Cranachan – a combination of oats, raspberries, whisky and honey (ideally heather honey, available online) – is the most typical Scottish dessert. A bit like a Scottish Eton mess, these days it’s usually made with whipped cream, though traditionally Scotland’s cottage cheese, crowdie, was used, giving it a more lactic tang. With this in mind, I add tangy Pepe Saya crème fraîche to mine – and of course I enjoy it with a wee dram of a good Highland single malt. Quick and easy and made in advance, cranachan is an ideal recipe for a Burns Supper menu. I’ve also made an Australian version using strawberries and wild blackberries instead of raspberries and replacing the whisky with Glen Gowrie Distillery’s Blueberry Gin, which worked a treat! See video below for another quick and delicious dessert from the British Isles.
Serves 4
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Rolled oats, as the name suggests, are made by flattening the oat grain, after steaming to soften them; this processing means they cook quicker. For steel-cut oats the grain is cut into 2 or 3 pieces, giving a coarser, chewier texture and nuttier flavour when cooked; they need to be soaked before cooking (usually overnight) and cooked for longer.
Steel-cut oats are also sometimes called pinhead oats, Irish oats or coarse oatmeal.
