Devon cream tea: clotted cream or jam on top?

mrB and I were in Devon last week, land of the cream tea. Except we didn’t lay our sticky fingers on a single scone. We had some fine asparagus tart and rhubarb crumble, all cooked by mrB’s mum, but no scone, strawberry jam or clotted cream. And I’d been hankering after a cream tea for weeks. You see, you just can’t get a quality cream tea over here in East Anglia. Either you end up with a pot of whipped cream, or the scones are way too big.

So this morning, I set about making my own clotted cream and baking some scones. All is well with the world again. 

Now the question is, do you spread the jam or the clotted cream first? mrB insists on spreading the cream like butter and then placing a dollop of jam on the top…

 

For the clotted cream:
284ml double cream

For the scones (makes 10):
450g plain flour
a pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
25g caster sugar
85g butter
210ml milk
1 egg

Pour the cream into a saucepan and heat gently for about half an hour until the cream thickens, stirring occasionally. Allow to cool a little and then place the saucepan in the fridge to set the cream and harden the crust.

Preheat the oven to 250˚C. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar into a large bowl. Cut the butter into cubes and rub into the flour. Put the milk into another bowl, add the egg, then whisk.

Make a well in the flour and pour in the liquid. Stir the flour into the wet mixture. Tip the mixture out onto a work surface and knead lightly to form a ball of dough. Roll the dough out until it is about 2.5cm thick. Cut out the scones using a biscuit cutter and space evenly on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until golden.