There are multiple methods for making clotted cream, some less practical than others. I thought I would include several methods so you can choose one that is best for your needs.
No Cook Method
2 cups pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized) cream
Set a coffee filter basket, lined with a filter, in a strainer, over a bowl. Pour the cream almost to the top of the filter. Refrigerate for 2 hours. The whey will sink to the bottom passing through the filter leaving a ring of clotted cream. Scrape this down with a rubber spatula and repeat every couple of hours until the mass reaches the consistency of soft cream cheese.
Oven Method
2 cups pasteurized heavy cream
Turn the oven to warm. Pour the cream into a shallow pan such as a 9-inch pie plate. Cover with foil, then place it in the oven and leave untouched for 8 hours. (You can leave it overnight if you like.)
Carefully remove it and let cool. Take care not to shake the pan or move it while the cream is cooling. With a slotted spatula, skim the thick cream from the surface, leaving the thin residue behind. The cream will have a yellow skin and a slightly lumpy clotted texture. Smooth it by blending it with a teaspoon if you like.
Stovetop Method
Choose a wide, shallow earthenware pan. Strain very fresh milk into this & leave to stand, overnight if summertime or for twenty-four hours in cold weather. Then slowly, & without simmering, raise the temp. of the milk over a low heat until a solid ring starts to form around the edge. Without shaking the pan, very carefully remove it from the heat & leave overnight, or a little longer, in a cool place. The thick crust of cream can then be skimmed off the surface with a large spoon or a fish-slice.
Fake Clotted Cream
by
Sean Paajanen
8 oz cream cheese
12 oz sour cream
Juice from 1 lemon
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
Blend all incredients till smooth.
How to Use it on Scones
The Devonshire method: To prepare your scone (which ideally would be warm) you would first split it in two, horizontally. Then, what was the centre of the scone on each half would be covered with about half an inch of clotted cream. More than this would be too sickly and with less there wouldn't be enough for the scone. Then, you'd add a teaspoon of jam (traditionally strawberry) to the top of each half.
Cornish method: first butter the scone so that the butter melts into it. Then spread with a layer of jam. Then finally, add a large spoon of Cornish clotted cream on the top. This method has one bonus - your cream doesn't slide off - but the drawback is you get less cream.
What is it?
Originally, clotted cream was only produced in the Westcountry - this is where the rich soil, mild climate and the right breed of cattle came together to create milk with a high enough cream content to produce clotted cream. Even today when clotted cream is in greater demand (and available at supermarkets!) it will almost always be made in Devon, Cornwall, Somerset. If you exclude the modern milk processes and vegetable fat substitutes then there are only three types of cream - single, double and clotted. Each of these gets increasingly richer, thicker and luxurious.
Before the days of pasteurisation, the milk from the cows was left to stand for several hours so that the cream would rise to the top. Then this cream was skimmed and put into big pans. The pans were then floated in trays of constantly boiling water in a process known as scalding. The cream would then become much thicker and develop a golden crust which is similar to butter. Today however, the cream is extracted by a separator which extracts the cream as it is pumped from the dairy to the holding tank. The separator is a type of centrifuge which extracts the surplus cream at the correct quantity so that the milk will still have enough cream to be classified as milk.
This history and the methods to the right provided by Broadway House B&B in Devon, England