I actually ordered this before Stay In Place began but it only arrived yesterday.
So many British cookbooks call for double cream which is pretty much unavailable in the US. So I ordered a cream maker to make it myself.
Has anyone here ever done that?
And does anyone have an online source for pasteurized (not ultrapasteurized) cream? The only retail shop I know that usually carries it is Buon Italia in Chelsea Market and I’m not heading there these days even if they were open.
Do you have any restaurant supply/food distributor businesses where you live? You would be amazed at what’s in stock at most restaurant supply/food distributor businesses and many accept walk in traffic. If there aren’t any on google there, do you know anybody who owns or manages a restaurant? They can get it for you or set you up through the local distributor. A friend couldn’t get toilet paper at any store in Napa so he dropped into a local janitorial supply business and got all he needed along with paper towels.
As for why we don’t have double cream in this country all I can do is throw up my hands in bewilderment. My guess is that not enough people know that they want it.
Anyway, now that I have pasteurized milk and butter I can give the cream maker a go.
Well, I sort of messed up so this is more a trial run than anything else. The instructions said to melt the butter in the milk before putting it through the cream maker but not to let it boil. I put the butter in, went to do something else, and came back to a bubbling pot.
I decided that given that initial error I wouldn’t use the cream maker but the inferior method of tossing it in a blender. I did that and it turned out well. It was a slightly thicker texture than heavy cream with a richer flavor. It helped that I was using pasteurized (not ultrapasteurized) milk and butter.
I had some with berries and then whipped a small amount with some sugar and vanilla. Not ideal for use as a whipping cream as a small amount of whipping turned it quite firm. A little more and it would have moved into the consistency of butter.
I then decided to use the rest to try and make clotted cream though the fat content is a bit higher than suggested for that. It’s done and chilling overnight now so I’ll see tomorrow.
Then I’ll start over and do it right this time.
I’ll make a batch of double cream to see if the flavor profile changes and a batch of single (heavy) cream to try the clotted cream recipe again.
Dan - thank you! I don’t like their gelato so I haven’t been to their storefront since they opened. I wonder if it’s still open, if not I’ll definitely try a delivery.
Regarding my clotted cream experiment - it seems the guidance that butterfat levels should be 36-40% were correct and one cannot, in fact, make it from double cream. The whole thing congealed into a solid mass and will be thrown out.
But I think I now have a handle on technique for both double cream and clotted cream.
I suppose I’ll drop most of the scone batter into the freezer until I have a chance to redo. I’ll just bake two for breakfast.
Great, glad it worked out! And thanks for sharing the scone recipe - I’ve been making pancakes the last couple weekends - may need to switch it up with some scones!
It worked! Starting with pasteurized cream from Bucket and Bay I ended up with a delicous rendition of clotted cream. And an even better Afternoon Tea.
I like the way you think . Without, unfortunately. It was a work day and I’m saving my limited onsite Champagne supply for this Saturday’s Marie Courtin Zoom. Maybe I’ll bake more scones for that too