Cranachan

This deliciously light, easy-to-make dessert of fresh raspberries, heather honey, rolled oats, whisky and cream is quintessentially Scottish.

Ingredients

• 4-5 tbsp medium rolled oats
• 300g/11oz/2 1/2 cups of fresh raspberries
• 40g/1.5oz/3 tbsp caster sugar
• 400ml/4dl/3/4 pt/1 3/4 cups of double cream
• 3-4 tbsp heather honey
• 3-4 tbsp Scottish whisky

Make it vegan: use plant based cream instead of double cream. You can also replace honey with a brand of vegan honey, or even with maple syrup.

Method

Background

Pronunciation: /ˈkʰɾan̪ˠəxan/ (CRAH-nuh-kun)

Home: Scotland

Relatives: Crowdie (Scotland), Eton Mess (England), Pavlova (Australia)

History

Cranachan (which is Scottish Gaelic for ‘to churn’) is known as Crowdie Cream in some parts of Scotland. This is likely because the dessert developed from an old breakfast dish called Cream Crowdie, a mix of oats, heather honey and Crowdie (a creamy soft cheese) which, over time, began to incorporate Scottish raspberries and substituted double cream for Crowdie. The addition of cream and raspberries made Cranachan more like a dessert than a breakfast, and as such it’s now commonly eaten as an after dinner treat, especially on special occasions like Christmas and Burns Night.

Cranachan’s primary ingredients are all grown or made in Scotland. Heather honey is a smoky, woody product, traditionally harvested on Scottish moorlands. Oatmeal is a Scottish staple food, widely grown in the country as the oat crop is better suited to the the Scottish climate than other grains are. Oats are used in porridge, Brose, stuffing, oatcakes, Haggis, and black and white puddings. Though they’re native to far-off western Asia (possibly Anatolia), raspberries also grow very successfully in Scotland: the east coast’s fertile soil, moderate climate and long daylight hours in summer are particularly good for the fruit, and as such the region produces a huge yield of tart, full bodied raspberries every year. Scotland’s whisky needs no introduction. The spirit has been distilled in Scotland since at least 1494, when records suggest several bolls of malt whisky were given to Lindores Abbey, Fife, to be developed into aqua vitae, a component needed for gunpowder production. Whisky at the time had quite a harsh taste, as it was not left to age, but it became smoother and tastier over the years as the distillation process developed. After the Act of Union with England (1707), Scottish whisky was subject to harsh taxes, and much of the whisky industry was forced underground: restrictions only began to ease in the early 19th century. Today, there are over a hundred whisky distilleries in Scotland, and Scottish whisky is sold around the world. Combined together, these ingredients form a quintessentially Scottish dish.