Cranachan biscuits - chef sanity check please!

Cafe Society
1

I’m going to a pot luck tomorrow and have the idea of taking cranachan biscuits. I love cranachan. Could the doper chefs please sanity-check my idea?

Mix whipped cream and cheese and a bit of whisky.
Smear oat biscuits with honey.
Pipe or spoon cream and cheese mixture onto biscuits.
Top biscuits with raspberries.

My only qualm is that cranachan isn’t normally so heavy on the oats. I may have to use Philadelphia cream cheese instead of Crowdie.

So, what do you think? Any simple improvements you can suggest would be most welcome.

2

I think this sounds good. The honey might get messy. Could you make the whipped cream with honey? I’m not sure how well that works, but the whipped cream will need some kind of sweetener anyway. (If you’re using Philadelphia cream cheese, anyway–I’ve never had Crowdie so I don’t know if it would work well with a sweetener). Or you could drizzle the top of the whipped cream part with honey.

Another option might be to do a stabilized whipped cream instead of using the cream cheese. I use 3 tablespoons of powdered milk for a pint of cream–mix both of those with 1/2 cup of confectioners’ sugar until stiff, then mix in a teaspoon of vanilla extract. It has more body than regular whipped cream and holds up really well. I’ve used it to frost cakes for potlucks (it’s very nice with chocolate cake).

3

I have a suggestion based on a recipe my mother makes - it’s a slight departure from cranachan, but appeals to similar tastes:

Whip 500ml double cream with vanilla and a little sugar until very stiff

One at a time, dip chocolate chip cookies briefly in whisky, butter one side with some of the cream and assemble into a log

Plaster the outside of the log with remaining cream to cover it

Leave in the fridge for at least 4 hours

Top with a row of fresh raspberries and/or grated chocolate

The cookies turn into a delicious soft-but-not-soggy, fudgy consistency and the whole cream/booze/sugar/chocolate/fruit combination is quite lovely.

4

I’ve never tried it. But if going this route, I recommend heating the cream to help dissolve the honey in. It will need to be rechilled before whipping.

5

My presentation skills are a little lacking, but feast your eyes on these. They proved rather popular. I did mix in the honey.

Top tip: mix in the Crowdie by hand: if you use an electric hand mixer the mixture will go everywhere. :smiley:

6

I would put that in my mouth. Several times.

7

There’s a raspberry missing.
:slight_smile: They look great.

8

I did them again, this time on mini-biscuits. I accidentally gave the mix a double dose of whisky, and the result proved very tasty indeed.

9

I suppose it’s best that double doses of whisky go into the cooking rather than into the cook…

I remember this thread from the first time but neglected to ask what brand of oat biscuits you used? The finished product looks delicious.

10

:smiley:

Funnily enough, I don’t like neat spirits.

I’m sorry but I don’t recall. It was just a packet from the local supermarket.