Nothing says Scottish cuisine to me quite like a Cranachan. The wondrous mixture of toasted oats, raspberries, honey, cream and whiskey just come together to make a great dessert
So why not take all those ingredients and also make a cheesecake?
Preheat your oven to 180C and butter a deep 20cm spring form tin
Starting with the base, put the oatcakes in a food processor and blitz for a few seconds until they are finely ground. Tip the blitzed oats into a bowl and add the melted butter and honey and combine. Tip this mixture into the base of the spring form tin, squashing it down with the back of a spoon until it has evenly coated the base and there are no gaps. Pop it in the fridge to set
In a frying pan, add the pinhead oatmeal and a teaspoon of sugar and toast over a medium heat, tossing frequently until the oatmeal is golden. Once done, tip the toasted oatmeal onto a plate
In a large bowl, add the ricotta, cream cheese, whiskey, eggs (plus the egg yolk) and remaining caster sugar, flour and mix until smooth with an electric handheld whisk. Tip in the raspberries and the now cooled and toasted oatmeal and give a gentle mix. Now pour the mixture onto the set base
Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the cheesecake is set around the edges but still a bit wobbly in the middle. Turn off the oven, partially open the oven door and leave the cheesecake to cool
When the cheesecake has cooled you can now prepare your gelatine as per instructions, add the raspberries to a small pan with the water and bring up the heat until the raspberries begin to break down
Pass the raspberries through a sieve to remove the pips and then add the icing sugar and gelatine. Pour over the top of the cheesecake, decorate with raspberries around the edge and pop into the fridge to set