Competition is often strongest among people who have a history between them, such as old friends, siblings and ex-spouses. This can lead to each party trying to outdo the other in order to be the winner, often going to extreme lengths. Last month I met an old friend and as we sat catching up, the conversation turned to the summer we had spent in the south west of England. It was here that we had discovered the recipe for clotted cream and had spent a lot of time perfecting it.
If you are one of those people who struggle to correctly follow a recipe clotted cream is one of the simplest things to make. There are various recipes for clotted cream which are available and most of them are very easy to follow. My friend and I had tried out different ones over the years and now we sat there comparing which ones had worked out the best.
Clotted cream has been around for such a long time but some people have never even heard about it, let alone tried it. For the uninitiated, the first taste can seem to be a taste of heaven, or feel too rich and heavy, depending on the individual preferences. Clotted cream produced commercially in Devon Cornwall and Somerset England. It is a thick, rich, yellowish cream with a scalded or cooked flavour that is made by heating unpasteurized milk until a thick layer of cream forms on its surface. The milk is then cooled and the layer of cream is skimmed off. Clotted cream has 55-60 per cent fat content and is so thick it does not need to be whipped.
If you do decide to try out a recipe for clotted cream at home, then begin by taking unpasteurized cream and letting it stand for about 12 hours (during the winter months) or 6 hours (during the warm summer months). Then to sterilize the cream; place the cream over very low heat (do not boil) until rings form on the surface of the cream. Store in a cold place for at least 12 hours and then skim the thick clotted cream from the surface of the cream. This is the clotted cream and the content that is left can be used in baking instead of being wasted. The clotted cream will keep in the fridge for a few days and make sure that you keep it in an airtight container so that it does not absorb any smells from the fridge.
Using recipes for clotted cream which have been tried and tested is the best way to get good results. The clotted cream that you will end up with should be thick and yellowish in colour. The taste is very rich and it is also a sweet cream. The perfect place to use this is as an accompaniment to homemade scones which are still warm from the oven and served with strawberry jam as an option for the traditional English cream tea.
Kellys Clotted Cream Ice Cream UK 