Fresh fruit with a complementary cheese is, from the cook’s point of view, one of the easiest ways of ending a meal. Soft fruits with a soft cheese are idea.
CREAM-CROWDIE (Cranachan)
Unique Scottish flavours – whisky, heather honey and oatmeal combine with cream and soft fruits in this versatile tradition.
The best way to eat and make this is in the traditional way; mixing your own, to your own taste as you sit round a table with family or friends. The toasted oatmeal doesn’t lose its ‘bite’ when mixed and eaten immediately, though some to prefer it softened, as it is when the mixture is made up some time in advance.
The ritual eating was originally a celebration of ‘harvest home’ when brambles and blueberries would most likely have been used. (For origins (see tag245))
Set on the table the following
A bowl of Cream and Crowdie – 2 parts crowdie to 1 part freshly whipped double cream (this was the traditional mixture but obviously may be varied according to taste with sourced cream and natural yogurt used if preferred).
A bowl of pinhead (coarse) oatmeal which has been toasted slowly and gently in the oven. This drives off excess moisture, concentrates, and greatly improves the flavour.
[ A bowl of fresh soft fruit – either a single fruit, or combination, but must be soft and fresh. Picking fruit is traditionally done by children and they are sent out to collect a bowlful.
Jar of Heather honey to sweeten, though sugar may also be used.
Bottle of whisky.
Give each person a bowl and spoon (in old Scots households the bowls would have been wooden and the spoons made of horn). The ingredients are then passed round the table and each person creates their own mixture, lubricating it with a generous tot of whisky. ]
CREAM-CROWDIE (Cranachan)
Unique Scottish flavours – whisky, heather honey and oatmeal combine with cream and soft fruits in this versatile tradition.
The best way to eat and make this is in the traditional way; mixing your own, to your own taste as you sit round a table with family or friends. The toasted oatmeal doesn’t lose its ‘bite’ when mixed and eaten immediately, though some to prefer it softened, as it is when the mixture is made up some time in advance.
The ritual eating was originally a celebration of ‘harvest home’ when brambles and blueberries would most likely have been used. (For origins (see tag245))
Set on the table the following
A bowl of Cream and Crowdie – 2 parts crowdie to 1 part freshly whipped double cream (this was the traditional mixture but obviously may be varied according to taste with sourced cream and natural yogurt used if preferred).
A bowl of pinhead (coarse) oatmeal which has been toasted slowly and gently in the oven. This drives off excess moisture, concentrates, and greatly improves the flavour.
[ A bowl of fresh soft fruit – either a single fruit, or combination, but must be soft and fresh. Picking fruit is traditionally done by children and they are sent out to collect a bowlful.
Jar of Heather honey to sweeten, though sugar may also be used.
Bottle of whisky.
Give each person a bowl and spoon (in old Scots households the bowls would have been wooden and the spoons made of horn). The ingredients are then passed round the table and each person creates their own mixture, lubricating it with a generous tot of whisky. ]
