Delicious homemade English scones and clotted cream

Scones with clotted cream and jam are traditionally served for English afternoon tea. There are many different recipes for scones using different ingredients, but the way to prepare them always remains the same. Clotted cream, on the other hand, is not easily found outside the United Kingdom. Find out how easy it is to make yourself with my recipe for scones and clotted cream!

How do I make scones?

As already mentioned, the preparation basically remains the same every time: you mix dry ingredients with butter to form a crumble, add liquid, roll out the dough and press out rounds that you bake in the oven. Piece of cake!

Scones with buttermilk

I use milk and buttermilk in my recipe. I leave out the cream and eggs to get a lighter pastry. I also reduce the amount of butter to a minimum. Want gluten-free scones? Then replace the flour with a mixture of ½ rice flour, ¼ oat flour and ¼ tapioca flour.

Ingredients for 12 scones

350 g flour
60 g sugar
20 g baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
100 g unsalted, cold butter
100 ml buttermilk
100 ml milk
1 egg for finishing

Ingredients for the clotted cream

500 ml cream with a fat content of 40%

Step 1: making the crumble

Heat the oven to 220°C.

First mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and the salt in a mixing bowl, e.g. of a food processor. Then cut the butter into small cubes and add it to the dry ingredients. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips, but be careful not to overheat the mixture. You need a crumble, not a sticky paste.
Step 2: making the dough

Next, pour the milk and buttermilk into the crumble. If you have a food processor, pulse the dough a few times until everything stays together. You can also use a spatula.

Then place the dough on a work surface and mix it together a little more. Six to eight turns should be sufficient.
Step 3: making circles

Now roll out the dough to a thickness of 2 to 3 cm. Then push out 12 rounds with a cutter. Ideally the cutter has a diameter of 5 cm. Place the rounds of dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Beat the egg with a tablespoon of water and a pinch of salt. Brush the egg glaze on top of the unbaked scones.
Step 4: bake scones and serve

Bake the scones in the oven for about 12 to 15 minutes. Then place them on a wire rack to cool.

Scones are best when they are still a little warm. You can keep leftover scones in the freezer for several weeks. It is best to let them thaw first and heat them for 5 minutes in a 180°C oven.
Making clotted cream

Pour the cream into a wide dish. The cream should not be highly pasteurized and should not rise higher than 5 cm in the dish.

Put the dish in the oven at 70°C for 12 hours. The cream should heat up slowly without coming to a boil.

Let the heated cream cool to room temperature. Then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours.

Finally, skim the top creamy layer into a new bowl, and stir again.

Et voilà you have clotted cream. Its texture is velvety soft and its taste slightly sweet. It seems like a lot of work, but actually you don't have to do anything yourself. You can keep the clotted cream in the refrigerator for 2 weeks.

Cut the scones in half and, as in Devon, spread a layer of clotted cream on them first, then a scoop of jam. Or do it the other way around, as in Cornwall.