the chief taste tester.   I also made a coffee version of granita but that did not go down so well, main criticism for that one was it was not strong enough, fair enough. 

I am sharing this Orange and Chilli Granita with Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Kate of What Kate Baked for their Tea Time Treats. The theme for January is citrus; as well as One Ingredient with Laura of How to Cook Good Food and Nazima of Franglais Kitchen who are featuring on orange this month. 

Orange and Chilli Granita
You will need a food processor for this recipe
Ingredients
Juice and zest of 5 unwaxed oranges
300g sugar
1 3/4 pints of water
1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes or to taste
Method
Gently bring all the ingredients to a boil, stirring frequently until all the sugar has melted. Simmer for a couple of minutes, then remove from the heat and leave it to cool.
When cool enough, pour into a suitable plastic container and freeze. Freeze, then after an hour or so take out of freezer and blend in food processor, pour back into container and freeze for another hour or so, then remove from freeze and blend again. This is to ensure that there are no mass of ice, but soft crystals. Then freeze. Twice should be enough, but you may want to do it a third time if you want softer crystals.