Peach and Muscat Granita

I've made several peach desserts this month, and tonight I'm giving you yet another, so you can take advantage of summer's bounty! This dessert is particularly easy because you can make it ahead.

In a blender, combine 2 cups sliced peaches with 3/4 cup sweet muscat (about half of a 375 ml bottle). For the muscat, make sure you don't buy muscato d'asti, which is sparkling - a certified vegan muscat to try is the Stellar Heaven-on-Earth sweet muscat from South Africa.

Puree the mixture until very smooth, then pour into a bowl through a sieve, discarding any solids; set aside.

Combine 1/2 cup water and 6 tablespoons raw sugar in a saucepan; bring to a boil, then continue to cook, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and add an additional 1 cup water - since the added water never cooks, I used filtered water for the cleanest taste.

Combine the sugar mixture with the peach mixture, stirring with a whisk, then transfer to an 8-inch baking dish. Freeze for 6 hours, stirring twice during the first 2 hours (I stirred at the 1 hour mark and then again 45 minutes later).

1 cup of granita is 190 calories and you'll have about 4 servings - scrape the mixture with a fork to get that nice fluffy granita texture as you dish it out. Note: although it needs to freeze at least 6 hours, there is no problem letting it freeze longer than that - I made mine closer to 9 hours in advance.

Cost:
peaches $3.66
sweet muscat $10.99