This cranachan recipe makes the Scottish dessert of fresh raspberries, cream, whisky, honey, and toasted oats that’s traditionally served for sweets at the end of a Burns Night Supper, but can be eaten at any time of year. The cream can be swapped for creamy Greek yoghurt and you can skip the whisky if serving this to children. Just don’t tell your Scottish friends!
A classic Scottish cranachan recipe for the dessert that traditionally features on the menus of Burns Suppers – dinners held across Scotland and in the Scottish diaspora to celebrate the life and poetry of beloved Scottish poet Robert Burns – calls for fresh raspberries and toasted oats stirred into a whisky and honey whipped cream.
The raspberries and heady honey cream are layered in a parfait glass for a sort of Scottish trifle or a Scottish take on the strawberry-driven English dessert, an Eton Mess. Made with homegrown Scottish products, including Scotch whisky and oats, which Scots have been eating for 5,500 years, cranachan is a quintessentially Scottish dessert.
While I encourage you to try this recipe for a classic cranachan – it’s divine and worth planning a Burns Night Dinner around – I have to confess that I make my Scottish cranachan with a couple of twists. For a healthier cranachan, I skip the whisky and substitute the whipped cream for creamy Greek yoghurt. In this form, I eat cranachan for breakfast.
If you’re looking for more dessert or sweets recipes with berries, try my recipes for rose mascarpone cheesecake tart with mixed berries and fresh mint, sweet varenyky with berries for Ukrainian dessert dumplings, and an easy French toast with berries and whipped cream.
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Cranachan Recipe for the Scottish Dessert of Raspberries, Cream, Whiskey, Honey and Oats
Before I share a few tips to making this classic cranachan recipe for a scrummy Scottish dessert of fresh raspberries, whisky, honey, whipped cream, and toasted oats traditionally served for sweets at a Burns Supper, I have to apologise for sharing this recipe two weeks after Burns Night.
I’d intended to post this cranachan recipe when I shared my chicken leek soup recipe for a quick and easy cock-a-leekie, another traditional dish served at Burns Dinners. The first course is usually soup, either cock-a-leekie or a Cullen skink soup, made from smoked haddock, potatoes, onions, and leeks, while the star of the show is haggis.
Scotland’s national dish of haggis, neeps and tatties (translation: turnip mash and mashed potatoes) is so central to a Burns Supper, that there is an Address to the Haggis, when the haggis is carted around the room on a platter and shown to diners before being served, and a toast of Scotch whisky is made to the haggis.
And if you haven’t eaten haggis before, it’s basically, as Terence describes it, “a big, fat, humble sausage that contains finely chopped sheep’s heart, liver and lungs”, as well as onions, spices, and secret ingredients that distinguish one haggis maker from the next. If you’re not an offal lover, you’ll have to visit us next January when we share a few more Burns Dinner recipes.
So apologies again: unfortunately I had a health scare and was in and out of hospital for a few nights there, which explains why I’ve been a bit quiet here – and why I’m still in Australia and not yet back in Cambodia. On doctor’s orders I can’t fly yet, but hopefully I’ll get the all-clear to travel in a few weeks. Fingers crossed.
On the bright side, you’ll be able to make cranachan blindfolded for next year’s Burns Night dinner, and eat it all year long if you choose. And if you do decide to do as I do and make a cranachan without whisky and with creamy yoghurt, you’ll get to enjoy it for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or a snack when raspberries are in season.
Which is where I should point out that I do realise that it is a bit odd that a traditional dessert with a key ingredient like raspberries has historically been served out of season in winter. We spotted cranachan on almost every Burns Supper menu when we were in Edinburgh and deciding which Burns Night dinner to attend.
We were informed by locals that some varieties of raspberries grow year-round in Scotland. I’ve not found a reliable source to confirm this yet (one website that makes the claim lists raspberries harvested in autumn), so if you have some intel we’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
Just a few tips to making this classic cranachan recipe for the Scottish dessert of fresh raspberries, whisky, honey, whipped cream, and toasted oats.
Tips to Making this Cranachan Recipe
I only have a few tips to making this classic cranachan recipe for the Scottish dessert of fresh raspberries, whisky, honey, whipped cream, and toasted oats, as it’s easy to make and comes together quickly.
Toast the Oatmeal
Start by toasting the oats in a small frying pan over low heat. Use a spatula to continuously stir the oatmeal for a few minutes. When the oats start to smell nutty they will begin to colour and then brown very quickly, so make sure to remove the pan from the heat before the oats burn, and transfer the toasted oats to a cold ceramic bowl to cool.
Prep the Raspberries
Use a fork to mash 50 g raspberries into a purée in a small bowl and set them side. Some cranachan recipes call for adding caster sugar and straining the mashed raspberries through a sieve, but I really don’t think that’s necessary. I prefer the sweetness of the fresh fruit to a sugar syrup.
Count the remaining raspberries, divide into quarters, and make a note so you can distribute the raspberries evenly.
Make the Whisky Honey Oatmeal Cream
Whisk the thickened cream to create whipped cream, then transfer around half to a bowl and refrigerate it to chill it. To the remaining half of the cream, whisk in the honey and whisky, add most of the toasted oatmeal (saving a couple of teaspoons of toasted oats to sprinkle on top), and whisk until well combined.
Assemble the Cranachan in Parfait Glasses
Create layers of the whisky honey oatmeal cream, plain whipped cream and raspberries in parfair glasses, saving some raspberries for the top. Spoon on the raspberry purée, top it with the remaining raspberries, sprinkle on the rest of the toasted oatmeal, and drizzle with more honey. Enjoy!
Cranachan Recipe for the Scottish Dessert of Raspberries, Cream, Whisky, Honey and Oats
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp oatmeal - divided
- 250 g fresh raspberries - around 44 raspberries
- 250 ml thickened cream - or creamy Greek yoghurt
- 4 tbsp honey - more for drizzling on top
- 2 tbsp whiskey - or more to taste
Instructions
- Toast the oatmeal: in a small frying pan over low heat, use a spatula to continuously stir the oatmeal for a few minutes; when the oats start to smell nutty they will begin to colour and then brown very quickly. Remove the oats before they burn and transfer them to a cold ceramic bowl to cool.
- Prep the raspberries: use a fork to mash 50 g raspberries into a purée in a small bowl and set side. Count the remaining raspberries, divide between quarters, and make a note so you can distribute the raspberries evenly.
- Make the whiskey honey oatmeal cream: whisk the thickened cream to create whipped cream, then transfer around half to a bowl and refrigerate. To the remaining half: whisk in the honey and whiskey, add most of the toasted oatmeal (saving a couple of teaspoons of toasted oats to sprinkle on top), and whisk until well combined.
- Assemble the cranachan in parfait glasses: create layers of the whiskey honey oatmeal cream, plain whipped cream and raspberries, saving some raspberries for the top. Spoon on the raspberry purée, top with remaining raspberries, sprinkle on the rest of the toasted oatmeal, and drizzle with more honey.
Nutrition
Please do let us know if you make this classic cranachan recipe for the Scottish dessert of fresh raspberries, whisky, honey, whipped cream, and toasted oats, as we’d love to know how it turns out for you.
