Clotted Cream

*Preferably extra-rich milk, if you can get it in your area. –

Choose a wide-mouthed bowl or stainless steel bowl with sloping sides. Fill it with milk, leaving a deep enough rim free to avoid spillage. Add 20 fl double cream. Leave in the refrigerator for at least several hours, and preferably overnight. Set the bowl over a pan of water kept at 82 degrees C (180 F) and leave until the top of the milk is crusted with a nubbly yellowish-cream surface. This will take at least 1 1/2 hours, but it is prudent to allow much longer.

Take the bowl from the pan and cool it rapidly in a bowl of ice water, then store in the refrigerator until very cold. Take the crust off with a skimmer, and put it into another bowl with a certain amount of the creamy liquid underneath; it is surprising how much the clotted part firms up — it needs the liquid. You can now put the milk back over the heat for a second crust to form, and add that in its turn to the first one. The milk left over makes the most delicious rice pudding, or can be used in baking, especially of yeast buns. .

– from Jane Grigson’s OBSERVER GUIDE TO BRITISH COOKERY