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Clotted Creammmmmmmm

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Have just had an email back from Aga, I asked if they could tell me how to make Clotted Cream, doesnt look too difficult. Has anyone else made any?? I am not planning to do it until AFTER I have my cholesterol test (had to cancel appt last week :oops: )although I think I shall try the butter first!

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I don't think you boil it. I think the heat has to be pretty low. My late Mum used to tell me how, when she lived on a farm as a child, they would make clotted cream by floating bowls of milk in the boiling water of the dairy boiler, so I guess it is scalded rather than boiled. I expect that using a high-cream content milk such as jersey or guernsey would be even better.

 

Mum said they used to have the clotted cream on their porridge...when she grew up she couldn't work out why the porridge she made never tasted as nice as that from her childhood until she realized she was not putting clotted cream on it!!! :D:D

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Apologies, I couldn't find the recipe anywhere but after reading your posts again remembered that I used to put the milk in a large casserole with sticky out handles over a large saucepan of simmering water - lowest heat possible. It takes quite a long time, but the results are worth it.

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hmmm this sounds like an Aga "must try" to me......

 

Off to the shop for some full cream milk (oh just remembered there is no shop and cream is full of CALORIES!)

 

Damn, I was looking forward to that!

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here is my reply from Richard Maggs...the Aga Recipe Doctor ???

 

It is perfectly possible to make delicious clotted cream at home, but it does take a little trouble. In fact, it actually takes a whole gallon of rich, creamy milk to produce a scant pound of clotted cream and the process takes some time. So it is not for the feint-hearted. You will also have the by-product of about two pints of thin milk suitable for use in cooking. The reason that Cornish clotted cream is so wonderfully unctuous is that they use the unpasteurised milk from their Jersey cows that produce the richest and creamiest milk in the UK. As with most dairy recipes, it is important to make sure that all your equipment is scrupulously clean and to be meticulous with respect to timing and temperature control. Consistency of temperature throughout the different stages is of the utmost importance; it is better to maintain slightly too high or low a temperature for a particular period than subject the cream to fluctuations for the best results. A cheap dairy thermometer is recommended to prevent expensive mistakes, available from all good kitchen shops.

 

Naturally, unpasteurised milk should be used if it is obtainable (it cannot legally be sold any more). I learned to make clotted cream from the late Dorothy Sleightholme, a Yorkshire woman with distinctly Cornish tastes when it came to dairy matters, and her method below keeps the method as simple as possible. It includes the traditional method below, but a very good result can be made at home using pasteurised double cream. Watch out for the staff with the yellow sticker gun at the supermarket and buy when the cream is being reduced. Cream such as this, that is still perfectly useable, but not as fresh as the latest delivery, is absolutely perfect for making clotted cream.

 

The first the essential equipment requirement is a wide, shallow pan into which you will pour your day old milk. A wide shallow maslin pan is the best shape to select if available, otherwise use a normal preserving pan but only use a shallow quantity in it. The large surface area is important as this is where the clotted cream will form. Scald the pan first by rinsing out with boiling water and allow to cool upturned before adding the creamy milk. Leave the milk in the pan, covered with a clean tea towel at room temperature overnight at approx. 12B0 C (55B0 F). A utility room b certainly not a room with an Aga and one without any refrigerator or freezer b is probably best. Left undisturbed for 12-24 hours in the cool the cream will naturally rise to the top. (If using double cream you can obviously dispense with this 12-24 hour settling period.)

 

Now the pan should be carefully placed over another containing hot water and this should be placed on the simmering plate. Do not allow the water to touch the base of the bowl. Allow the pan to heat very gently so that the cream reaches a temperature of approx. 82B0 C (180B0 F), and hold it at this temperature for about an hour. To do this easily, once it is reached, carefully partially offset the lower pan on the simmering plate to give a very gentle rate of heating. Keep it covered with a clean tea towel. If a crust seems slow to form, leave for a little longer to develop.

 

The cream on the top will eventually form a thick, rich, crinkled and straw-coloured crusty skin. When that happens, remove the pan and allow it to cool over several hours, covered with a clean tea towel. Once cool enough, transfer the pan to the refrigerator and leave overnight where at this temperature the cream will thicken further. When quite cold, use a perforated skimmer or shallow spoon to skim off the crust which is, of course, your delicious clotted cream. If you manage to get the skin off in one piece, you will have what is traditionally called cabbage cream, as it somewhat resembles a wrinkled cabbage leaf.

 

As well as enjoying clotted cream with fresh warm scones, it can also be used as an ingredient. If you would like to try cooking with it, there are two recipes which are worthy of note. Florence White, in Good Things in England (Jonathan Cape, 1932) advises that Sally Lunns should always be made with clotted cream instead of butter, and that the cooked delicacies should be split and filled with more clotted cream whilst they are still warm. Her excellent book is currently available as a facsimile paperback reprint from Persephone Press and is highly recommended. Elizabeth David also gives a delicious recipe for Devonshire Cake, which is a variation on the traditional Cornish saffron cake, and it is quite the best saffron and fruit bread ever. She gives the recipe in her wonderful English Bread and Yeast Cookery (1979, Penguin Books).

 

If you try it PLEASE let us know how it goes... :drool:

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The temperature seems to have come out funny. Do you know what it should be?

 

I am a little confused now as to weather to use milk or double cream. You would imagin you would get more from cream?

 

The first bit of the recipe is for starting with creamy milk - probably best if you have a house cow! :D You won't have to do that if you start with cream.....

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so far as the temperatures go I took the first one to be 12 degrees centigrade (55 degrees farenheit) you double it then add 30. BUT the second temp doesn't convert exactly so I would aim between the 2 I'm sure my grandmother didnt use a thermometer she didnt use scales either 8)

Milk v Cream I have no idea about I'm afraid. If I find some reduced cream I shall try that, otherwise I know this......... of course I shall borrow it not buy it :shameonu:

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