Burns Night recipes: Three delicious desserts to celebrate the life of poet Robert Burns

Burns Night is traditionally celebrated with haggis, neeps (turnips) and tatties (potatoes) all washed down with a wee dram.

If you love desserts and have a sweet tooth, these Burns Night inspired desserts will have you grabbing your apron and legging it into the kitchen ready to bake.

The first recipe is for Ecclefechan tarts with a rich butter pastry shell filled with dried fruit, walnuts and citrus flavours. They’re similar to mince pies, so if you have any jars of leftover mince pie filling from Christmas, feel free to use a few tablespoons in this mixture.

The second recipe is for a tantalising Tipsy Laird Cake that is a real showstopper filled with creamy custard and fresh raspberries.

Finally, a twist on a teatime classic makes Spiced Drambuie Millionaire’s Shortbread a real joy to eat at any time of the day.

These recipes from Drambuie can be enjoyed on Burns Night and are also great leftovers as an afternoon pick-me-up during the week.

Drambuie Ecclefechan Tarts

Serves: 12

Preparation time: 25 minutes, plus chilling time

Cooking time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients

For the pastry

200g plain flour

65g butter, cubed

75g caster sugar

Zest of 1 orange

1 large egg yolk

For the filling

60g butter, melted

100g soft dark brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tbsp orange juice

3 tbsp Drambuie Honeyed Liqueur

150g mixed dried fruit

50g walnuts, roughly chopped

Zest of 1 orange

Method

1. To make the pastry, rub the flour and butter together until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
2. Add sugar, orange zest, then add the egg yolk and 1.5 tablespoons of ice-cold water.
3. Bring together with your hands to form a dough.
4. Sprinkle with a little more ice-cold water if the pastry is still too crumbly. Roll into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 180ºC / 160ºC fan.
6. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to 3mm thickness.
7. Using a 7.5cm round cutter, stamp out 12 circles.
8. Press the pastry into the holes of a 12-hole cake tin and prick the bases with a fork. Place in the fridge while you prepare the filling.
9. Mix all of the filling ingredients together until combined then spoon into the pastry cases.
10. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden and puffed up.
11. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
12. Can be served warm or room temperature. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Drambuie Tipsy Laird Cake

Serves: 10

Preparation time: 50 minutes, plus chilling time

Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients

For the sponge

240g unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing

240g caster sugar

4 large eggs

340g self-raising flour

150ml milk

Zest of 1 orange

90ml Drambuie Honeyed Liqueur

90ml orange juice

2 tbsp raspberry jam

100g fresh raspberries

For the custard

225ml whole milk

225ml double cream

40g unsalted butter

30g cornflour

4 large egg yolks

80g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla paste

For the cream

300ml double cream

2 tbsp icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla paste

To decorate

25g flaked almonds, toasted

Handful fresh raspberries

Method

1. To make the cake, preheat the oven to 180ºC / 160ºC fan. Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin.
2. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time, sprinkling in a tablespoon of flour after adding each one.
4. Add the rest of the flour and mix, then stir in the milk and orange zest.
5. Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake in the oven for about 60 minutes until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
6. Allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes then remove from the tin and leave to cool completely on a cooling rack.
7. Meanwhile make the custard. (Skip the custard making steps if using shop bought custard.) Gently bring the milk, cream and butter to a simmer in a small pan.
8. Put the cornflour into a bowl, add a little of the hot milk and mix together to make a loose paste. Whisk this into the rest of the hot milk.
9. In a larger bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla.
10. Pour the hot milk into the egg and sugar mixture and whisk together. Pour into a pan and gently cook over a low heat, stirring continuously for 5-10 minutes, until thickened.
11. Remove from the heat, pour into a bowl and leave to cool completely.
12. When the cake has cooled completely, place a saucer on top of the centre of the cake and cut round it with sharp knife, to a depth of half the cake.
13. Use the sharp knife to cut cubes of the cake from the centre and remove.
14. Put a large handful of the cake squares in a bowl and drizzle with 30ml of the Drambuie Honeyed Liqueur and 30ml orange juice. Set aside.
15. Drizzle the inside of the cake with the remaining Drambuie Honeyed Liqueur and orange juice.
16. Spread the inside of the cut-out cake with the raspberry jam.
17. Scatter in the soaked cake squares and the raspberries.
18. Pour the custard into the centre of the cake.
19. Chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours or overnight until the custard has set.
20. When you are ready to serve the cake, whisk the double cream with the icing sugar and vanilla paste until it holds soft peaks, then spoon onto the top of the cake.
21. Scatter over the toasted almonds and fresh raspberries.

Spiced Drambuie Millionaire’s Shortbread

Serves: 20

Preparation time: 25 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

For the shortbread

200g plain flour

50g caster sugar

150g butter, cubed

1 tsp ground mixed spice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

50g fudge pieces, broken into small chips/pieces

For the caramel

200g butter

75g caster sugar

3 tbsp golden syrup

397g sweetened condensed milk

1.5 tbsp Drambuie Honeyed Liqueur

For the chocolate

150g dark chocolate, broken into pieces

75g white chocolate, broken into pieces

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC / 160ºC fan.
2. Grease and line a 20cm square baking tin.
3. In a bowl, mix together the flour, mixed spiced, ground cinnamon and caster sugar.
4. Rub in the butter until it looks like fine breadcrumbs.
5. Stir in the fudge pieces then bring together with your hand to form a dough.
6. Press into the base of the prepared baking tin.
7. Prick with a fork all over and bake in the oven for 20 minutes until lightly browned.
8. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely in the tin.
9. To make the caramel, place the butter, sugar, golden syrup and condensed milk in a pan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.
10. Turn up the heat and bring to the boil, then lower the heat until it’s simmering and stir for 5-10 minutes until thickened.
11. Stir through the Drambuie Honeyed Liqueur, then pour into the cake tin on top of the shortbread.
12. Leave to cool completely at room temperature.
13. For the topping, melt both the dark chocolate and the white chocolate in heatproof bowls, over a pan of barely simmering water, ensuring the bowls don’t touch the water. Remove from the heat.
14. Pour the dark chocolate over the cooled caramel. Using a teaspoon drop spoonfuls of the white chocolate randomly over the dark chocolate and using a skewer, swirl it around to create patterns in the top of the chocolate. Leave to set hard.
15. Once set, cut into fingers using a sharp knife.

For more stories where you live visit InYourArea.