Cranachan Burns’ Night special

Fiona's Cranachan

My friend, Fiona who is Scottish, and an amazing cook shared her family dessert for Burns’ night last year Prune & Whisky Tart. But the most popular dessert which follows the Haggis is Cranachan. It’s a mixture of whisky, cream, honey and toasted oats and the consistency is more like a mousse. Here’s Fiona’s family recipe.

Cranachan

2 oz (50g) medium oatmeal or rolled oats

2 tbsp of malt whiskey

2 tablespoons of runny Scottish honey

½ pint (300mls) double cream

6 oz (175g) raspberries 

(or other soft fruit such as blueberries or blackberries. 

If frozen allow time to thaw.)

Toast the oatmeal/rolled oats under a hot grill for about 2 minutes. Whip the cream until thick and stir in the honey and malt whiskey. Add the raspberries and fold in the toasted oatmeal and spoon into small glasses.

You can serve with biscuits such as Shortbread. 

We like Oat Ginger biscuits or Flapjack.

It’s new year, new , new ...

Tim and Jane's Tasty Flavours has moved to a new location in the Food Hall in Doncaster Market. Fortunately, the new stall is less than 50 metres from the old one and the range of baking ingredients to make Grandma’s traditional homemade recipes is as wide as ever.

Grandma Abson’s Recipe of the Month board has pride of place. Tim says the recipes are very popular with his savvy customers who snap photos with their smart phones. We link each month’s recipe to whatever is in season that month and mainly use ingredients from Tim and Jane’s emporium. We’re also keeping Grandma’s legacy of homemade baking alive with easy recipes which taste just scrummy with few ingredients.

To start the New Year, January’s Recipe of the Month is St Clement’s Pie. This famous pie is eaten whenever there are bells to ring out. Just as in the nursery rhyme, it’s made with oranges and lemons.

St Clement’s Pie

8oz /225g Shortcrust Pastry (8oz/225g flour, 4oz/110g butter)

Zest & juice of 1 lemon and 1 orange

4oz /110g caster sugar

5 tsps cornflour

2 eggs (separated)

½ pint/ 275ml water

Make Shortcrust Pastry.  Line a pie dish with the pastry and bake blind for 10 minutes. Put the lemon and orange zests, juice and 2oz/50g sugar in a pan. Heat until the sugar is dissolved.  Mix the cornflour to a paste with 6 tbsps of water. Stir into the mixture with the rest of the water until blended.  Let it cool a little. Add the egg yolks and mix gently till blended. Pour into the pastry case. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and add the rest of the sugar. Spoon the meringue on to the filling and make swirls. Cook in a preheated oven for 30 minutes. (300F, Mark 2, 150C)

Grandma’s tip : Bake it Blind This describes cooking pastry before adding a filling. Line the dish with pastry. Then line the pastry with baking paper. Cover with dried beans or peas.  Bake and remove the paper before adding the filling. Keep the beans or peas to reuse for baking blind.

Meryl says : This pie is delicious to eat hot or cold. I love it when the mixture is still hot, just set and the meringue is freshly peaked from the oven. 

Happy New Year #KeepBakingalive!