Double Cream and Clotted Cream - my adventures

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.
Bel Cream Maker.jpg

Actually, another recipe I just found only calls for milk and butter. So maybe I’ll try that.

Unfortunately my high end milk and butter sources are all stranded in NYC as well.

A local gourmet shop had pasteurized milk and decent butter. A project for this weekend.

Why don’t you have fresh cream in the US?

Why don’t we have unpasteurized cheese? Real epoisses?

Isn’t ‘whipping cream’ pretty close to double cream, just slightly higher octane?

What is the application?

Most supermarkets here (Toronto) carry jars of clotted cream which may or may not serve, perhaps blended with the whipping cream.

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.

We get stuff from https://www.webstaurantstore.com/

Mostly gloves and no perishables but they do list dairy products. Located in PA.

I have sources but they’re all in Manhattan.

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.

We expect a response by 10:30 am tomorrow on the success of your venture.

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.

Jay - if you need more dairy products, bucket & bay delivers in JC and Hoboken. https://www.bucketandbay.com/collections/farm-to-stoop/products/organic-100-grass-fed-heavy-cream-pint

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.

Still a nice breakfast though that was the thickest most buttery clotted cream I’ve ever had :slight_smile:
1406AD07-38A2-4D28-B71C-ED2B6E4C71EF.jpeg

I’ve changed the title to reflect my continuing mistakes and successes

Oh, and this is the scone recipe I used:

I walked over today and bought some. My plan is to cook it overnight. Thank you again!

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.
7F4DB4D5-3286-4104-9665-D676B55B5B66.jpeg

With champagne or without?

I like the way you think champagne.gif . 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 :slight_smile: