Scottish cranachan with a wee twist

Originally, the traditional Scottish cranachan celebrated the harvest, but now it is enjoyed year-round. There are many variations, but in all of them the trick is the slow toasting of the oatmeal; this is then mixed into the dish at the last minute so that its texture is retained. The quantities given here for the cardamom honey make a full jar, much more than you need for this amount of cranachan, but it will keep indefinitely; it is great over granola and in coffee.

• serves

  4

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  30 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 40 g (1½ oz) medium or coarse oatmeal
• 200 g (7 oz) raspberries
• 400 ml (14 fl oz) double cream
• 1½ tbsp cardamom honey (below), or to taste
• 2¼ tbsp malt whisky
• ½–1 tsp rose water, or to taste
• rose petals, to garnish (optional) 

Cardamom honey

• 1 x 250 g (9 oz) jar clear honey
• 1 tsp ground cardamom (about 24 cardamom pods, seeds finely ground)

Cooling time 24 hours

Instructions

To make the cardamom honey, pour half of the honey into a pan and add the cardamom. Gently heat through until the honey has become more liquid and starts to bubble at the edges; if you have a probe thermometer, the temperature should be 75°F (165°F). Remove from the heat and pour the flavoured honey back into the jar with the remaining honey. Stir gently, and leave to cool, uncovered. When cool, put on the lid and ideally store for 24 hours before using.

To make the cranachan, heat a heavy-bottomed pan and toast the oatmeal over a lowish heat, stirring occasionally, until it smells warm and nutty and has changed colour; this will take 10–15 minutes, sometimes as long as 20 minutes. Leave to cool.

In a bowl, crush half of the raspberries to make a rough mash. In a separate bowl, whisk the cream with the honey, whisky and rose water until soft peaks form, then fold in the crushed raspberries.

Fold in the toasted oatmeal and two-thirds of the remaining whole raspberries. Adjust the honey and rose water to taste. Spoon the cranachan into small glasses, and garnish with the remaining raspberries and some rose petals, if using. Drizzle with a wee bit more of the cardamom honey and serve.

Recipe from The Incredible Spice Men by Cyrus Todiwala and Tony Singh (BBC Books, $49.99, hbk, available here)

View all the recipes from The Incredible Spice Men.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.