31 Comments on How to make Clotted Cream in New Zealand.

Ruth on Fri, 9th Oct 2009 9:38 am


Thank you SO much! As a girl from the West country I was brough up with Clotted cream as a treat and have missed it so much! There was a company making it out here about 10yrs ago, but no longer. I will have a go today!
have you ever had a Clotted cream Ice cream topped with clotted cream? (Croyde, North Devon). An unforgettable, but not too repeatable experience!!

Deborah on Fri, 9th Oct 2009 9:50 pm


Ohhhh Croyde, we had many family holidays there! Maybe I shall make some of Av’s fab clotted cream and have a little reminising cream tea.

Avalon on Sat, 10th Oct 2009 11:45 am


Oooh – clotted cream Ice Cream – I have had that before But not with the cream as well – blimey sounds unbelievably wicked

I also heard that Ontrays in Petone used to import the stuff, but they too havent done so for many many years

Ruth on Sun, 25th Oct 2009 11:44 am


Well I made it, first your recipe with Supermarket milk and then I sourced (sorry secret!) some real full cream organic milk from Red Devon Cows… both good, but 2nd lot even better!! Not to be eaten everyday, but gosh it’s good!! Perhaps i should make it a feature for ex-pats staying at our B&B here in Sunny Hawke’s Bay!!!

Avalon on Sat, 31st Oct 2009 7:51 pm


Ruth – thats really good news I am so glad that posting this means yoru visitors get to enjoy the cream. It felt a bit odd to me to be posting a recipe – but this has been one of the most popular posts on the whole blog – so obviously people really wat to know!

Your guests will be over the moon if that ends up on the menu

Paola Brett on Mon, 2nd Nov 2009 4:19 pm


How funny! I organised for a bunch of us to head up to Napier for the weekend and we ended up having scones with jam and cream at a cafe and someone asked me if I knew how to make clotted cream! I knew I had seen this blog post somewhere, so today have directed my Kiwi friends to check out your recipe.

Thanks for the explanation on the difference of cream here to that sold in the UK… I knew supermarkets only sold two types, but was too lazy to find out what the differences were! It is strange that a huge dairy producing country is apparently limited on it’s dairy products – I find the lack of choice in unsalted butter here amazing too!

Avalon on Thu, 5th Nov 2009 3:41 pm


Paola – I know what you mean

For someone like me being only able to get this weak insipid cream is annoying.

And I still cant fatom why Anchor butter is so hideously expensive here – the cows all live here for crying out loud!

Anyway – I hope your friends like the outcome -it really is rather good

Mo Irvine on Fri, 8th Jan 2010 5:08 pm


Ohhhhh THANK YOU! I’m definitely going to try this. My kiwi husband and I have been having a discussion with some writing friends in an online forum recently about clotted cream, and I was bewailing the fact that you can’t get it in this part of the world….

Avalon on Sat, 9th Jan 2010 7:58 pm


You are very welcome Mo

Hope you like the results

Karana on Sun, 7th Mar 2010 9:49 pm


Thanks so much for posting this – sounds easy enough, do you think a slow cooker would work to slowly heat the milk?

I am lucky enough to have a friend with cows who I buy raw milk from…it’s super-creamy and I was wondering if I could figure out how to make clotted cream…did a google search and your page came up first – thanks for the good-to-know info about the different fat levels in the UK creams, I always wondered what the boring old NZ standard cream compared to.

Can you also make double cream by heating the milk for a shorter period of time?

Since leaving the UK I have always missed double cream, extra-thick double cream & clotted cream – will definitely give this a go

Avalon on Mon, 8th Mar 2010 12:44 pm


Karana – Cheers And you are very welcome.

As for using a slow cooker – im pretty sure they are too hot. The temperature i used was 1 or 2 on an electric ring which has 9 settings. Even on Low – my slow cookers (I have two of them) would take the temperature a lot higher than that.

I have a slow cooker I use for heating hot stones for massage – on low that keeps the water temp at about 50 degrees c. That woudl be too hot for this I think.

And im really sorry – but i dont know how to make double cream – though now you mention it – i might try and look that up

Karana on Sat, 13th Mar 2010 8:49 pm


Thank you Avalon for your reply – can’t wait to try it out when I get my next batch of milk

John on Wed, 17th Mar 2010 7:29 pm


Ok ladies here’s the low down on doing it in a slow cooker. First up the technical details. I’ve got a U.K. made cooker called a “Tower Slo-Cooker” model number 3834-C. It holds 4.4 pints, 105 watts, 240 volts. It has two settings Low and High. Useing Avalon’s receipe I put 1 litre of dark blue-top milk and 500 mils of cream in and put the setting on ‘Low’. I checked it after about 3-4 hours and it did have a nice yellow skin on it but decided to let it run as the skin looked a little thin. After seven hours it didn’t look much different but decided to call a halt so slid the mix into the fridge over night. Nerxt morning I carefully lifted the skin/top layer, which was considerably thicker than I thought, into a bowl and mixed it with a fork. Perfect result (my doctor probably wouldn’t agree with that!) there was enough for at least 5 people to have a cream tea.
However I would just like to say that as nice as this is its not quite like Devonshire clotted cream. Anyone who has had the real thing will probably no that Devonshire clooted cream has a uniform light yellow colour and has that “certain something” taste wise. My wife , who comes from a Welsh farming background, thinks this could be because the cream used in the Devon cream probably comes from Jersey or Guernsey cows who I believe have a higher/richer cream content in their milk.
I don’t know if anybody out ther can confirm this but I’d certainly like to hear your thoughts.

John

Avalon on Wed, 17th Mar 2010 8:09 pm


John you are a star

Id probably have to say too that your wife is right about the fat content. You might be able to get that “real” taste by using raw milk from the farm I guess. Its still a lower fat content that jersey milk, but maybe its enough of a difference.

Anyway my thanks for experimenting – and ill try it with the slow cooker on low as well next time

Katriana on Mon, 5th Apr 2010 1:17 pm


I so mish clotted cream having moved from Devon to New Zealand 3 years ago. I would like to try your recipe and should be able to source unpasterised milk from a dairy farmer friend. However, I would like to be able to keep the cream a little longer than 3 to 4 days – how would you go about ‘shelf sterilizing’ the cream so it would last longer than say a week? My mouth is salivating at the thought of good old clotted cream homemade jam and scones!

Avalon on Mon, 5th Apr 2010 5:31 pm


I honestly don’t know im sorry. It never lasts long enough here for us to find out

Im not sure there is a way of keeping any cream / milk products longer than that with Ultra Heat Treatment – and that ruins the taste completely.

You could try freezing some of it and seeing if that keeps?

Please do let us know if yo try and it and whether it works – Id love to know!

Margo on Sun, 22nd Aug 2010 11:37 am


Thank-you!! about 12 yrs ago we used to buy it from one of the better super markets here in the hutt as a ( way too regular treat }, i can still remember our disappointment when we were told they were no longer stocking it due to lack of demand!!
I will be hot-footing it to the shops shortly for the cream and milk…thank heavens its Sunday and i can take the time to stay home for 5 hrs on stove alert!!!

Avalon on Tue, 31st Aug 2010 9:16 pm


Margo – I hope it worked out all right for you Sorry I didnt catch your comment earlier

Corrine on Sat, 4th Sep 2010 1:46 pm


Thanks Avalon for that recipe. My husband and I have never tasted clotted cream being kiwi’s we haven’t had the chance to. So I’ll have a go. We also have friends who moved here from Devon and say they miss clotted cream very much so I might surprise them and make them some.
I can’t wait to try it out!

Avalon on Sat, 4th Sep 2010 8:40 pm


Corinne – you are in for a lovely treat And I think your friends will be very appreciative. I still haven’t tried it with Raw milk to find out whether you can get the slight “tang” that comes with the real stuff – but as far as I’m concerned this is pretty damn close to perfect

Corrine on Wed, 8th Sep 2010 7:15 pm


Hi I can’t wait to take it to them. It’s on the heat now at the lowest temp. But it is boiling do I keep it like that or turn it off for a bit to stop boiling and can I stir it? I hope you can get back to me asap

Avalon on Wed, 8th Sep 2010 8:11 pm


Try to stop it from boiling. I would do exactly as you said – take it off the heat for a while. But defiantly don’t stir it. The cream “Clots” underneath that skin as it cooks then cools.

Hope I got to this fast enough.

Corrine on Wed, 8th Sep 2010 9:01 pm


Ok thank you I did stir but it makes a skin real fast so it might be ok………
Never mind. Thank you so much for your prompt reply. I’ll let you know how it comes out

Corrine on Sat, 11th Sep 2010 6:51 pm


Thank you Avalon for that great recipe it was a huge success the 2nd time round! (I was determined to make it!). Our English friends thought it was perfect and they want the recipe as well. It was a taste from home that really impressed them and brought back wonderful memories.
Again thank you.

Avalon on Mon, 29th Nov 2010 11:10 pm


Got some traffic today from Trade Me:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Community/MessageBoard/Messages.aspx?id=514450&topic=13

Turns out Country Fayre in Christchurch is making CLOTTED CREAM and will ship throughout NZ. Ill be ordering some tomorrow – in the name of research

http://www.countryfayre.co.nz/pages/50als2.html

Regan on Thu, 26th May 2011 10:08 am


hi i made this recipe yesterday and everything was sweet
had it on for 5 hours and got a nice looking skin.put in fridge overnite,
pulled of the skin and stired with a fork to try to get it creamy but
instead it went lumpy(lumps were like bits of butter) do you think you might know were i went wrong. thank you.

Avalon on Sun, 29th May 2011 10:27 am


Hi Regan,

Im not actually sure about this – but I would suggest next time not stiring and just leave it to stand.

You will probably find that though it ended up looking like butter – it actually was still cream. But it is possible that the stirring did turn it to butter.

You could actually do a little experiment – and whisk some normal pouring cream – way past the point you would normally if you wanted whipped cream – it will turn into rather nice butter

Hope that helps

Hxx

Heather on Thu, 23rd Jun 2011 9:54 pm


Hi Avalon

Just wondering how the Country Fayre clotted cream went? I would like to order some but I’d have to eat an awful lot of scones to justify a 500g tub! (Yes I could make ice cream, or fudge, and no doubt my cats would love it…)

I was also wondering if you could make the clotted cream in a yoghurt maker? I have an Easiyo one, you surround the jar with boiling water and leave it for a few hours, which would seem a good way of slowly heating a mixture.

Anyway I’m going to have a go this weekend on the stove-top.

Avalon on Fri, 24th Jun 2011 12:39 pm


Hi Heather,

We actually found that the cream from Country Fayre actually survived freezing rather well – so its worth trying that

Re Yoghurt makers – what a grand idea! I have never used one – I happen to really dislike yoghurt – but I would imagine it could work pretty well.

Please do let us know how it works out if you do try it

Hxx

Avalon on Tue, 12th Jul 2011 4:20 pm


Copying a comment left on the other clotted cream post

Sue Fayter Says:

This recipe is from a book of Devon recipes. Any changes I have made are shown in brackets.

As much milk as is required. (I used cream from the supermarket)
Let the fresh milk stand in an earthenware (heavy based non-stick) pan (or large Pyrex jug) for about 12 hours in the summer and 24 hours in the winter then heat the milk slowly, never allowing it to boil, until the shape of the pan is formed by the cream around its edges. Remove from the heat and leave for about 12 hours without disturbing the cream at all.
Now skim off the cream with a large ladle. The top should be quite golden and the cream underneath thick and dense. This can now be used on buns, poured onto pies or used with fruit in desserts.

Notes
I heated the cream by setting the electric hob at one for about half an hour, then set it at 2 for another half hour to an hour. I repeated this until the pan was very hot to the touch. Then I let it stand overnight, covered with a cloth to keep dust out while avoiding condensation.

When I used the Pyrex jug, I stood the jug in a pan of water and heated this slowly until the water began to bubble. Then turned it off and let it cool where it was.
When I skimmed the first layer of clotted cream, I put the jug in the fridge and just left it overnight again. This gave me another layer of very thick cream (but without the crust). I skimmed this then left it to stand again. I repeated this ‘stand and skim’ process until the last layer I took was more double cream than clotted. The remaining cream I used to make a lovely rice pudding.

I tested out this clotted cream with the various Brits in the staff room, and all said it was good.

I’ll definitely use this method again. No real fuss just takes a lot of time.

Sue on Wed, 5th Oct 2011 11:57 am


At last someone who agrees with our family that the cream here is so frustrating. With such a big dairy industry we can’t for the life of us understand why there isn’t some bright spark doing single, whipping, double and clotted cream for sale in the supermarkets. It can’t just be English people who would appreciate this choice!

Thanks very much indeed for the clotted cream recipe. I will be making this tomorrow and using the remaining milk for a good old fashioned rice pud!!!

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