CRANACHAN WITH CARAMELISED OATMEAL AND RASPBERRY SAUCE

CRANACHAN WITH CARAMELISED OATMEAL AND RASPBERRY SAUCE

One of my own favourite Scottish desserts. In The Summer Collection we made Caledonian ice cream with caramelised oatmeal and now we’ve discovered it works really well with Cranachan. We find that frozen Scottish (or British) raspberries work better than the expensive imported fresh ones at Christmas.
- Delai Smith

Ingredients

 50g caster sugar, plus 3 heaped tablespoons
 125g pinhead oatmeal
 450g raspberries, frozen
 3 tablespoons whisky
 1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
 450ml whipping cream

A small baking sheet, lightly oiled, and six sturdy conical (or other) 275ml serving glasses.

Method

To make the caramelised oatmeal, put 50g caster sugar and 2 tablespoons of water in a small saucepan over a low heat and leave it for 5 minutes. Then take a medium-sized frying pan. Place it on a medium heat and, when the pan is hot, add the oatmeal and swirl it round in the pan constantly so it browns evenly – which it will do in 5 minutes. Then quickly remove the oatmeal to a glass heatproof jug to prevent it becoming too brown. By now the sugar crystals in the pan will have dissolved, so you can turn the heat right up and let it boil (watching it like a hawk) until it begins to turn a rich caramel colour, rather like dark runny honey.

As soon as it reaches that stage, stir in the toasted oatmeal, remove it from the heat and quickly pour the mixture on to the oiled baking sheet then leave it on one side to get cool and firm (which will take approximately 15 minutes). Now break it up into small pieces then crush it in a processor until the tiny pinhead oats have become separate again.

Next deal with the raspberries by putting them (still frozen) into a medium saucepan with the remaining caster sugar and heat until the raspberries start to defrost and collapse. Bring them up to a gentle simmer and cook them for about 5 minutes, then cool and whiz them to a purée in a processor and finally push through a nylon sieve to extract the pips.

Now add the whisky and vanilla to the cream and whip it to the floppy stage. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the caramelised oatmeal for garnish, then fold in the rest into the whipped cream. Put a heaped tablespoonful of cream in each glass, then a couple of tablespoonfuls of purée and repeat, finishing with the cream. Lastly sprinkle on the reserved oatmeal. Cover and chill in the fridge till needed.