Chai Latte Granita with Honeyed Whipped Cream

1. In a large pot, add water, milk, cream, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom and black peppercorns. Turn heat to medium high and bring to a boil. Watch carefully to avoid boiling over! Once the mixture is boiling, add tea bags, turn heat off, cover the pan and allow the mixture to steep for 3 minutes. Remove tea bags. Pour mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a large bowl. Discard solids. Stir sugar into tea mixture until dissolved. Pour into two large shallow pans and allow to cool.

2. Cover pans and place in the freezer. Allow them to freeze for 2-3 hours or until the edges are starting to freeze. Remove the pans from the freezer and use a fork to rake through the frozen mixture. Return to freezer then remove again after 30 minutes to 1 hour and rake again. Repeat this process 2-3 times or until mixture becomes completely frozen ice flakes. Alternatively, you can freeze the mixture completely then break it into large chunks and pulse in the blender until crystallized. This method is much faster, but will yield smaller more uniform crystals (more like a slushie) than the raking method.

3. For the whipped cream, place cream in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on high speed until soft peaks begin to form. Beat in honey and tea.

4. To serve, place granita in individual cups and top with whipped cream.