Kooky's Burns' Night Cranachan with Total 0% Fat Free Greek Yoghurt

When the lovely people at TOTAL Greek Yoghurt offered me some products to try for my blog, I had this exact recipe in mind.

So, why is this Kooky's Cranachan ? Well, firstly, I do have some Scottish heritage. My paternal grandmother was born a 'Johnson' and hailed from Scotland.

Secondly, in the course of my research, I have seen Cranachan made with strawberries and raspberries, but nowhere did I see a Cranachan made with tayberries ! Unbelievable.

To quote Wikipedia: "The tayberry was patented by Derek L. Jennings of Dundee, Scotland, and released in 1979 by the Scottish Horticultural Research Institute, Invergowrie, Scotland. The tayberry was named after the river Tay in Scotland."

Could there be a better fruit to use ? Of course, you can't buy a tayberry in the shops, they are not produced commercially as they are notoriously difficult to harvest, so that's why I grow my own. I love them baked in crumbles and fresh on my breakfast, or with meringues. They are a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry, so this is a perfect desert for Burns' Night later this week. Of course, the tayberry season is long passed, but I pick mine and freeze them to use later in the year. Yum!

Ingredients

600g tayberries (or raspberries, if you have no tayberries)
50ml cassis liqeuer
25g caster sugar
50g Oatmeal
50g light brown soft sugar
500g Fat Free Greek Yoghurt (I used Total 0% Fat Free Authentic Greek Yoghurt)
4 sprigs fresh mint, to decorate (optional)
2tbsp icing sugar (adjust to taste)
1tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Heat the tayberries with the caster sugar and the liqueur. My tayberries were frozen so they yielded a lot of juice. Not a bad thing ! Reduce the fruit mixture until it is nice and syrupy. You can also use Framboise (raspberry) liqueur as an alternative to cassis, (blackcurrant).

2. Combine the light brown sugar and oatmeal in a saucepan, and warm over a medium heat until the sugar caramelizes and 'coats the oats'. Keep an eye on it so that the sugar does not over-caramelize - e.g. burn (I know this recipe is for Burns' Night, but all the same, burnt sugar is not nice..Ok, I know, that was a really, really, poor joke.). Once it is looking and smelling nice and toasty, remove from the hob, tip the sugary oats onto a non-stick baking sheet and leave to cool.

3. In a bowl combine the yoghurt, icing sugar and vanilla extract.

4. When the fruit and oats are nice and cool, you are ready to serve. Take 4 suitable serving receptacles - e.g. small clear glasses or sundae dishes and layer tayberries and juice, or your chosen fruit, followed by a layer of yoghurt (about a 1.5cm layer), swirl a spoonful of the oatmeal mix through the yoghurt, repeat the layers until you run out of ingredients, or reach the top of the glass !!

5. Add the little mint sprig if you desire. Or just go ahead and enjoy !

The crunch of the oats, and the sweet and sour hit of the yoghurt and fruit make this a delicious dessert.

Using Total 0% Fat Free Authentic Greek Yoghurt makes it a perfect, low fat, protein rich dessert, which is just about perfect for runners like me !