Brielle's Avalon

I didn’t grow up drinking tea. There are several reasons for this, cultural, family, personal, but that’s another story. Still, I played with tea sets as a kid and the idea of tea time and tea ceremonies flitted through my mind a various times. Selling pottery once-upon-a-time gave us the opportunity to sell other things, including tea, to go along with our wares. That was when I discovered tea, real tea, not the wimpy bags of leaf dust that make washwater-tasting dirty liquid. Now I drink tea regularly. Not every day, but often.

I’ve also learned to make scones. Jam, whether home-made (especially with home-grown produce!) or store-bought is also a common, if not necessary, part of tea time. I bought some Devonshire cream a while back. It was lovely. Now I’m experimenting with making my own clotted cream. Wish me luck! Skip to the bottom for the oven method of making clotted cream. I’m sure you should only call this Devonshire cream if you make it in Devonshire or are from there, but as a cross reference there it is.

Use the highest butterfat content cream you can find.

Take a cup or more of cream, put it in a bowl and put that bowl over a pan of water. Don’t let the bowl touch the water. Bring the water to a boil and let it go for about an hour. The recipe I found said 16 oz (2 cups) and simmer at 180 degrees, but I can’t find my candy thermometer so I’m winging it. For an hour.

Remove the bowl from the heat and allow to cool then cover and refrigerate for 8 to 12 hours, or overnight.

Skim the clotted cream off the top and serve with scones and jam.

The top stuff was kind of stiff. Maybe I over-cooked it? So I took out any thickened stuff from the bowl with it and whipped it up with a hand mixer. The consistency wasn’t as thick as I’d expected, but was useable and delicious. Next time I try this I will have either found my candy thermometer or bought another one.

Split a scone and add cream

Then add jam. Strawberry is traditional, or so I’ve heard.

Other jams are nice, like figgy jam (on the left) or blackberry (on the right)

And honey works as well. Of course you can put the jam on first (on the left)

Of course, once you do this you will be part of the eternal discussion, does the jam go on first or does the cream? If your in Cornwall or Devon this will be an important distinction. When in Cornwall, do the jam first. When in Devon, put the cream on first…or so I’ve heard. Apparently the Cornish way is followed in London and elsewhere. If in doubt, wait for your host to act first and follow their lead.

I tried an alternative method of making clotted cream the other night. I used the oven. Even easier, if longer, but it was basically made while I slept. I used a glass casserole dish, put a pint of cream in it and set it in the middle of the oven on the lowest setting, 175, for 8-12 hours. In the morning I let it cool in the oven. Once it was cool enough to handle I took it out, skimmed off the thickened stuff at the top and put it into a clean ice cream container. he very top was kind of tan and hard-ish but after mixing it in it recombined well and, once refrigerated, it was all nicely sturdy and homogenous.

I added the leftover un-clotted cream to the buttermilk from the day before and used it in the scones the next Saturday. Don’t waste this stuff, it’s fabulous! I’m sure it would be wonderful in making cakes, too.