I recently wrote about my trip to Scotland, where I mentioned having tried Cranachan, a trifle-like dessert with bold yet warm flavors. I liked the concept, and I was looking for an easy-to-eat dessert to make for New Years, so decided to give it a try… but with a twist: can I re-invent Cranachan with a different flavor profile?

This is a short story of how my experiment went.

Oats

Before getting into how I changed the flavor profile, let’s discuss the oats: while I enjoyed my friend’s recipe, I wished it had more of a crunch. I didn’t think that toasting the oats further would have been sufficient to get what I was looking for. Therefore, I decided to make my own granola by modifying a recipe from Knuspermüsli & Granola. This granola had a healthy amount of almonds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. I sweetened it with honey.

Whisky Cream

While I enjoyed the alcoholic aroma of the whisky, I found the flavor too strong. I also don’t consume alcohol, so I wanted my dessert to have a hint of the alcoholic flavor, without a noticeable amount of it. I knew going into the recipe that I was going to burn a good chunk of the alcohol prior to incorporating it with my cream.

But what alcohol should I go for? Is a question that occupied my mind for far longer than it would a healthy person’s. In the end, I decided to go for an orange liqueur, as I thought it would make for a very interesting dessert flavor. For this, I wanted to go for Cointreau, but as there were no mini bottles of it in any of the shops near me, I ended up with triple sec.

Unlike with my friend’s Cranachan, I decided not to sweeten the liqueur-cream with honey, to make up for the extra sweetness of the oats.

Burning off the alcohol proved to be a great option: it made the dessert less sharp for sure, but it still provided that alcoholic aroma that I was looking for.

As I was doing the final tasting, I felt that the cream infused with triple sec fell a bit flat, so I mixed in some orange juice and orange zest to elevate it… a final lick and my mind went: This is sublime.

Raspberry Jam Cream

While raspberries can pair well with orange, I knew I could find something better. I looked around for a few ideas, and decided that blackberries would be an excellent option.

For the jam, I made it myself my cooking blackberries in a pot with a tiny smidgeon of spices and lots of sugar.

The jam paired very well with the whipped double cream, but my proportions were a bit off which is why the consistency of the blackberry jam cream turned a bit too runny (see the photos at the end).

Raspberries

Finally, I replaced the raspberries with whole blackberries. I was a bit concerned about this, as blackberries can be much more tart than raspberries. I put my faith in the sweetness from the jam and the granola.

Concluding Remarks

In the end, the dessert turned out amazing, and I was very proud of myself for improvising a new flavor profile. I was able to serve it up nicely in reusable plastic mini-wine glasses, and to transport it easily as well (minus 2 that cracked slightly).

Overall, I was very happy with this experiment.