My Instant Pot Clotted Cream Recipe is a revelation, plain and simple. Your Instant Pot creates the famously decadent spreadable cream that’s the highlight of a classic British afternoon tea, I’ll show you how step by step!
If you’ve ever had clotted cream on a scone at an afternoon tea, you’ll know how uniquely delicious this thick creamy spread can be. If you haven’t experienced clotted cream, I suggest you stick around for this foolproof recipe for Instant Pot Clotted Cream…
Let’s unpack this!
- What if I don’t have an Instant Pot?
- What the heck is clotted cream?
- What does clotted cream taste like?
- what you’ll need for Instant Pot clotted cream
- What does ultra pasteurized mean?
- Where to find non-ultra-pasteurized cream
- TIPS for making Instant Pot Clotted Cream
- Why is there a crust on my clotted cream?
What if I don’t have an Instant Pot?
- No worries, Instant Pot clotted cream isn’t the only way you can make this luxurious treat ~
- check out my original post, How To Make Homemade Clotted Cream in the oven!
- or my latest Stove Top Clotted Cream Recipe
What the heck is clotted cream?
Fair question, it isn’t the most common thing in the world…
- Clotted cream is a thick creamy spread normally used on scones, and popular in Great Britain.
- It’s made from heavy cream that has been heated over a period of time until it thickens or ‘clots’ into a spreadable consistency with a unique cooked cream flavor.
- Clotted cream is world famous for its unparalleled rich texture, and it’s an essential part of a classic British afternoon tea, where it’s spread on scones and topped with jam.
- Normally the only way to get clotted cream is to visit Great Britain, or to spend big $$ on a very small imported jar at your local gourmet market.
What does clotted cream taste like?
- Clotted cream has a very simple flavor profile, like an unsweetened heavy cream with a subtle ‘cooked’ flavor. The texture is equally if not more important than the flavor, it’s somewhere between a very thick whipped cream, and butter.
Clotted cream is an exotic treat, you might be able to find small imported jars in your better supermarkets, but you will pay a premium price for it. I developed a way to make your own homemade clotted cream in your oven, which I’ve shared in my original post, here.
Today I’m unveiling another, even easier method for making homemade clotted cream, right in your Instant Pot.
what you’ll need for Instant Pot clotted cream
- 2 pints non-pasteurized heavy cream
- an Instant Pot
- I use the Instant Pot Duo
What does ultra pasteurized mean?
- All milk and cream sold in the US is pasteurized, meaning it’s heated in order to kill harmful bacteria and to help preserve it longer.
- Ultra pasteurized cream is simply heated to a higher temperature, at least 280F, and that kills even more of the bacteria and helps it stay fresher for even longer (before opening.)
Where to find non-ultra-pasteurized cream
- Most heavy cream sold today is what’s called ‘ultra-pastuerized’. That just means it’s been heated beyond the regular pasteurizing method so that it has an extra long shelf life. This can interfere with the clotting process, so the general rule it to use regular pasteurized cream when trying to make clotted cream.
- I have found non-ultra-pasteurized cream at Whole Foods and Trader Joes, for starters.
- Look for cream with a high fat content, mine is 40%.
While the cream is clotting, you’ve got time for a quick batch of scones! I’ve got lots of scone recipes on the blog for you to try. Clotted cream and scones is one of those combinations that is unique and can’t be duplicated. But luckily you can make them both in your own kitchen 🙂
And trust me, there is nothing, and I mean nothing, like a warm homemade scone spread with homemade clotted cream.
TIPS for making Instant Pot Clotted Cream
- This is a simple but precise process. Stick to the recipe as stated, this recipe doesn’t have much room for variation.
- You can try this with regular pasteurized cream, but at your own risk.
- Make sure you refrigerate the cream as per the recipe after you’ve cooked it in the Instant Pot, and before you disturb it, the cream thickens up further as it chills in the fridge.
- AFTER you’ve chilled the cream for at least 12 hours, or even longer, you can skim off the thick cream and put it into a jar. There will be leftover liquid in the pot, and you can use that to make scones.
- You can stir some of the thinner liquid into your clotted cream if you want a looser consistency.
- If your clotted cream seems very thin, or you mistakenly mixed too much of the thin liquid into it, try blending it very briefly with an immersion blender, this works like a charm. Just be sure not to blend it too much or you’ll get clotted butter. Also good 😉 but not what we’re going for.
Why is there a crust on my clotted cream?
Worry not ~ the crust is a characteristic of clotted cream, it can be creamy white or even darker yellow. That signifies that the cream has cooked, and ‘clotted’ or clumped into an unbelievably delicious spread. The clotted cream underneath the crust will be creamier.
- Instant Pot
- 2 pints non-ultra pasteurized heavy cream, make sure to find non-ultra pasteurized cream for this
- Note: I like to plan to start my Instant Pot clotted cream in the morning, when I wake up. That way I can put it in the refrigerator before I go to bed and wake up to a finished product!
- Pour the cream directly into the Instant Pot. Close the lid (no need to set the vent, we’re not pressure cooking.) Press the YOGURT button and press until it says BOIL.
- When the machine beeps, and has reached the boil stage, press the KEEP WARM button and let it go for 8-10 hours. I let mine go for 10 hours.
- Turn the machine off and remove the pot. Let cool at room temperature without disturbing. Then refrigerate the pot, as is, for 12 hours.
- Carefully scoop off the thickened layer of clotted cream, leaving the thin liquid behind. It’s ok if you get some of the thinner liquid into your clotted cream, you can mix it in.
- Spoon your cream into a glass jar. You can leave as is, or stir it together to make it creamier.
- Enjoy within 2 weeks.
- The leftover liquid can be used to make scones.
Hi, Sue! I LOVE clotted cream, and since you can’t find it in the US like you can’t england, I was excited to try it. Unfortunately mine has turned out super clumpy, and I can’t get that smooth consistency! Am I doing something wrong? I’ve tried stirring, blending, etc to no avail. Help!
Well first, not all clotted cream is smooth, authentic clotted cream is often very clumpy and uneven in consistency. The Scottish actually prize the yellow crust on top of clotted cream, so don’t despair. I have had luck VERY briefly blitzing mine with my immersion blender, but if that doesn’t work, just go with it, if it’s thick, and tastes good, you’ve done it right 🙂
Hi Sue! I’m having a large tea party and will be making around 40-50 scones. How much cream should I start out with? If I double this recipe should I have enough? Thank you!
I think you’d be smart to make three batches, and definitely make them separately Rachel, this is not an easy to thing to tweak.
How would you recommend using the whey to make scones? 1:1 replacement for the cream in a cream scone recipe? Or pick a recipe that uses butter?
You could use it in place of cream or buttermilk in a scone recipe, I’ve done that. Most recipes use butter and also cream or buttermilk, so you’d replace the liquid in the recipe with the whey.
I don’t have the yogurt making instapot. What settings can I use?
I haven’t tried to do this in any other Instant Pot Nicole, so I don’t know if you can. Maybe a reader will chime in here…
Good question, I also don’t have a yogurt setting on my IP just a Slow Cooker setting. Did you find out what setting you can use?
The slow cooker setting is too hot and the regular yogurt setting is too cool, but keep warm worked well for me. Check the temp periodically with an instant read thermometer and you should be fine.
I’m wondering, how long does one recipe “keep” in the fridge?
It should keep, air tight, for a few weeks, Cheryl.
My instant pot does not have a yogurt setting- is there another setting to use instead . I have 8 quart iplux
I’m sorry I’m not familiar with that model Denise, maybe search google for the answer. If you have a custom keep warm setting that can be set to a certain temperature, that might work.
Thank you for posting this! Im thrilled to try! I actually just put the cream in my Instant Pot Ultra right now!
I have a couple of questions: I have an option to “Keep Warm” at different temperatures (high, low, custom). Do you have a recommendation on how I should set this? Also, the screen on my instant pot said “Yogurt” after beeping a few times after the “Boil” function. Was this an indicator that the Instant Pot has reached boiling? This is my first time using the Yogurt function. Thanks in advance for your guidance!
I don’t have the Ultra, so it’s going to be a guess here, but I would see if you can set the “keep warm” to 180F. And yes, if your pot beeps after the boil function, that means it’s gotten to the boil.
Thanks so much Sue! I did exactly that – set the temp to 180F. I came home today to a dark yellow crust. Put it in the fridge. I hope it turns out! I’ll update when it’s all done. What a treat!
Turned out so, so well! Thanks again, Sue! Will be making this again for sure!
Enjoy 🙂
Hi, as an Instant Pot newbie, I’m noticing that no one ever tells you when the pot is ready, what beeps to ignore and which ones indicate it’s ready etc. I’ve had to search and search to find out when this ‘boil’ stage is done and all I could find was a comment that said it’s when the display says ‘yogt’. I stopped my IP at this stage and went straight into keep warm but it doesn’t look right after 8 hours in the fridge. How long is it supposed to boil for? Should I have stopped it at the ‘yogt’ message? Why don’t any of the recipes tell me this? Sorry, I’m just not loving my IP at all as the recipes all seem geared towards people who know what they’re doing.
I have an IP and I had to hit the “adjust” button until it said boil. When it got to the boiling stage it did beep. That’s when I set it to warm. 🙂
Life saver – I kept hitting yogurt and holding it down and couldn’t find boil until I saw this comment (I have an IP-Duo). Hit adjust and it says boil – it beeped once to set it to boil, waiting for it to beep again and then guess I’ll switch to warm? Fingers crossed!!
Have you tried making it directly in small canning jars, like those you can buy? Wondering if timing would change with a water bath….
I was looking for this question. I don’t have room in my fridge for the entire IP liner so I tried to make it in a dish inside the IP with a water bath. I am not sure I got the cream to a high enough temperature in the boil. I just took my cream out for the fridge part of the process and it isn’t looking as I expected.
I wouldn’t think that that would work Elisabeth, for the reason you suggest, you might need to try it again. It’s worth clearing out some space for the IP if you possibly can 🙂
Hi, Sue, do you have any suggestions for those who who want to make a smaller quantity of clotted cream in their 6qt IP? I basically just want to work with 1 pint. Thanks!
I don’t think it will work Rosie because there has to be a certain depth of cream for this to work well.
Hi, Elisabeth, did you try making smaller quantities in your IP again? I’ve been searching high and low to see if someone has use the pot in pot method to make clotted cream!
Pot-in-pot is working for me! I mistakenly bought just a pint of cream this time so thought I’d give it a whirl. I used the Keep Warm cycle but did bump the heat up a couple of times when it seemed a bit cool. Delicious.
Sue – thank you! I am so looking forward to making clotted cream. I have, probably a newbie question, about the Instant Pot. I pushed the yogurt button and kept pushing it to say Boil, which is did. It beeped three times within less than a minute. Was that the beep I’m waiting for? Or will it take some time for it to get to the boil level and then beep once? Thanks for helping a new to Instant Pot and first time clotted cream maker!
No, it will take the machine a while to get to the boil, so the initial beeps you heard were just the machine starting up.
Sue, thank you for responding so quickly! I had just started making the clotted cream. I’ve started over (I was five minutes into my 10 hours on Warm). This will be a great learning experience – both with my new IP and making clotted cream. Excited!
What fun this has been for the whole family… clotted cream, who knew! We all worked together and made scones as well. I have two questions: I have an 8 qt. IP. To get 2″ of liquids, I need four pints of cream, which is fine. I am just wondering if It has to be 2″ deep or is there a min/max range. Also, once the cream has sat in the fridge for 12 hours, and I put the finished cream in the pint jar overnight, if I find that it is too thick next day, could I still add some of the liquid whey to thin it out a bit, or did I miss my window? Thanks so much for the recipe. Wow, what an adventure you have taken us all on! Such fun.
Thank you for this recipe… loving how easy it is! Just finished my second batch of clotted cream. We have to call it British Butter so my husband will eat it… 😉 Since I have an 8 qt. IP should my goal be to have at least 2″ of heavy cream in the pot, or just a 1-3″ range? Thanks again.
I love your clever trick to get your husband to eat this, it made me laugh! I haven’t made this in an 8 qt, but I think I would aim for at least 2″ depth. If you have the time it would be so useful if you come back and report on your experience with the 8qt.
Haha! Years of easing him into trying things… Lemon Curd is the latest thing I’m trying to market to him! Thanks for the information. I will try it this weekend and let you know. We are loving it. 🙂