CORNISH SPLITS

To serve

Cornish cream (see recipe, right, or use shop-bought clotted cream) Jam (or treacle, if you prefer)

Splits are the traditional soft bread rolls baked every day and sold in Cornish bakers’ shops and are presumably called that because the tradition is to cut or ‘split’ them in half and spread with clotted cream and jam. A variation on this theme was to spread the splits with cream and then pour golden syrup or treacle on top, known locally as ‘ thunder and lightning’.

Makes about 8 splits

450g (1lb) plain flour, plus extra for dusting

A good pinch of salt

50g (1¾oz) lard

25g (1oz) yeast

450ml (16fl oz) warm milk

1tsp sugar

Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl and rub the lard into the mixture until well absorbed. Put the yeast in a second bowl with 150ml (5fl oz) of the milk and all the sugar.

Mix the remainder of the milk into the fat and flour, then finally stir in the yeast mixture. Give the dough a good kneading and put in a bowl in a warm place to rise. When risen turn out on a board dusted with flour.

Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan 170°C/gas 5. Cut the dough into 8 smallish rounds and put on a baking

sheet. Leave to rise again, then bake until the bottoms are brown, about 15 minutes.

CORNISH CREAM

Cornish clotted cream, or clouted cream, as it was originally called, is in fact scalded cream. Cornish housewives used to make it every day. You can make it in any quantity from the recipe below. Use very fresh milk.

600ml-1.2ltr (1-2pt) unhomogenised whole milk (from supermarkets)

Pour the milk into a large heatproof bowl or basin and stand in a cool place for 12 hours in summer or 24 hours in winter to allow the cream to rise. Put the bowl in a large pan of water, and heat the water slowly until a raised ring of cream forms around the edge. Don’t let the milk boil.

Leave the bowl in the pan in a cool room or larder for 12 hours. Take care when moving the pan so that the cream is not broken. Skim the cream off in layers into a glass dish, choosing a nice crusty piece for the top.