Britain—Scones & Clotted Cream

British Tea Time

Scones & Clotted Cream
(Makes 12 pieces)

Delicious crumbly scones with thick, tangy clotted cream—the basis for the English "cream tea".

Scones 
2 1/4 C flour
1/2 C sugar plus
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
4 T butter
1 C cream (divided)
1 C fresh or frozen (left unthawed) blueberries
Sugar

Clotted cream
see 3 recipes below

Preheat oven to 425. In a large bowl, combine first 4 ingredients. Cut butter into mix until it resembles coarse meal. Reserve 2 T cream and add the remaining cream and berries to flour mix, stirring with a fork until a stiff dough forms.

On a floured surface, knead dough 5 or 6 times, roll into an 8” round and cut into 12 wedges. Place wedges on a greased baking sheet, pierce top with a fork and brush with reserved cream and sprinkle with extra sugar. Bake for 15-18 minutes. 

Serve with clotted cream, using any of our 3 recipes below. (Also see sidebar)
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1. Clotted Cream (follow either a or b) 
2 C whipping (heavy) cream

a) Pour cream in a double boiler over simmering water. Cook, uncovered, till it reduces almost by half and reaches the consistency of ricotta cheese. It will have a golden skin on top. Pour into a bowl (skin and all), set stand at room temperature for 2-3 hours, then cover and place in refrigerator overnight, or longer. When ready to use, stir in the skin, and pour into a bowl. Serve with scones...or just eat it with a spoon. 
 
b) pour cream into a coffee filter holder lined with a paper filter or a strainer lined with 4 layers of cheese cloth. Set over a bowl. Chill 2-3 hours, letting the whey drip through the bottom. From time to time, scrape and push cream down with a spatula. Cream should eventually reach the consistency of ricotta cheese.

2. Clotted Cream
1/2 C whipping (heavy) cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 T caster (superfine sugar)
1/2 C sour cream

Pour cream in a bowl, add vanilla and caster. Whip cream till it holds stiff peaks, then gently mix in sour cream. Pour into a small serving bowl and serve with scones.

3. Clotted Cream
1 C whipping (heavy) cream
1 tsp. vanilla
2 T caster (superfine sugar)
1/4 C mascarpone

Pour cream into a bowl, add vanilla and caster. Whip cream till it holds stipp peaks, then gently mix in mascarpone. Pour into a small bowl and serve with scones.

| See more British recipes |

Tips & Glossary

Clotted Cream: a thick yellowish cream made from unpasturized cow's milk. You can make your own, although it's hard to find unpasturized cream in the U.S. Still, you'll find 3 recipes under Scones. All use pasturized cream; try to avoid "ultra" pasturized.

Ploughman's Lunch: sounds romantic, like a peasant dish from medieval times, but it's a marketing gimmick from the 1970's! It's become a popular lunch in Britain now: a piece of bread, hunk of cheese, with onion, gherkin, and an apple. Our Ploughman's Soup is a take-off on that name.

Roux: (“roo”), paste-like mixture of melted butter and flour, into which liquid is gradually added. Used as a thickening agent for soups and all classic French sauces. Basic Roux: melt 1 part butter and add 1 part flour. Stir continuously till it becomes paste-like. Slowly add whatever liquid your recipe calls for.

Tea Time: Afternoon tea became fashionable in the mid-1600's. A light snack with sandwiches and sweets, it's served from 3-5 in a sitting room. High tea, is a light meal served from 5-6 in a dining room. ("High" because the dining table is higher than the low ones in a sitting room.)

Yorkshire Pudding: from the northern county of Yorkshire, originating in the early 1700s when flour was more readily available. A pancake like batter is spooned into the drippings of a roast as it cooks. Eaten alongside the roast or as a separate course.