Okay, "clotted" sounds awkward, but TRUST me, clotted cream is a divine British secret. Whether you slather it in scones, bread, or whatever you would like, it's like an elevated cream. Thick & creamy, slightly buttery, and somehow still light in flavor as well. It's delightful!!! Also, it's super easy to make, as long as you don't mind your oven being on all day/night. But it is kind of like using a slow-cooker, right?
The recipe is here, and pictures of the process are below.
Ingredients:
2-4 cups heavy cream (33-35% fat); ideally a plain cream where the ingredients are just “cream”, or “cream, milk”
Directions:
Note: A heavy cream with a stabilizer, such as carrageenan will still work for this recipe, the result will look slightly different but taste very good!
Preheat the oven to 175 or 180°F.
Prepare a ceramic, glass, or Pyrex dish. A 9x13” pan works well for 4 cups of cream, but a smaller pan is better for 2-3 cups cream (e.g. 9” round, or 8x8” square, 9x9” square.) Essentially, the cream should be ½ to 1 inch deep (which you can test with a spoon or your finger.)
Cook, uncovered, for 12 hours. My oven has an automatic shut-off at 12 hours, yours may have that as well.
Let cool completely at room temperature (about 1-2 hours) and then cover and refrigerated.
Once chilled, scoop the thicker cream and golden layer on top into a clean jar or container. Discard the liquid at the bottom.
Cream can be stored in the refrigerator up to 6 days, or frozen up to one month. It is great with scones, for a proper British experience, but I also recommend experimenting!
Note: I have made this with local (plain) cream, and with grocery store cream with the carrageenan stabilizer. The liquid you have at the bottom when you make it with local cream looks more like milk, while the liquid with a cream with carrageenan kind of looks like shower gel (or cornstarch thickened water). The texture and flavor of the clotted cream (thicker cream on top) is similar between the two, however. I can recommend using the leftover liquid if using plain cream in other baked goods, but you should definitely discard the leftover liquid if using a cream with carrageenan.
Using a cream with a stabilizer:
The cream I used with carrageenan, milk, and cream as ingredients.
Pour into a baking dish.
The cream should be about 1/2 to 1 inch thick. I had about 3 cups of cream here. It's ready to slow cook!
After slow cooking.
After covering and chilling.
Scoop the thicker cream off the top, like this.
Scoop all the thick cream into a jar. The liquid at the bottom you see left in the pan needs to be discarded. It's thick because of the stabilizer (carrageenan).
The finished clotted cream!
Using a cream without a stabilizer:
It will look the same on top.
But the cream layer may be thicker, and the liquid at the bottom looks more like milk. You can discard this liquid or use it in baking!
The finished clotted cream!