TikTok's Single-Ingredient Shaved Ice Is Seriously Cooling Us Down
TikTok user Frankie Gaw may have just invented the perfect sweet, frozen snack for the summer. In a video posted to Gaw's page, he demonstrates how he makes his sweet treat using only one ingredient: Frozen strawberries grated down finely with a microplane.
It seems like a simple thing to make. Gaw first shows off the bag of strawberries pulled from the freezer. He pours some into a bowl and then grabs the microplane. Gaw grates the frozen fruit with the tool into a separate bowl. Once he's grated a few pieces of the fruit, the texture looks similar to that of a sweet, fruity sorbet or granita.
@littlefatboyfrankie Strawberry shaved ice 🍧🍓 All you need is frozen berries and a grater! #kitchenhacks #strawberry #desserts #fruit #fyp #foryou #letseat
He said in a comment that the process went pretty quickly, and it only took him a few minutes to grate enough of the frozen strawberries to fill his bowl for a single serving. After watching the video, plenty of other TikTok users took to the comments, excited about making the frozen treat for themselves.
This method can be used with different fruits
Although this trick does work using only one ingredient, Gaw opted to amplify the dish a little more. On top of the shaved frozen fruit, he poured on some condensed milk to give it more of an ice cream feel. Shaved ice topped off with condensed milk is a popular dessert in many Asian countries, referred to as kakigōri in Japan, bingsu in Korea, or baobing in China.
Instead of sprinkles, Gaw adds some crushed peanuts and black sesame seeds on top of the dessert, adding some more earthy flavors and textures to the sweet and creamy base. He tops it all off with a mint leaf, then digs in, remarking it's "so good."
Although Gaw's video showed how to make the treat using frozen strawberries, it would also work with a variety of other frozen fruits. You can even grab a bag of assorted fruits and grate a few different ones together — like strawberries and kiwis, or pineapples and raspberries — for an ultra-fruity flavor.
The dessert resembles a Persian dish
One commenter on the TikTok video noted that this dessert is similar to the Persian drink paloodeh talebi. The process of making this treat involves cutting wedges of a cantaloupe and freezing them, then grating them down once frozen. It can also be blended with some ice if you don't want to wait for the fruit to freeze. Then, add in some rose water, honey, or any sweetener, and the sweet treat can be eaten with a spoon or sipped through a straw. Some recipes suggest adding in a little lemon juice to amplify the flavors even more.
Although Gaw's trick is ideal for single-serving bowls of the frozen, sweet treat, it may be impractical for serving a crowd. Fortunately, one commenter on the video suggested a solution. Instead of hand-grating the frozen fruit with a microplane, swap out your food processor's standard blades for a grating disc. Once you push the frozen fruit in, the machine will grate it down for you, making it easy to create larger portions of the treat.