Cornish Cream Tea Cornwall

The Cornish Pasty | Cornish Cream Tea | Cornish Clotted Cream | Fish Recipe Stargazy Pie | Saffron Cake | Cornish pilchard

No Holiday in Cornwall is complete without sampling at least one cream tea. Forget your diet for a week and treat your taste buds.

Cornish Cream Tea Ingredients -Recipe

For the cream tea:

• 2 or 3 home made scones per person freshly baked and still warm to the touch


or for the purists amongst you, (and what is shown in the photo above):

• 2 or 3 home made Cornish splits per person freshly baked but cooled hence cold to the touch



• Real butter
• 8 oz pot of Clotted Cream applied generously
• Portion of Real Fruit Strawberry Jam

For the Scones

• 2 cups plain white flour
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp. caster sugar
• 1/4 pint milk

For the Splits

• 2 cups plain white flour
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 tbsp. lard
• 1 tbsp. yeast
• 1/2 tsp. caster sugar
• 1/4 pint milk
• 1/4 pint warm water

• Split scone or split horizontally.
• Eat whole with fingers not a knife and fork
• Silver Tea Pot full of piping hot tea
• Bone China Tea Service
• Vase with a bunch of pink carnations
• Cotton Table Cloth

Cornwall Cream Tea Scones Method

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
• Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
• Cut or Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and enough milk to mix to soft dough. Allow to rest.
• Turn onto a floured board, knead gently and roll out or pat to a 3/4-inch to 1 inch thickness. Cut into 2-inch rounds using biscuit cutter or sharp knife and place onto a baking sheet. Gather up any scraps of dough and repeat until all dough is used. Brush with milk to glaze.
• Bake at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 10 to 15 minutes or until lightly brown and springy to the touch, then cool on a wire rack. Serve with butter and dollops of clotted cream and jam when still warm.

Cornwall Cornish Split Method

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
• Sift a 1/4 cup of the flour into a small bowl, add yeast and sugar and warm water. Mix. Leave to stand until in a warm place for 1/4 hour until yeast has risen.
• Sift the remaining flour into another larger bowl. In a small saucepan warm the milk, adding the butter and lard. Make a small depression in the flour and add the now melted contents of the saucepan, and the yeast, not forgetting enough water so that once mixed you have soft pliable dough, which no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl. Allow to rest.
• Turn onto a floured board, knead gently and roll out or pat to a 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thickness. Cut into 2-inch rounds using biscuit cutter or sharp knife, form each into a ball about the size of a small lemon, and place onto a baking sheet. Gather up any scraps of dough and repeat until all dough is used. Allow to rise for 30 minutes. Lightly sprinkle with flour.
• Bake at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly brown and springy to the touch, then cool on a wire rack. Cut or tear open, hence the name split. Unlike the scones above, serve splits cold, with butter and dollops of clotted cream and jam.

The venue. In the open air with the sun blazing over head, overlooking boats laid up on the slipway, or in a tea house overlooking the ocean, or by a cozy log fire in a country pub.

Cornish Cream Tea Cornwall