Scones with jam and clotted cream are a classic afternoon tea snack here in the UK. You can find them anywhere from your nan’s house to pubs, fancy restaurants, and 5-star hotels. A scone is a humble little pasty that is neither bread nor cake, but something in between. It is light and crumbly, but it can withstand a good smearing with the thickened clotted cream.
Clotted cream is double (heavy) cream that is usually baked on a very low temperature for a very long time. Think less than 100C (210F) for about 12 hours. I don’t have that kind of patience and my electric bill has been destroying my walled this winter already, so I’ll show you how to make clotted cream the quick way.
Jam is the final element of this recipe, and it is also quick and easy to make. Three ingredients and 20 minutes later it’ll be ready. The jam recipe makes around 250g (8.8oz) jam. And the scone recipe makes 8 scones.
The clotted cream recipe makes around 300g (10.5oz) which is quite a lot, and definitely too much for the scones, so feel free to divide it in half to make less. The cooking time will be reduced in that case too. If you can’t find cream with 50% fat, then you can add butter to the mix to make up for it.
Watch the video down below for detailed instructions.
Ingredients
For the clotted cream –
600g (1.3lb) double (heavy) cream. The fattier the better. Mine was 50% fat.
For the jam –
500g (1.1lb) fresh strawberries or other berries of your choice
150g (5.3oz) white sugar
15g (0.53oz) fresh lemon juice
For the scones –
250g (8.8oz) plain white flour
5g (0.17oz) baking powder
15g (0.53oz) white sugar
3g (0.1oz) salt
50g (1.75oz) cold butter pieces
130g (4.6oz) milk
25g (0.9oz) egg. Half of a medium sized egg.
25g (0.9oz) egg for glazing. The other half of the egg leftover from the dough ingredients.
Method
- Make the clotted cream by boiling/simmering it until it has reduced by half and become thick. It will take around 15 minutes on medium heat. Pour it into a jar and cool in the fridge until completely set.
- Make the clotted cream by microwaving it three times in 4-minute increments on medium-high power until the cream has thickened and developed a yellow colour. Pour into a jar and leave in the fridge to cool until set.
- Make the jam by combining all ingredients in a pan and boiling/simmering for 20 minutes on medium-high heat until the jam has thickened, and you can draw a line through it with a spatula. Pour into a jar and leave in the fridge to cool down completely.
- Make the scones. In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Mix. Add the butter and crumble it in until the floury mix becomes sandy.
- Add the egg and milk to the dry ingredients and mix until there is no dry flour left. Dust the dough and the table generously with flour and scrape the dough out of the bowl and onto the floured table.
- Push the dough together to form a relatively smooth ball. Do not work the dough too much and do not knead it as it will become tougher the more you handle it.
- Flatted the dough either by hand or with a rolling pin to around 3cm (1.2in) thick. Cut with a 5cm (2in) cutter or any size cutter you have/prefer.
- Push the trimmings together sideways and then turn the dough on its side, flatten it again, and cut more scones out of it. Continue until you run out of dough.
- Glaze the scones with egg. Bake at 200C (390F) fan off for 18 minutes.
Leave to cool down and tuck in!
