Instant Pot Clotted Cream

I haven't posted any other Instant Pot recipes, I don't think, but it's only a matter of time. Or at least I'll give the IP variation on my regular recipes. I got this gem for my birthday and fell immediately in love, so much so that my ravings inspired at least three other friends to buy them! The Instant Pot, for the uninitiated, is a pressure cooker, rice cooker, yogurt maker, rice cooker and more. I can do gorgeously soft pinto beans from dry with only 45 minutes at pressure. I've been making yogurt like a fiend. And the rice it yields is great.

So when I read a Kitchn post about a woman who makes clotted cream by bringing the cream to 180 degrees, my antennae went up immediately. After all, the Yogurt Boil setting on the IP brings the milk to 180 and then you cool to 115 before adding the starter. So I figured there must be a way to bring the cream to 180 in the IP and then keep at that temp for the recommended 8 hours.'

I had a look on the web and didn't find any IP-specific recipes, but this slow cooker recipe https://fearlessfresh.com/make-clotted-cream/  was a great baseline, not that making clotted cream is at all tough if you have an easy way to reach and then keep the desired temp.

I was a bit worried about yield, so I kept warm for 10 hours but I think 8 would be ideal. I had no issues with burning, the IP kept a perfectly fine temp the whole time and I got over 2 cups clotted cream from 4 c. originally and that is enough for me. Even with guests helping us, who really needs more than 2 cups of clotted cream? I'll use the leftover whey to make cream scones. And top them with clotted cream and strawberries and possibly some ganache. How decadent is that?

INGREDIENTS
4 c. heavy cream, not ultra pasteurized

DIRECTIONS

  1. Pour cream into Instant Pot insert and close lid. Doesn't really matter if it's on Venting or Sealing since you're not bringing it to pressure, but I leave on Sealing
  2. Set Instant Pot to Yogurt Boil (press the Yogurt button, the hit Adjust till you see the word Boil)
  3. When Instant Pot beeps that boil setting is done, press Keep Warm button
  4. Leave at Keep Warm for 8 hours
  5. Turn off Instant Pot, remove lid and remove insert to set on a cooling rack
  6. Let cool an hour or so at room temp so it doesn't heat up your fridge too much
  7. Cover with plastic wrap and put in fridge for at least 8 hours. I did 12
  8. Remove Instant Pot insert from fridge. The clotted cream will have thickened a bunch. Make a little hole at an edge so that the whey can get out
  9. Pour off the whey as best you can and then scoop the clotted cream out into a jar or bowl. I got more than 2 cups worth, so judge your bowl size by that
  10. Stir back in some whey if you want a looser texture. You can use the whey to make more clotted cream if desired, or use it it cream scones, biscuits or anything else you fancy
  11. Spread on anything or top your oatmeal with it. The possibilities are endless. Use up within 3-4 days. You could try freezing it if you can't finish it--you wouldn't want to waste any and it may work

Comments

Elle said…
This is great! Can you tell me if you left the vent on the IP open or closed when doing the "Yogurt Boil" step?
Laurel said…
I closed it, just as I would for yogurt. Thanks for stopping by!
Cyndi said…
How long does it take to do the boil part?
Laurel said…
Cyndi, I don't know how long it will take for sure. Depends on your machine and how much cream. When I do a gallon of milk for yogurt it takes about an hour to get to 180 but it'll be a lot less for 4 cups of cream!
Unknown said…
Oh THANKS 💙💚
JellyBelly said…
Do you have a recipe for cream scones?
JellyBelly said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Laurel said…
@JellyBelly, I don't have a personal favorite yet as I haven't completely decided the qualities I like best in my scone (and since I more often have buttermilk/yogurt/whey around I usually go with a recipe that calls for those), but you can't go wrong with Smitten Kitchen/ America's Test Kitchen (https://smittenkitchen.com/2006/11/dream-a-little-dream-of-scone/) or maybe King Arthur Flour (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/cream-tea-scones-recipe). Happy baking.
Mary said…
Oh.My.Goshey.Gosh!!! Thank you for playing your food and sharing with all of us. <3 Mary in Canada
tinathorn said…
how do you make more with the whey?
Bee said…
I made this the other day and it was excellent - so much better final product than doing it in the oven, and way less energy needs. A pretty good approximation of what I'd buy in the UK, and a wonderful yellow crust.

But... there was more 'liquid cream' than I was expecting, and less of the thin, watery whey. I wonder if it somehow wasn't cooked enough? Other recipes call for 180F, and I think my cream only got to around 140F. I kept it in there for about nine hours, so would the temperature make the difference?
Laurel said…
@Bee, so glad you tried it and made it! I am no food science expert, but am guessing the temperature does make a difference. Or you might need to leave it for longer. Please make sure your cream at least gets to 180 degrees before leaving it to rest even if it rests at a lower temperature. Happy cooking!
Micheline said…
Hi Laurel thanks I tried it with ultra cream an seems it worked ok. Is it normal to have tiny solid particles in the finished cream as well as a yellowish on top when ready to scoop.


Laurel said…
@Micheline, so glad you tried it and that ultra-pasteurized cream wasn't an issue. The tiny solid particles should just be solidified butterfat and the yellow is an expected color on the "crust" as the cream has cooked some. I rather like the golden color. Best wishes!
Micheline said…
Thanks very much. I do have a French blogue would you give me permission to publish your recipe for clotted cream in Instant Pot I will mention you name. Many Quebecers don't know what it is that would be fun to explain and share such a good ingredient.

Micheline
Laurel said…
@Micheline, please feel free to publish my recipe and I would be grateful if you'd just include a link to my original. I'd love to see your final result (I read French). Cheers!
Lawrence said…
Did you check the temp after boil to make sure it hit 180? And is the keep warm to really just keep it warm or keep it at 180.....Or by default is 180=keep warm....my food safety training is saying that keep warm def keeps it over 140... Interesting..
Laurel said…
@Lawrence, great questions. It definitely hits 180 after the boil setting in my Instant Pot. I"m not sure if keep warm keeps it at 180 but it definitely keeps it warm enough for it to clot and I don't think it is in the danger zone. However I will add a disclaimer that any person who makes this recipe makes and eats it at their own risk. I am not making any absolute claims as to the safety of anyone else's interpretation of this recipe or anyone else's machinery even if it's Instant Pot brand. I never expected to have so many readers I've never met!
fancynancykay said…
I wonder if you would share your recipe for cream scones :)
Merri Buck said…
Do you have any idea what amount of time you would use if you do not have the "yogurt boil" setting?
theresaj4 said…
Curious, Why not ultra pasteurized cream?
Madeline said…
My instant pot is the one that does not have a yogurt button. Are there manual aettings that would work?
Unknown said…
I thank you. My cardiologist on the other hand, not so much.
Unknown said…
I wonder if you could siphon off the whey with a Baster?
Laurel said…
@Merri, @Madeline, if your IP has the sauté setting you might be able to heat up the milk using it, but be very careful because it could scorch on the bottom easily. I think you'd have to stir it constantly and use either an instant-read or a probe thermometer to ensure you get up to 180 degrees. If my IP didn't have the Yogurt Boil setting, I confess I would not be bothered to use it and would look to other recipes I've seen that call for using the oven.
@theresaj4, ultra-pastreurized cream doesn't whip as well as regular pasteurized cream and also may not clot as well. The main reason I counsel against it, though, is that I hate the flavor. I really taste the difference and find ultra-pasteurized cream to taste burnt. Your mileage may very and one commenter said that UP cream worked just fine
@Chery, i bet you could siphon off with a baster. Certainly worth a shot.
Unknown said…
Where do you get un-ultra-pasturized cream?
Laurel said…
@Jo, it's getting harder and hard to find regular pasteurized cream. Trader Joe's own-brand organic heavy cream used to be regular but they've recently switched it to ultra. The only place I can get it around me is my local food co-op but I'm wondering if Whole Foods would carry it. You're likely to have the best luck at a natural-type grocery store or maybe even Amazon Fresh, though I haven't checked. Good luck!
Helenecha said…
I can't wait to try this. Just wondering if this recipe can be doubled and if that would change the timing?
Unknown said…
Do you know how long this will keep in the refrigerator?
Betsy Nicholson said…
Did you use starter? Maybe I overlooked it but did not see it mentioned.
Laurel said…
@helenecha, yes of course you can double but I can't imagine being able to use up that much clotted cream before it goes bad (for the unknown poster, it'll definitely be good for at least 3-5 days but I'm not sure after that). It'll take longer to get up to 180 degrees but I'm not sure if it would take longer to clot. With regular pressure cooking recipes the time to cook does not change when the volume is increased. @Betsy, no starter. It's not required. It's culturing itself as it sits in the IP.
Helenecha said…
Thanks so much for the quick response. Hahaha, yes that's a lot of clotted cream but I'd like to share with family and friends.
Betsy Nicholson said…
Thanks so much. I cannot wait to try this.
Vicky said…
I tried making this last night and today and I must have done something wrong :(. I had a very thick hard yellowish goo on the top, and pure white cream under that. I did try this in my 3 qt Instant Pot and maybe that was the problem? What size pot do you use? Next time I'll also check to make sure I get to 180 degrees with boil, might not have reached that.

Looking forward to trying again as I LOVE clotted cream!
Rene S said…
Hi Laurel! Thank you so much for your recipe, I can't wait to try this! I have a Euro Cuisine strainer for making my yogurt! Would that work for taking out the whey in this or would it remove to much? I final found non pasteurized cream, but it comes in 8oz. containers and is quite expensive! So I want to make sure I do it correctly! Thank you!

Rene'
Laurel said…
@Rene’ S I think that you don’t need to use the Euro Cuisine strainer as you don’t need to remove quite that much whey. However, you have let me know about a new product that I never knew existed! I make strained yogurt frequently and have become so tired of cheesecloth. I’m going to get myself one of these strainers for sure! Thank you so much for commenting.
Note that your cream does not need to be UNpasteurized, it just ideally shouldn’t be ULTRA pasteurized. I always use pasteurized milk and cream. If you’re used to ultra pasteurized dairy and it tastes fine to you, then you don’t need to go to extra trouble seeking out regular pasteurized cream. Where I am it’s a bit easier to find standard pasteurized dairy and I taste a strong difference, so that’s why I recommend it. For lots of people I’m sure they wouldn’t notice a big quality difference.
Best of luck and happy cooking.
Rene S said…
Thank you for getting back to me so quickly, with a very helpful response! I'm so glad that I could help you in return! When I decided to make yogurt, I realized that I didn't want to mess with cheesecloth, so I bit the bullet and bought the strainer, totally worth it! I'm going to experiment with both types of cream, I mean if I'm going to do this, I want to make the best product possible! Thank you again! :)
Laurel said…
@Rene’ S, do please post back with your taste test results and let us know what you think.
roseknitter said…
OMG - just completed the procedures and am in heaven! This is it!! Definitely had to stir a bit of the whey back in, and the flavor will be as good as the cream you can get, but the texture is that wonderfulness between butter and whipped cream, and it's like a dream come true. - Has anyone tried freezing?
Laurel said…
@roseknitter, thank you so much for posting your result! I’m delighted that it turned out so well for you. I know you can freeze both liquid heavy cream and butter, so it seems logical to me that you could freeze clotted cream. The recipe yields so much you have little to lose by giving it a whirl. Let us know how it tastes after a turn in the freezer!
Unknown said…
My IP liner is too big for my fridge, can I transfer it to a small bowl before putting it into the fridge?
I tried this and it was a complete failure. I used the yogurt setting, it went to boil, wasn't on very long before the screen said ygt. Put it on warm for 8 hours. When I opened the lid, there was a yellow, hard film floating on top of liquid. I put it on warm another 35 minutes, but it didn't seem to make much difference. I popped the glass lid onto the instant pot liner and then put it in the fridge. The next morning, it appeared that I had something firm over liquid, but it was actually mostly liquid, with very hard tiny clumps left. And, not many of those clumps, either. Didn't resemble anything that looked like clotted cream to me.
I used 4 cups of ultra pasteurized heavy cream, as i already had that in the house.
Do you have any idea what I might have done wrong? I'm fairly new to the IP experience and have not actually made yogurt in it. I also have the option to steam the yogurt in jars, and wondered if this would work for clotted cream as well?
roseknitter said…
Sadly, you cannot use Ultra Pasteurized cream. It will work with pasteurized, but the ultra seems to destroy too much.
Peggy Baldwin said…
I’ve tried making clotted cream in the oven, a slow cooker, on a burner, with no success. Finally, using this method, it worked. Yay!!! I bought a 3 quart Instant Pot, partly, in order to try it for clotted cream. I did not get 2 cups — more like 1 1/2 cups. Pouring the whey off didn’t seem like to was going to work well. I used a slotted spoon to scoop the clotted cream off. Would I have gotten more if I allowed it to cook longer than 8 hours? Would that affect the quality?
Patricia Egen said…
So glad I found this blog article. I adore clotted cream and cannot wait to try this out. Thank you for posting!!
Julia Mozingo said…
I found the proper cream to use at Whole Foods. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe. I recently experienced High Tea in London for a belated birthday celebration and fell in love with clotted cream. I've made the recipe twice. Yum!
Unknown said…
The blogger I came to this recipe from has a link about ultra-pasteurization. ItsI not too far down in her post at https://www.cupcakeproject.com/clotted-cream-recipe-making-clotted/
Unknown said…
Laurel, my IP said boil, then after awhile beeped and said “Yogt”. I tried to pass “keep warm” then but the only way is to “cancel” then press keep warm, Is that right? Mine cream isn’t working but I was so anxious to try I used the ultra pasteurized so I didn’t expect to really. My question is just about the IP settings. Does yours go straight from boil to yogt and let you press keep warm?
JerryInDFW said…
I'm late to this party! While looking around for heavy cream that wasn't ultra-pasteurized I discovered Wegmans carried Devonshire clotted cream in 6oz jars.

Since I planned to try making CC in my IP, I picked up 4 half pints along with a jar of the imported stuff.

Not exactly sure about the IP. I've made CC in the oven in the past but I think I inadvertently used ultra-pasteurized cream. TBH I thought it was just fine. Not only on the usual items, but I made some into "Herbed Clotted Cream" add tried it on a freshly grilled steak. It was amazing!

My IP has a sous vide setting. I'm going to load it up before bed, setting it for 180 and 8 hours. Fingers crossed!
Sylvia said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sylvia said…
I just finished making clotted cream in my 6-qt. Instant Pot Ultra. Here's my experience so far. I used 2 pints of Pasteurized Heavy Whipping Cream from Aldi. (They actually sell non Ultra Pasteurized now!) After pouring the 2 pints into the inner Instant Pot liner, I closed the lid and made sure the venting button on top was pushed. I selected the Yogurt setting and chose High under that. That showed the word BOIL After it finished the BOIL cycle I tested the temperature and found it to only be 155 degrees F. I went through another BOIL process and got it to 180 degrees F. After the second BOIL cycle I pushed cancel. I then chose Slow Cooker, custom set the temperature to 180 degrees to cook for 10 hours. After the ten hours were up I definitely have a yellow crust. Now I need to refrigerate it for 12 hours. We'll see how much cream I get.