Maple Citrus Granite

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups water
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup lemon and orange zest
• 1/4 cup shredded mint, optional

Directions

In a saucepan, mix water, sugar, lemon juice, orange juice, maple syrup and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer without stirring until all the sugar has dissolved, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove pot from the heat and let syrup cool completely. Add the lemon, orange zest, mint leaves, and pour into a shallow baking dish or plastic container and place in the freezer. (The 6 cup capacity shallow plastic containers with a lid that measure 6 inches by 10 inches by 2 inches deep, and which you can get in grocery stores would be ideal for the purpose.)

Check after about 2 hours and stir the mixture. After about 4 hours, the mixture will have begun to set up, and you can score the surface by turning a spoon backwards and using the tip to scrape the frozen syrup into "ice curls." Repeat this scraping process periodically, every 2 hours or so, until all of the syrup is scraped into the consistency of water ice. Serve after 8 hours.