Enjoy Cream Tea at Your Kitchen Table – Fruit Scones

Fruit Scones: Hunting for the Best Recipe

Last week I reached into my grocery store’s specialty dairy case and, to my surprise and delight, pulled out a jar of Devon clotted cream. This unique product is made from the rich, high-butter-fat milk of Jersey and Guernsey cows that roam the picturesque fields of southwestern England’s County of Devon. 

Upon returning home with such a rare commodity, I was inspired to search for the perfect scone recipe to accompany a cream tea. A “cream tea” is a lighter version of the traditional afternoon tea without the multiple baked items. Instead, this decidedly English experience consists of a batch of warm scones, clotted cream, jam and, of course, tea.

Clotted cream is traditionally made from full-cream cow’s milk that is baked on low heat in a shallow pan for 12 hours or more. Once thickened, the cream clots rise to the surface and are skimmed off and used as a spread. I’m glad this work is done for me by someone else who was kind enough to bottle it up and fly it halfway around the world for me to try.

No Travel, No Delays

I’m also glad not to have to fly to England for this, and even more excited that I have no more excuses not to try and make a cream tea. After all, travel has become such a waiting game of bumped flights and long delays, especially foreign travel. But thanks to YouTube, cooks can experience culinary adventures without the need to drag oneself and one’s luggage around the world and through the chaos of planes, trains and automobiles.

Although in my mind’s eye I picture the rolling hillsides, cliffs and estuaries of southwestern England, I can experience the award-winning fruit scones and cream tea directly from the best cafés in Dartmouth right here at my Colorado kitchen table. Since clotted cream now appears to be available in most grocery stores, all that’s left for me to do is bake the scones.

This recipe for fruit scones was found in my cream tea scone quest where a genuine afficionado came up in my search named Ditch Townsend. Ditch has reviewed over 250 cream teas in the County of Devon on his blog Devoncreamteas.wordpress.com. He has determined that this recipe from Dart to the Mouth Deli gets a 5/5 for flavor, and after trying it, I agree.  I cut the recipe in half and it makes about eight scones.

Maybe you’d prefer a sponge cake for tea? Try FFA’s Biscuit de Savoie