Devonshire Clotted Cream

[Dianemwj]

When I was in Plymouth, the friend I was visiting insisted on taking me to an authentic tea house for a proper English tea. I had clotted cream, jam, scones and, of course tea. I fell in love with the clotted cream, but it is impossible to find here. Has anyone ever made it? I've seen a few recipes, all with different techniques, but I haven't tried one yet. Anyone have a recipe?

 

[Berties]

i have never made it due to i can just buy trays or tubes of a trade name called rhoda,which is consistent and very good
The problem you will have is the quality of the cream and milk you use will have to be the best ,and I'm sure the quality of the ingredients is the key
,worth having a look at a few recipes to see what the common use is
the crust of the clotted cream is one of the pleasures of the gods......................

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

There are plenty of recipes online with instructions on how to make it. Most seem to use full fat milk and cream. Nothing more.

This one is Nigella Lawson's recipe. http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/clotted-cream-2214
This one just uses heavy cream http://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/2013/08/clotted-cream-scones/ (The recipe is a long way in, just before the scones recipes.)

 

[Morning Glory]

There are plenty of recipes online with instructions on how to make it. Most seem to use full fat milk and cream. Nothing more.

This one is Nigella Lawson's recipe. http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/clotted-cream-2214
This one just uses heavy cream http://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/2013/08/clotted-cream-scones/ (The recipe is a long way in, just before the scones recipes.)

The first recipe isn't actually Nigella's, its a community recipe on her website and so you need to be aware its not tested by Nigella's team. I'm not saying it won't work though! I think you really would need top quality creamy milk and as the recipe suggests, even then you would need to add cream. Here we can get Jersey full cream milk which is very rich - I'm not sure whether you can get anything similar in US.

 

[Morning Glory]

This recipe (in pictures) seems very simple and the result looks completely authentic. It uses only full-fat milk. I recognise the brand of the bottle of milk at the beginning (even though the label is turned away!).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/devon/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8744000/8744481.stm

 

[Berties]

I looked at the nigella recipe and the comments made me say it was not as sound as some of her recipes
If it's the fact of just of milk and cream in a double boiler , or even a slow cooker
Then happy days , but as I said the quality of the cream and milk
Is a must , my friend who is a milk advisor , what ever that is
Is always stressing about the quality of raw milk for certain products, but it goes over my head in the end as he goes into so much detail and he takes to long!
It's another case of simple to do and easy to get wrong

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

The first recipe isn't actually Nigella's, its a community recipe on her website and so you need to be aware its not tested by Nigella's team. I'm not saying it won't work though! I think you really would need top quality creamy milk and as the recipe suggests, even then you would need to add cream. Here we can get Jersey full cream milk which is very rich - I'm not sure whether you can get anything similar in US.

Apologies for missing the community thing, you are right on that, but I can't see anything with the comments that suggests it is not going to work . The you need whole milk comment to me is blindly obvious when you are making cream - the last thing you want is a milk that has had some or most of the cream removed from it. I had assumed that that bit was obvious.

Perhaps I need to go off and have another coffee

 

[Morning Glory]

The you need whole milk comment to me is blindly obvious when you are making cream - the last thing you want is a milk that has had some or most of the cream removed from it. I had assumed that that bit was obvious.

Perhaps I need to go off and have another coffee

Yeah, it is obvious that you need whole milk - suppose I was trying to make a distinction between the common whole milk in the supermarket and the full cream type milks (gold top), which are more like milk used to be (you used to be able to see the layer of cream at the top of the bottle). The one the woman is using in the BBC photographs is:

 

[Dianemwj]

Thanks everyone, for your help. Whole cream milk is not available in our supermarkets, but we do have Whole Foods here. I never thought of going there. That' a great idea. I'll check them out. Also our cream is nearly always ultra-pasteurized and I think I need the kind that isn't. Maybe Whole Foods will have that too. Meanwhile, I'll start looking for a recipe I like. Thanks again.

 

[Diane Lane]

I've heard of clotted cream, but have never seen or tasted it. I'd prefer to know what it's comparable to (or most closely resembles) before trying one or more recipes, so I'd know what to expect. Is it sweet or bland? Does it resemble cream cheese? Is it spreadable?

 

[Morning Glory]

I've heard of clotted cream, but have never seen or tasted it. I'd prefer to know what it's comparable to (or most closely resembles) before trying one or more recipes, so I'd know what to expect. Is it sweet or bland? Does it resemble cream cheese? Is it spreadable?

Not sweet, or only as much as natural cream would be. Maybe a little sweeter because its so concentrated. Not cheesy in taste at all. Its thick, very thick and sumptuous. You don't spread it because the whole point is that it can retain its piled up shape. It looks like this:


Its lovely with fruit, or fruit crumbles (think that's fruit crisps in US?), or even with Christmas pudding. Blimey, you've got me craving for it now!

 

[Crumpet]

I use a pint of heavy cream a pinch of salt and a small amount of powdered sugar. whisk it with the electric whisker until it reaches the desired consistency.
Blummin lovely with scones and jam!