Cranachan with Raspberries and Whole Wheat Shortbread - A Traditional Scottish Recipe

Our family celebrated "Hogmanay" this year which is a Scottish New Year celebration. See this post for details. Traditionally, there is a lot of alcohol involved, just like New Years celebrations in the USA, but we decided to make this a fun, family-friendly celebration. I did a lot of research on traditional Scottish foods and I found a Cranachan recipe I tweaked to make alcohol-free (usually it has 1 Tbl whiskey in it). This stuff was a hit, especially after the haggis, LOL. The best part is that is was super easy to make!

Cranachan with Raspberries Recipe:

Cranachan Ingredients:

1 pint fresh or freshly frozen raspberries (thawed)

1 cup thick, raw cream

3 Tbl raw honey

1 tsp real vanilla

2 to 3 Tbl old fashioned oatmeal

1. Toast oatmeal until medium brown in the oven, cool completely

2. Sweeten raspberries with honey to taste, being careful not to bang them up.

 3. Mix cream, vanilla and honey together in a mixer on highest setting until nice and thick.

4. Gently fold in the toasted oatmeal into the whipped cream.5. Put a generous spoonful of raspberries at the bottom of a pretty glass, then spoon out the whipped cream and oatmeal mixture over the raspberries. 

6. Top with a few more raspberries and shortbread cookies. I happened to have these shortbread cookies on hand, but I look forward to making my own healthy shortbread cookies using the following recipe the next time:

Whole Wheat/Unrefined Sugar Shortbread Recipe:
4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cup salted butter (preferably raw)
3/4 to 1 cup sucanat or evaporated cane juice
1 tsp vanilla (optional)
1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)
turbinado or evaporated can juice for sprinkling

Cream butter and sucanat together using a mixer or food processor. Work the whole wheat pastry flour in until it is a firm paste, then knead it a few times on a cutting or pastry board that is well floured. Roll out and cut whatever shape(s) you want. Sprinkle with turbinado or evaporated can juice. Bake at 375F until cookies are start to look golden in color, approx 15 minutes. Cool on a cookie rack and store in an air-tight container. These are so yummy and you can hardly tell they are whole wheat. If you use sucanat, they will be naturally darker in color.