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Cranachan Cheesecake

     Unfortunately, I'm not Scottish, and neither am I overly familiar with whisky. I am, however, a fan of Cranachan, a Scots pudding that involves cream, raspberries, oats and honey, and of course a nip of wonderful Scots whisky. I devised this recipe from a basic cheesecake we once made at school (can't beat a bit of food tech sometimes) with the aforementioned ingredients snuck in.

175g oaty biscuits (hobnobs or own-brand equivalent), crushed
50g butter
2tb honey
200ml creme fraiche
200g cottage cheese
1 large egg
1tsp vanilla essence
3tb whisky (or more to taste, you cheeky thing)
small handful of raspberries

     It's best to use a loose-based cake tin for this, otherwise it could be pretty difficult to excavate the cheesecake. Melt the butter and take off the heat before mixing in your runny honey and those crushed biscuits. This should hold together, but you can play with the exact consistency by adding more oats for a crisper base or more honey for a squishier one. Pack this into the base of your tin, and throw your raspberries on top, however many you like.
     For the filling, mix the creme fraiche, cottage cheese, egg and vanilla together, then the whisky, one tablespoon at a time (to avoid the cream curdling), mixing thoroughly. Pass this through a sieve a couple of times to get rid of the lumps, and pour over your base and raspberries, hopefully covering the raspberries completely, but it's not the end of the world if not. Bake at 200 degrees for about 40 minutes, but depending on the exact thickness this can be a lot longer (mine took nearly 2 hours!) you really want it to be firm most of the way through, so give it a jiggle every time you check it.
     Best served at room temperature or cold, you could stick some raspberry coulis or cream on top, or just serve it naked with a wee tot of the strong stuff

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