English Scones and Clotted Cream

English scones with jam and cream

There is nothing more English than sitting down to a pot of tea with a scone and clotted cream. Scones are a traditional component of the British cream tea and we serve scones with clotted cream and jam. This blogpost will give you a traditional English scones recipe at the bottom of the page.

Cornish Clotted Cream

I have been going to Cornwall for most of my life on holiday and there they have an extra special type of cream called English ‘clotted cream’. ‘Clotted’ cream sounds disgusting ( 🙂 ), but nothing could be further from the truth. Real Cornish clotted cream is just divine, and you really cannot beat some good old British scones with clotted cream. They are made for each other.

How to make clotted cream?

You make clotted cream with a special process that creates a thick cream with a very high fat content. Here is a link showing how you can make your own clotted cream. Proper clotted cream is delicious and the perfect ingredient for a proper English cream tea.

You find clotted cream mainly in Devon and Cornwall in the ‘West Country’, as it is called. Rodda’s in Cornwall is the largest commercial producer of this product and really if you get the chance to try it, then please do. It is the real thing. You will love it!

Here in Ireland we do not have easy access to clotted cream so (against the advice of Rodda’s of course!) we have used whipped cream in our photographs. [This is in fact what you will find in most cream teas across the UK.]

Scone Arguments:

How to pronounce ‘scone’

There are a number of things about scones that cause disruption across the UK. One of these is the pronunciation of the word ‘scone‘. Does it rhyme with the word ‘gone’ or ‘bone’. I must admit we belong to the ‘gone’ grouping in my house. Follow the link for more information on this.

Jam or clotted cream first?

Another disagreement, as mentioned in the Rodda page, is whether you put the jam or the cream on first. In Devon they put the cream on first, whereas in Cornwall they do the opposite. The Queen follows the Cornish example, as do we, so that should settle the matter 🙂 !

The type of jam you use in your cream tea is really up to you. Quite often strawberry jam is used but really you can use whatever you prefer.

This British scone recipe reminds me of sitting in the café at the beautiful Lamorna Cove eating a cream tea whilst watching the rain pouring down the windows. It was just one of the things we would do on a rainy day down there. And rainy days, believe me, we had enough every August 🙂

You can choose with this recipe to make plain scones or fruit scones. I have used a mix dried fruit in some of the scones in these pictures. I think raisin scones or sultana scones are a bit more interesting than a plain scone. Using a mix of fruits keeps it a bit of a surprise as to what you will get!

How to make English scones

English Scones and clotted cream

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This easy scone recipe will enable you to easily produce some real English scones, plain or fruity, for serving up a traditional British cream tea.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes

Total Time 17 minutes

Ingredients

• 500g self-raising flour
• 50g caster sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 100g salted butter (softened)
• 300ml milk
• 1 egg
• Whipped Cream
• Jam of your choosing
• Optional :
• 50g dried mixed fruit

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C.
2. Mix the flour, salt, and sugar in a bowl. Then rub in the butter until fully mixed.
3. Add the milk bit by bit until you have a dough.
4. On a floured surface knead the dough carefully until it has an equal consistency. If you wish to have fruit in your scones then add that now to the dough.
5. Then roll it out to about 1” (25mm) thickness and cut out the dough with a circular cutter.
6. Place on a pre-floured baking tray. Then glaze with a mixture of egg and milk to give a shiny surface. Then bake in the oven 12 minutes until brown.
7. Remove from the oven and place on a dish cloth on a wire tray, and cover with the cloth so keep fresh until cooled.

Notes

Serve up with cream and jam and a good old cup of tea. Store in a sealed container.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

8

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 376 Total Fat: 12g Saturated Fat: 7g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 4g Cholesterol: 54mg Sodium: 873mg Carbohydrates: 57g Net Carbohydrates: 0g Fiber: 2g Sugar: 8g Sugar Alcohols: 0g Protein: 9g

This nutrition information was automatically calculated by Nutritionix, but may not be 100% accurate.

Like this recipe ? Try some of my other baking recipes here: