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Presenting my Vegan Clotted Cream recipe, a luxuriously creamy topping traditionally used with for scones and jam. This has no coconut cream in it and has that authentic clotted cream crust. I’ve seen a few new versions pop up since I developed this recipe and they behave like a buttercream, not at all like Traditional Cornish Clotted Cream from the UK. My heart sinks for anyone who tries one of the alternative recipes out there and thinks that this is what clotted cream is actually like.
I have some delicious gluten free scones that are also dairy and egg free to accompany this Clotted Cream Recipe Gluten Free Scones Recipe – Best Ever with vegan clotted cream.
And as you can see in the photo below, I do love a dollop of clotted cream on my Vegan Pumpkin Pie too!
Skip to the good bit
- How is original clotted cream made?
- Why does it take so long to make Clotted Cream?
- How do you make Clotted Cream that’s dairy free and vegan?
- Fun Fact: Did you know Clotted Cream is illegal in some countries!
- Different ways to flavour Clotted Cream
- How to make Dairy Free Thick Liqueur Cream
- Can you freeze this Vegan Clotted Cream?
- How to store your Cream?
- How about these delicious desserts
- Homemade Dairy Free Clotted Cream Recipe
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How is original clotted cream made?
To quote good old Wikipedia (which incidentally I support each year with a little donation);
Clotted cream (Cornish: dehen molys, sometimes called scalded, clouted, Devonshire or Cornish cream) is a thick cream made by indirectly heating full-cream cow’s milk using steam or a water bath and then leaving it in shallow pans to cool slowly.
– Wikipedia
Why does it take so long to make Clotted Cream?
If you want something to taste authentic, then you have to be patient. I’ve had feedback from people who have made this recipe and it’s not set for them. 9 times out of 10 it’s because they haven’t left it to chill for long enough. The clotted cream needs to mature and thicken. This way you get the authentic traditional clotted cream crust of fat on top and the rich thick cream beneath.
How do you make Clotted Cream that’s dairy free and vegan?
For those living a dairy free and/or vegan lifestyle you will be only too familiar with the fact that soya cream just – isn’t – cream. There, I said it! The fat content in soya and plant creams is very low and as dairy free cream has no lactose in it (in simple terms, the dairy version of sugar), cream alternatives aren’t very sweet either.
To make a thick, sweet cream like clotted cream I had to set out on a journey of experimentation and a few disasters along the way. This is the closest I’ve got and I’m pretty proud of myself.
So how did I do it? Well, I added fat where there was none and sugar where it was scarce and thickener to hold it all together.
STEP ONE: over a Bain Marie (water bath) melt all the ingredients making sure not to let any water boil over into the bowl.
STEP TWO: take a few spoonfuls of the warm ‘cream’ and mix with the arrowroot, then add back to the bowl and continue to stir to mix well.
STEP THREE: set a timer for 10mins. Don’t disappear, you need to make sure the water doesn’t boil dry or boil over. Stir with a whisk every once in a while. It’s ready when the consistency has changed to a heavy double cream/runny custard consistency.
STEP FOUR: pour into your chosen dish. Tap on the counter to release any floating fatty bubbles and encourage them to rise to the top (this will form your traditional-style fatty crust).
STEP FIVE: chill for as long as you can wait. Four hours should be enough but this keeps getting thicker with age. I’ve eaten it three days later!
Fun Fact: Did you know Clotted Cream is illegal in some countries!
A bit of an exaggeration, but basically ‘true’ clotted cream made the Cornish way, i.e. unpasteurised cannot be found in the United States or Canada. This is because the law prohibits the production methods. You can get a thick cream imitation (a bit like what I’ve created here) but it’s not the real thing. Unless you were sat in a tearoom in Cornwall enjoying a cream tea, I’d argue that nothing else is the ‘real thing’.
Different ways to flavour Clotted Cream
I’ve had a play with this recipe and found that adding extracts works just fine. Therefore, if you wanted a non-alcoholic flavoured clotted cream you could add a brandy flavouring or orange extract to imitate a luxurious thick Cointreau cream.
How to make Dairy Free Thick Liqueur Cream
To liven things up a bit you can also turn this into a thick liqueur cream that can be dolloped onto of Christmas puddings, mince pies and festive desserts. Simply allow the cream to cool off the hob and add a spirit of your choice before pouring into a lidded container. I’ve tried this with brandy and whisky which both make delicious additions.
Other flavours you could try are rum, Cointreau, the vegan liqueur Almande made by Baileys or Tia Maria for a coffee flavour thick cream. Seriously, the possibilities are endless, have some fun and be creative.
Are Spirits Gluten Free?
Cider, wine, sherry, spirits, port and liqueurs are gluten free.
Experts agree that there is no physical way that pure distilled alcohol can contain gluten – this is because the gluten protein cannot travel through to the vapour produced by the prolonged heating in the distillation process and become part of the final alcohol product.
Distilled spirits only contain gluten if gluten containing ingredients are added after the distillation process and in this case, there is labelling legislation that ensures the product states CONTAINS wheat, barley, rye or oats on the label.
Source – Coeliac UK FAQ page for more answers to top gluten free questions follow the link Coeliac UK FAQ’s
Please note: some people are also intolerant to certain grains such as barley, rye and oats so even with the gluten removed this can cause digestive issues. If concerned please consult your doctor.
Can you freeze this Vegan Clotted Cream?
I haven’t frozen this recipe yet but I’m positive it will freeze just fine. To bring the cream back to life you will need to defrost at room temperature for over 3hrs. The consistency may be slightly compromised, so if you don’t mind losing the clotted cream crust on the top, I’d recommend giving it a quick whisk before decanting into a little serving bowl.
How to store your Cream?
I have stored this cream in the fridge with success in Tupperware containers and the glass dish in the photo. Therefore, I know that the cream will last for up to 3 days easily, possibly a week. If you plan to keep it for more than a day I’d be sure to add a lid or wrap in foil or even better beeswax wraps to prevent the cream from absorbing any fridge smells.
How about these delicious desserts
For a change, why not have it as an alternative to topping your Christmas Pudding for those who don’t like brandy butter or brandy sauce.
Of course you automatically associate clotted cream with cream teas and scones with huge dollops of jam. But, how about lashings of clotted cream on your mince pies, Christmas Pudding or Sticky Toffee Puddings and crumbles. Plus for anyone toying with the idea of going vegan my post Ingredients and Simple Recipes for a Gluten Free Veganuary has some great tips on what to stock up on and how to bake vegan-style. And I’ll just leave my link for my Gluten Free Scones Recipe – Best Ever with vegan clotted cream again here, it would be rude not to!
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Sign up to my weekly Friday newsletter and not only get a FREE e-Book (currently my Gluten Free & Vegan Cookbook) but also get VIP subscriber discounts on free from goodies. Join me and learn to make anything gluten free.
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Homemade Dairy Free Clotted Cream Recipe
If you make it and like the recipe I would be eternally grateful if you popped back and commented leaving a star rating as this will tell search engines that this recipe is worth checking out and others will get to find it in searches.
Homemade Vegan Clotted Cream
Ingredients
- 100 ml soya cream or usual dairy free alternative I use Elmlea plant double cream
- 20 g butter or butter alternative (I use Flora plant butter) I use UNSALTED Flora vegan blocks
- 20 g fat (I use Trex white vegetable fat) crisp n dry works too.
- ½ tsp caster sugar a little more if you like your cream sweet
- ½ tsp arrowroot
Instructions
- You’ll need a small saucepan and a glass bowl, pour boiled water into the saucepan and place the bowl over the top as you would if you were melting chocolate.
- Place the butter, white fat, sugar and cream in the glass bowl and stir over a low heat until the butter, fat and sugar have melted and dissolved.
- Once dissolved remove a spoonful of the cream and pour into a small cup, add the ½ tsp of arrowroot and stir to a thin paste, then pour back into the glass bowl.
- Turn the heat up a little but be careful not to allow the water beneath to boil over the sides of the saucepan.
- Using a whisk, stir the cream occasionally until it thickens to an extra think double (heavy)cream consistency. Set a timer for 10 mins as this part of the process takes time.
- Remove from the heat and pour into a little serving bowl.
- Now you need to tap your bowl to encourage the tiny bubbles of fat to rise to the surface.
- I find the best way to do this is gently ‘drop’ the dish onto the kitchen work surface. Not from a great height! Just a centimetre drop each time, I do this about 10x.
- Finally pop your clotted cream in the fridge, for the best results leave it over night to cool completely and thicken with that familiar fatty crust on top.
Nutrition
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Although this tasted amazing mine didn’t set. I’m trying to work out what I done wrong.
Should the water be simmering in the pain? I’m wondering if it wasn’t hot enough. I did do it for longer than 10 minutes as it wasn’t thickening much. Then I thought maybe it will set more over night. But it didn’t although did get the crust!
Thank you for your help!
Hello Lisa and thank you for coming to my site using my recipe. I’m sorry it’s not worked out for you first time but it’s a good sign you got the crust to work. I’m not sure where in the world you are but I’m finding that Elmlea Plant Cream here in the UK is the best, fattiest Cream for the job . You’re right about the water bath too it does need to be simmering away to ‘cook’ the cream indirectly. You need to imagine a posh restaurant pale custard consistency (not good ole thick and yellow Birds or Ambrosia custard!) Once the cream concoction is this thickness you’ve nailed it. Iveeven managed to make my clotted cream TOO thick before! The ideal consistency to act like true clotted cream you have the crust on the top and extra thick cream underneath. Real Cornish Clotted Cream still has a liquidity to it which makes it stand apart from whipped cream. You still want it to slowly ooze across the jam on your scone. The cream in my photos is the slightly thicker kind granted and it was kept in the fridge over night before taking photos. I do hope this experience hasn’t changed your mind about using my recipes. Best if luck. Rebecca xx
Hi! I’m in the States and we don’t have Elmlea, what would be a good substitute? Coconut cream? Sorry if I missed it on the text ;). Thanks in advance!
I’ve had a chat with my friend in Canada (she’s British so knows what Elmlea is like) and she thinks the following is a good sub and available in US too.
Becel Plant Based Whipping Cream
Silk Dairy Free Heavy Cream
Country Crock Plant Cream
Elmlea has 31g of fat per 100g – the fat is important in this recipe as it’s that which sets the cream. This is why I add extra fat. If the plant creams I’ve mentioned are less than 30g of fat I’d add a little extra solid vegetable fat and/or plant butter (not spread) to act as a stabiliser.
I hope this helps Jane xx
Hi I can’t make it as thick as the picture had 2 goes now, followed your advise ( cook longer, add more arrowroot) it still looks like extra thick double cream, what can I try next time (still yummy 😋)
Sally you are amazingly patient with me. Good news. I think I know what’s the issue. My recipe method is not specific about the length of time you need to heat the ingredients in the water bath. It’s actually 10mins before you get to the right consistency. Think heavy/double cream nearly custard consistency. I suggest going back to the original recipe and heat for this period of time. Please let me know how it goes lovely xx
Hi, when you say to a double cream consistency, do you mean a whipped thick double cream consistency or an un whisked not so thick consistency?
Good question – I mean the unwhipped thick cream consistency, not the fluffy whipped version. All the magic happens when it sets and thickens with a crust ontop. Be patient, the longer you leave it the better the results.
Hi! Is there a way to substitute the vegetable shortening for example more butter or refined coconut oil? thank you! X
Hi there Naomi, thanks for popping by. The idea behind the shortening is to add an additional fat that returns to its solid state. Plant butters can be lacking in solid fats so the cream tends not to thicken as well. If you are confident your plant butter will return to a solid state then by all means go ahead and just use the butter on it’s own. With the coconut oil the same rule applies. I have made this with solid coconut fat and it does work. I chose not to type up the recipe with the coconut version as I know many people are not so keen on the flavour as you and I are. Would love to know how you get on Naomi. Thanks again. Rebecca x
Can you omit the arrowroot?
Not really Laura it’s the key ingredient to thicken the cream without adding flavour (like cornflour/cornstarch would) Can you not tolerate arrowroot? x
It was the only ingredient I didn’t have in the cupboard and wanted to make it today, I have used corn starch instead but will but arrowroot for next time. It looks like clotted cream and has thickened though so fingers crossed it tastes ok!
This is good to know, fingers crossed it works out for you and kudos on improvising – I kinda live by this rule everyday hahaha. Let me know your thoughts and may give me a star rating depending on how it turns out ;-)
Sounds wonderful. I’m a little sad that you are not selling your finished product on line. I would definitely buy it, as there seems to be no real authentic texture vegan alternative for clotted cream , essential for making traditional afternoon tea.so delicious. I’m hosting an 80th birthday afternoon tea for 25 people and this would be great
Thank you for your comment Andrea. I’d love to sell my bakes etc but that’s a whole new world with many hurdles I can’t afford to set up a kitchen, certification and pass GF testing. The best I can do is give away my recipes for free for now until this website starts to make passive income. I do hope the 80th Party goes well, many happy returns to the birthday girl or boy xx
OMG THIS IS PROBABLY THE CLOSEST THING IT IS POSSIBLE TO MAKE! This is so amazing, it is just like real clotted cream. When I tried it I didn’t know it wasn’t real, and I wasn’t told until after I had finished eating it with a cream tea. If I hadn’t have been told, I would not have known the difference.
I’m still having some issues with thickening the cream. I’ve used all the same ingredients but it’s very runny. Do you have any advice? Thanks, Emma
I’m surprised it’s ‘very’ runny. While it’s warm it’s often the consistency of double cream and then the cream continues to harden in the fridge with the oil creating a fatty crust on the top similar to that of clotted cream.
I can only suggest two things:
1) Warm for a little longer over the pan of water to thicken the arrowroot more.
2) add more arrowroot to get the desired thickness.
The good thing about arrowroot is that it’s tasteless and clear when heated (not that this matters in this recipe, rather more flan jellies etc). The point being, adding more arrowroot should not change the flavour of your clotted cream.
A third option is to add more fat of you think your DF cream is lacking in fat content…again, you won’t see the desired results until you’ve chilled long enough as the dat solid needs to return to it’s solid state.
For best results I make this a day or two in advance.
I do hope it works out for you Emma.
Merry Christmas
Thank you so much for your reply. I think I wasn’t heating it long enough! I did use a different cream this time so will check the fat content as well. The last time it did thicken much more after a couple of days in the fridge. So I think combining your tips will get me the desired result. Thanks again, it’s such a delicious recipe! X
What a lovely comment to come back to. So pleased you’ve found a way to make it work for you Emma – enjoy x
Thank you so much for this recipe! It is fabulous! I had to make major adjustments for my diet (AIP), but despite that, it turned out AMAZING which is proof that this is a great recipe. I used the highest fat coconut cream available, and used this recipe as a guide for the method. I added tallow, coconut oil, and palm shortening, adjusting the fat content to about 40%. I omitted the sugar and used a little less arrowroot. Of course, it doesn’t have that “cooked cream” taste, and my substitution obviously made it very coconutty, but it was still SO luscious and creamy (!) with the mouth-coating richness of a true clotted cream. Yumm. I made a triple-batch for tea with my siblings, but my husband and I ate half of it so I had to make more lol. It was incredible on scones with wild blueberry jam! I honestly didn’t even miss the dairy. Thank you again!!
Oh Brooke, I love you for coming back and leaving such a wonderful comment. Once you understand the fat to ‘cream’ ratio and how important it is you really can create wonderful non dairy things. I am thrilled you and your husband enjoyed the clotted cream….Blueberry jam sounds an awesome addition to a cream tea xx
Oh my goodness, bless you. Have been looking for a REAL dairy-free clotted cream for AGES, all the ones I’ve found have been just whipped coconut cream or something. (I don’t think any of those dairy-free bloggers have tasted the actual stuff, or they could never call their sorry excuses by the same name.) I never thought of adjusting the fat content to approximate real cream. Can’t wait to try!! I’ll update with the results!
Well the pressure’s on then Brooke haha. I do hope you enjoy it as much as others have. I’m the same with bloggers who clearly haven’t a clue. It gets me all hot under the collar. Don’t get me started when the new liquor came out by Bailey’s and all the influencers said it was just like Baileys…no it isn’t, its not supped to be either grrrrr…off to have a cup of tea to calm down down hahaha xxx
Oh my goodness. Do they think we won’t notice??
I made this recipe for a tea this weekend and it turned out so great! I’ll review in another comment.
Ahhh well I’ll try today. The arrowroot I saw in the supermarket was just tapioca flour, weird. You know, well known brand in sachets. Will look further and let you know how today works out. Made your scones yesterday and they were AWESOME!! Thank you x
Wow, sounds amazing. Will try this immediately 🥰 can you just use tapioca flour as that is basically the ingredient of arrowroot? 🤔 thank you x
I’ll be honest Vanessa, I’m not sure. Does Tapioca flour go translucent and thicken quickly when heated in a liquid? if the answer is yes then I’d go for it. Arrowroot lasts ages though and I know it’s not your average baking ingredient but it comes in so handy when thickening sauces that you want to remain true to their original colour (not go a creamy colour like when you add cornflour) It’s also great to add to a fruit syrup reduction to add to pies and tarts – I promise I don’t have shares in arrowroot hahaha! Let me know how you get on. Rebecca x
Hallo there,
Just read the recipe for clotted cream. Could the arrow root be exchanged with agar powder do you think?
I think this will work but as for it being like-for-like I can’t say. Good luck and let me know how you get on
Hi,
I was hoping for a bit of advice. The taste of the cream is spot on but I can’t get it to thicken in the same way as yours has. I’ve tried doubling the arrowroot powder and use 1tsp instead of 1/2 tsp. Should I try with even more? I also wasn’t sure about stirring with a whisk – am I meant to be whisking a lot to add air into the recipe? Or just stirring to combine as it heats and thickens.
Everything else seems the same – I’m using trex, flora butter block and elmlea vegan double cream.
It still tastes amazing though. As a Cornish vegan, I very much appreciate you developing this recipe! x
Fantastic recipe! How long would you keep this in the fridge for?
I’ve kept it for a week before (only because I made two, the first went straight away!)
I used to adore clotted cream – definitely trying this ASAP!
It’s embarrassingly simple but I seem to have once again stumbled on a winner :-D
I’m not sure how to reply on here but I wanted to get back with results. Staggering success! I can’t believe how convincing this clotted cream is and how easy it was to make! It went down a treat :) thank you for your rapid response, I got arrowroot in the end, didn’t want to mess with the recipe on the first try. It couldn’t have gone better, you’re a genius!
Manny, you have made my day…no…my whole week. Thank you so much for this feedback, I’m thrilled you loved it. Rebecca xxx
Hi! Fascinating recipe I’m going to try it for my bfs birthday next week. One question: is the arrowroot just to help thicken? Would I be able to sub another thickener such as corn starch? Thank you!
Oh wonderful Manny, lucky BF x At a push you could use corn-starch I appreciate arrowroot can be hard to come by in some stores. The reason I suggest this though is because it’s tasteless and clear when heated so doesn’t interfere with the end resulting flavour and texture. if going for the corn-starch, I’d go on the rule that less is more and keep adding tiny amounts (mixed to a paste to avoid clumps) until you get the thick consistency required. Remember it continues to thick with a crust in the fridge. Good luck and let me know how you get on xx
Would coconut oil work as the white fat solids in this recipe?
Yes it would Lynne, I did trial it in my recipe development but felt that you could taste the coconut and for those not keen (there are a lot surprisingly) I decided to find an alternative. Personally I love my clotted cream with a bit of a coconutty undertone – enjoy and let me know how you get on xx
I made this cream on Saturday to have on Sunday and it was so good!!! I was so impressed, it was perfect with scones. I’m used to just having margarine with jam and scones but this was much much nicer! Really quick and easy to make. Even my dairy-loving family enjoyed it. I will definitely be making it again :) thank you Rebecca for the brilliant recipe x
This makes me grin from ear-to-ear Molly, I’m thrilled you like the recipe. Thank you so much for coming back and taking the time to comment, it means a lot to me. Rebecca x
How long roughly do you cook for once you’ve added the arrowroot?
Hello there Sam. I recommend until it thickens to a double cream thickness. This should take no longer than 3-4mins, imagine thickening a custard. The rest of the thickening process takes place in the fridge as it cools.
Hello! I’m really looking forward to trying this cream out. I’m a bit confused by the ‘white fat solids’ – you said you use Trex so would that just be their vegetable fat? Sorry if that’s obvious!!
Admittedly that was written for the US readers in mind and if that’s not you I can see why your confused. By white fat I mean a lard style fat, obviously you don’t want a meaty flavour to the cream so Crisp n Dry or Trex or any solid block of vegetable fat would do. Hope that’s made it a bit clearer, don’t hesitate to comment again if not. Rebecca x
Thanks so much for getting back to me, that is much clearer. I’ll be giving this a go next weekend x
You are welcome Molly x
Hi I can’t wait to try this recipe out it looks amazing!! Do you use the Elmlea plant single or double cream?
I find double works better Danni, you want the clotted cream to be as think as possible so best give it a head start!! Good call though, I’ll update the recipe to be more precise.
Oh perfect thank you so much for replying!
Hi, I have made your clotted cream several times and it’s worked extremely well especially on my scones. As I prefer cream not to be sweet is the sugar in it absolutely necessary? Obviously if it’s an absolute essential to the recipe that’s different but I’d rather do without it if possible and if so would I have to alter any of the quantities of the other ingredients if I leave it out? Thanks for all your other recipes too.
Oh Rosemary I am thrilled to hear you are happy with this recipe for Clotted Cream, yes of course you can leave out the sugar, this was to counteract the lack of lactose in the plant cream (possibly a wee bit too much) so I totally understand you wanting to leave it out. It should not effect the over all structure, it may even make it a little thicker as sugar can sometimes loosen liquids. Thank you so much for commenting, it really does mean the world to me.
Well done lovely. Another vegan ‘must have’ under the belt. Looks like you’ve got a pretty decadent Christmas ahead xx
Brett will not believe its vegan, I’m going to have the make the next batch under his watchful eye to prove it to him hahaha
Thanks for sharing this Rebecca! I’ve selected it as a feature on Sundays on Silverado this weekend! :-)
Niky @ The House on Silverado
Thank you so much Niky, and can I just say I love your home so much it’s just beautiful, I could move in tomorrow and not want to change a thing xx
Terrific! Can’t wait to give this vegan clotted cream a try!
It is rather yummy Angie x
Oh a dairy-free clotted cream, how extravagant! Definitely bookmarking this. Thanks for joining in the fiesta!
I love clotted cream, but it had never occured to me to make my own. You’ve made it sound pretty simple though, so now I know I can!