Clotted Cream Recipe: How to Make Clotted Cream
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: Oct 5, 2024 • 3 min read
Clotted cream is a rich and spreadable cream often served in England alongside tea and scones.
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What Is Clotted Cream?
A type of spreadable thick cream, clotted cream tastes similar to butter. It has a thick and silky texture that makes it spreadable. It most likely originated around Southwest England in Cornwall or Devon, which is why it is often referred to as Devonshire cream, devon cream, or Cornish cream. Clotted cream is very similar to the taste and feel of buttermilk cream or whipped cream but is more subtle in flavor and smoother in texture.
Homemade clotted cream is made by slowly heating and then cooling unpasteurized cow’s milk or heavy cream. This process allows the fat to rise out of the heavy cream and separate from the liquid content. This means that clotted cream has a higher fat content than other creams like cream cheese, sour cream, mascarpone, or crème fraîche.
You can find clotted cream at some grocery stores, but homemade clotted cream recipes are easy to follow, even if it’s your first time. If you want to make authentic and real clotted cream, consider visiting a local dairy farm where you might find organic unpasteurized heavy cream.
What Goes Well With Clotted Cream?
Clotted cream has a soft texture and a subtle butter flavor, which makes it a perfect complement to many sweet pastries, sugary treats, and jams:
- Scones: The scone, a baked biscuit-like pastry, is the traditional British pairing for clotted cream, especially at tea time or for brunch. The scone is split down the middle, spread with a dollop of clotted cream, and topped with a sweet jam.
- Tea: In England, morning or afternoon tea time and tea parties are a common social engagement, and clotted cream is almost always served as a condiment alongside scones, strawberry jam, or lemon curd. This tradition is often called “cream tea.”
- Ice cream: Clotted cream can be added to ice cream recipes to add a buttery and rich flavor.
- Muffins: Muffins are a close cousin to scones and pair well with a spread of clotted cream for the buttery flavor.
- Chocolate and fudge: Adding clotted cream to treats like fudge can give the chocolate a smooth and silky texture.
How To Make Clotted Cream
makes
Roughly 2 cups clotted creamprep time
5 mintotal time
16 hr 15 mincook time
8 hrIngredients
- 1
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Alternatively, prepare a slow cooker, Crock Pot, or Instant Pot at the lowest settings. You may want to use a thermometer to check that the temperature never exceeds 180 degrees.
- 2
Pour heavy whipping cream into an oven-safe baking dish and place in the oven, or pour directly into your slow cooker. Cook for 8 hours.
- 3
Remove the cream from the oven or turn off your slow cooker. The thick layer of yellow skin on the top layer of the mixture is the clotted cream, which needs to cool before being skimmed off. Let it sit for 10 minutes or until it reaches room temperature, and then place directly into the refrigerator and leave until the next day or for a minimum of 8 hours.
- 4
Remove the refrigerated mixture and place it on a flat surface area. Skim the thick clotted cream from the top to separate from the liquid underneath. Store in a container and refrigerate. The shelf life for clotted cream is roughly 3–5 days, but you can freeze it in an airtight container for a month or longer. The remaining whey liquid can be saved for other baking applications, such as for making scones or biscuits.
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