Cranachan Cheesecake

Hock Aye!!!!

Cranachan is a traditional Scottish dessert featuring cream, whiskey, honey, raspberries and toasted oats. It’s a bit like an Eton Mess. I was hosting a little dinner party for my girlfriends to celebrate Burn’s night and wanted a Scottish dessert. Cranachan was the obvious choice, but the cream would kill my macros! So I thought I’d try and recreate it as a cheesecake. After a quick Google it seemed I wasn’t the only one to have this idea! Paul Hollywood had made a baked Cranachan cheesecake on a cooking program. Also, Slimming World has a recipe for a berry cheesecake that was similar to my idea. So I did a bit of a variation…

I left the whiskey out. I don’t like it! Lol! For the base Hollywood used oatcakes. I thought this would keep well with the Scottish theme so opted for half oatcakes and half digestives. I think it would work well with all oatcakes (16) plus a little sweetener though.

I used two lots of gelatine sachets. I think it would set ok with one and a little less water, however, I used two to play it safe.

I wanted vanilla quark for the filling, however, the supermarkets were sold out so I grabbed a tub of Rachel’s vanilla yogurt. Miller light vanilla or other yogurt would work fine.

Finally, I was feeling lazy and instead of roasting oats for the top I added granola. I used Aldi’s Honey & Seed protein granola to add the honey element to the dessert.

It was really delicious. The base was incredible and the centre really fruity. I’d definitely make it again!

Serves 10

Ingredients:
Base:
8 Nairn’s finely milled oatcakes
6 digestive biscuits
60g light spread (I used flora light)

Cheesecake:
1 sachet Hartleys Sugar Free Raspberry jelly
1 sachet (12g) Dr. Oteker’s powdered gelatine
450g low fat vanilla yogurt (I used Rachel’s)
250g (1 tub) Lightest cream cheese (I used Waitrose)
2 Tbsp powdered sweetener
150g frozen raspberries (defrosted)

Coulis:
150g frozen strawberries (defrosted)
4 Tbsp granulated sweetener
1 tsp corn flour

Topping:
150g fresh raspberries
20g granola (I used Aldi honey & seed protein granola, you could also use toasted oats)

Method:
1. Add the two jelly/gelatine sachets to 150ml boiling water. Whisk well and leave to cool while preparing the rest
2. Blend/crush the oat cakes and digestives. Add them to a bowl. Melt the spread and then add to the biscuits. Stir to combine and then add it to the base of the cake tin. Push down and pack the biscuit crumbs together well and set aside.
3. Mix together the yogurt, cream cheese and powdered sweetener. Next, pour the cooled jelly into the yogurt mix and gently whisk/stir to combine.
4. Pour half of the yogurt mix on the of the base. Nearly scatter the defrosted raspberries on top. Finally pour the rest of the yogurt mixture over.
5. Place in the fridge to set overnight.
6. Blend the defrosted strawberries with powdered sweetener. Add the cornflour to 15ml water and stir into a paste.
7. Heat the blended strawberries in a pan and gently stir in the cornflour paste. Heat gently until the mix starts to boil and you’ll notice it go a very dark red. Remove from the heat and continue stirring until you’ve got a nice, thick coulis. Refrigerate it.
8. The following day, when the mix has set, add the coulis to the top and smooth over.
9. Leave the coulis to set for a bit on top of you can.
10. Before you’re ready to serve, decorate with the fresh raspberries and granola.

Macros per slice: 187 kcal (9P, 22C, 8F)

Pork and Beef Lean Meatballs

I love meatballs, however, my early attempts at them were never great. As time has gone on I’ve developed a recipe I really love so thought it was about time I wrote it down. I use both pork and beef to make the meatballs. The added pork helps keeps them juicy. I used 2 very meaty sausages, however, sausage meat or pork mince is fine too. Instead of breadcrumbs, I soak a slice of bread in milk. Make sure you don’t add too much milk or the mixture gets a bit wet. Alternatively you can use breadcrumbs, but I find the opposite happens and makes the balls dry, plus I don’t usually have breadcrumbs in the cupboard. I use a hand blender to blitz all of the mince up until it’s sticky. I’d say this is optional. Doing this gives you more of a Swedish meatball that holds together very well which I like.

When I roll out the balls I use 00 pasta/pizza flour. This is very fine flour. You could achieve this by sifting usual plain flour though. This helps shape the balls and also gives them a nice crispy outside like you often get with Swedish meatballs.

I find the best way to cook these is in an ActiFry in one of the basket attachements. Cook for 20 minutes turning them after 5 minutes to help with sticking. You can also cook them on a baking tray or on a wire rack over a baking tray or roasting tin in the oven.

Pork and Beef Lean Meatballs Recipe

Serves: 6 (48 balls, 8 balls per serving)

Ingredients:
500g 5% Beef Mince
175-200g lean pork mince (or 2 meaty, skinned sausages)
1 egg, beaten
1 slice bread cut into 1cm cubes
100ml milk
1tsp dried Oregano
1 diced birds eye chilli (or pinch of chilli flakes)
1 Tbsp fresh parsley
2 Tsp garlic paste
100g finely diced/minced onion
Salt and pepper
Splash of Hickory liquid smoke (optional)
Finely sieved flour

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200C (180C fan)
2. Soak the bread with the milk in a bowl and leave while you prepare the other ingredients.
3. Add all of the other ingredients (apart from the flour) into a big bowl and mix well. Add the bread to the mix after it’s had 10 minutes to soak.
4. Use a blender or hand blender to mince and combine everything so the mix is smooth.
5. Divide the mix into 6 and then divide again to make 8 balls from each batch. Use the flour to help roll the balls if the mixture is sticky.
6. Place on a baking tray with some fry light sprayed on the base to help prevent sticking.
7. Bake for 20 minutes, turning the balls half way through.

Delicious in a meatball calzone