Cranachan

If you saw SBS last night it was "Eat well: Why most food labels are wrong about calories"

Did you see it?
Well...they had this cranachan on there, its a traditional scottish dessert. In modern times it is usually made from a mixture of whipped cream, whisky, honey and fresh raspberries, with toasted oatmeal soaked overnight in a little bit of whisky. Aye!

Well you may know my last name Farquharson is Scottish so my ears and eyes perked up when this was mentioned and I was like "omg I have to make that, it looks like all kinds of deliciousness right there! "

I made it tonight and had it for dessert, I thought it was too good not to share and you guys have to make it!
I also thought this would be a fabulous breakfast!
Anyhoo...this is what I came up with!
You could drop the oats and just use flaked almonds and flaked coconut or other nuts and seeds and follow the recipe the same, you could also not use cream and just use yoghurt:)

Cranachan
Serves 4
100g (1 cup) rolled oats
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp honey 

Melt the honey and butter in a pan on a low heat, add the oats and stir until the oats are golden brown and toasted, careful not to burn them, set aside to cool

150ml cream (whipping cream)
½ cup of greek yoghurt or other plain yoghurt
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla extract (or some whiskey)

Whip cream, vanilla (whiskey if using) and honey together until stiff, watch out it doesn’t turn to butter! Then fold in yoghurt until combined.

250g fruit- you could use pear, banana, passionfruit, kiwifruit etc….
I have used 125g raspberries and 125g strawberries, chop the strawberries up.
To assemble you can use whatever you choose, like a glass or dessert bowl. Put in some fruit in each glass, then oats, then cream, then repeat with fruit, then oats and cream on top. If you have any left have the top layer with some oats and fruit.

Pear & strawberry crumble

Serves 6

Pear and strawberry with a sprinkle of optional chocolate chips topped with an oat and date crumble. The only sweetness comes from the fruit and dates (and chocolate if using)

Ingredients

4 pears, peeled, cored and 2cm dice (you could also use apples)

1 x 250g punnet of strawberries, hulled and cut in ½ or into 3 if really big

1/3 cup of chocolate chips (optional)

½ cup of spelt flour or gluten free flour

½ cup of oats

5 medjool dates, pitted

50g cold butter, small dice

Method

Preheat oven to 190c or 170c fan forced

Grease an oven proof dish with butter.

Blitz together your flour and dates until fine and put into a bowl. To that add your butter and using your fingertips blend the butter through the flour and date mix until it resembles biggish breadcrumbs, you still want to see some chunks of butter. Then add your oats and mix them through. Place your fruit and chocolate chips if using in your baking dish and sprinkle the crumble mix over evenly- bake for 30 minutes or until crumble is golden brown and the pears are tender. Check your crumble after 20 minutes and make sure it’s not getting too brown, cover with lid or foil if it is.

 Serve with double cream/ice cream/custard/whipped cream.

Stir fried oats with apple, sultanas and cinnamon

Ingredients

1 cup of rolled oats

1 egg

2 tbsp coconut flakes or shredded coconut

2 tbsp slivered or flaked almonds

2 tbsp sultanas

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ cup of water or milk

1 apple, cored and cut into 8 wedges

2 tbsp coconut cream (opt) for the topping

Honey or maple to taste for the topping

Method
Mix oats together with the egg, set aside.

In a pan with some butter fry your apple wedges until golden brown and set aside. In the same pan, add more butter if needed and add your coconut, almonds, cinnamon and oat mix. Stir fry until golden brown and nice and toasted, then add your milk and sultanas. Keep stirring until there is no more liquid, about 1 minute. Serve up in 2 bowls and top with your apple, coconut cream and honey.

Chocolate, oat and seed clusters

Ingredients

2 cups of oats

½ cup shredded coconut

½ cup of chopped pumpkin seeds

½ cup of flaxseeds

½ cup of sesame seeds

¼ cup of chia seeds

1/3 cup of honey or maple

½ cup of coconut oil or you can use light olive oil or a mix of the 2

2-3 tbsp cacao powder

Method

Mix altogether and spread out on a lined tray about 1 cm thick, pack down. Bake at 140c for about 1 hour. It will still be crumbly when you take it out but when it cools it firms up. If you find it’s not all crisp after cooling you can put in back in the oven, I found some of the middle wasn’t done when it cooled as it was thicker so I took the outside bits that were crispy and put in a container and then put the rest back in for 10 minutes. Serve in big pieces as a snack or break up a little more and have for breakfast with milk, yoghurt and berries/banana. Store in an airtight container

Apricot anzac squares

Makes 16 squares

Would be great warmed up for breakfast with some yoghurt and berries, or in a lunch box.

Variations swap the apricots for dried berries/sultanas, sprinkle with chocolate chips

Ingredients

1 ½ cups of desiccated coconut

1 ½ cups of rolled oats

1 tsp each of baking soda and baking powder

2 eggs

1 cup approx(140g) of dried turkish apricots, finely diced

100g butter or coconut oil

¼ cup of honey

Method

Preheat oven to 180c

Line a 20 x 20cm cake tin with baking paper

Melt butter and honey together. Add butter mix to all the other ingredients and mix until well combined. Press firmly into your tin and bake for 12-15 minutes, should be golden brown on top. When cool cut into squares, Store in an airtight container.

Chocolate chip muesli bars

Makes 12 bars-

You can leave out the oats and use ½ coconut and ½ nuts and seeds

Ingredients

1 cup of oats

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup mixed nuts and seeds

2 tbsp each of honey and coconut oil, melted

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

Method

Preheat oven to 180C

In a large bowl place your oats. Briefly blitz your coconut, nuts and seeds until fairly fine, add to your oats, and then add your melted coconut oil, honey and vanilla. Add your egg and mix well. Press into a lined 20x20cm cake tin and then sprinkle over ¼ or so of choc chips, press them down and then bake for 12 minutes. Take out and leave for 10 minutes and then lift out and cut into bars or squares. Keep in an airtight container on the bench.