Cranachan, Small Pots of Raspberry Pleasure
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Serves 4Difficulty:
Easy
I’m a fool for all things nice and nothing beats the combination of toasted oats, raspberries, whisky and a spoonful of heather honey.
Cranachan is a classic dish and this recipe is devised with a couple of twists in true British Larder fashion. I did substitute half of the cream with crème fraîche, I know it’s not traditional but I added it to lighten the dish. This way you can enjoy and even lick the glass without feeling ill and in need of a lie down. I have also made wafer thin toasted oat wafers for garnish, this is purely optional.
The inspiration for making this dish came from spending time out in my kitchen garden admiring the bees at work pollinating the raspberry bush. Last summer Mum visited and she gave Mr.P a small bee house as a birthday gift. We attached the bee house to the wall in between the raspberry and blackberry bushes. There were no occupants last year as we had only put it up at the end of the summer however this year we were delighted and very excited to see movement and very happy residents residing in the bee house.
They are fascinating little creatures buzzing away round the raspberry bush so I’m expecting a bumper harvest. This particular cane is the Tulameen variety bearing plenty of large plump fruits and the fragrance is what I like the most, a true sweet raspberry perfume. I thought I should keep the dish simple and simplicity is exactly the way to describe a classic cranachan. I dug out the bottle of good quality Scottish whisky that Mr.P got for Christmas and along with the jar of heather honey, cranachan is the obvious choice.
I served them in these small glasses, however it’s the perfect dish to make in small kilner jars and to take along on a picnic.
Ingredients & Method
Toasted Oat Wafers
- 15g rolled oats + 15 g for the cranachan
- 70g fondant
- 50g glucose
Cranachan
- 100ml double cream
- 100ml crème fraîche
- 20g icing sugar
- 50g Scottish heather honey
- 1tbs Scottish Whisky, or to taste
- 2 punnets of raspberries
Preheat the oven to 200 °C and spread the oats on a baking tray. Toast the oats in the preheated oven for 10 – 12 minutes, keep an eye on it as it does burn easily, stir the oats once or twice to evenly toast, leave the oats to cool.
Place a silpat on a large baking tray and set aside.
Weigh the glucose and fondant into a medium non-stick saucepan, melt over a moderate heat, once melted increase the heat and boil till the sugar reaches 160°C.
Pour the boiling hot sugar onto the silpat and leave to cool at room temperature.
Once the sugar is cooled completely mash it up using a rolling pin and then powder it and half the toasted oats (use the other half for the Cranachan) using a very powerful blender such as a Thermomix.
Reduce the oven heat to 160°C and turn the fan setting off.
Line a baking tray with parchment paper, use a cookie cutter and sprinkle the sugar powder evenly onto the parchment paper in the desired shapes, I used a 5cm diameter ring cutter.
Bake in the pre-heated oven for approximately 10 minutes, until the sugar dissolves and forms a clear crisp disk.
Let the wafers cool completely, they will be super fragile.
Select the best raspberries, about half the amount, set them aside.
Lightly crush the remaining raspberries with a fork, do not mash too much.
Soft whip the double cream, whisky and the icing sugar, fold the crème fraîche and the crushed raspberries into the soft whipped cream mixture.
Spoon half of the cream mixture in to the selected glasses, arrange a few raspberries, scatter a sprinkle of toasted oats and top with a little honey, repeat the process and finish each glass with the remaining raspberries, scatter the toasted oats and serve with a toasted oat wafer.