Clotted cream is not a part of my own traditional food culture but it is a forgotten skill in everyday cooking and is so gorgeous and so easy to make that it is really worth doing every now and then.
You can make clotted cream on any stove or in a cool oven—just make sure the heat is low. Even a temperature as low as 110°F will do!
It's best to use unpasteurized cream like they do in Devon and Cornwall, where clotted cream has its own appellation.
You can use gently pasteurized cream, but homogenized cream or cream that has been ultra-pasteurized will not work for this recipe.
Recipe information
Yield
Makes about 1 1/4 cups
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Heat the cream in a heavy sauté pan and gently on the lowest heat for 5-6 hours, by which time it will have a rich, deep-yellow, wrinkled crust (use a diffuser mat if necessary). The cream must not boil or simmer.
Step 2
Let the cream cool overnight, but preferably not in a fridge (I leave it in a cold pantry).
Step 3
Next day, lift off the crust, or "clout" as my Cornish son-in-law calls it. Spoon the cream into sterilized glass jars, cover, and store in the fridge. The clotted cream is on top; thick cream left over when the clotted cream is removed can be used as heavy cream and it keeps for ages—several weeks at least.
Step 4
If your stove doesn't go low enough, then put the cream into an earthenware bowl, set it in a bain-marie, and proceed as above.
