Ode To English Cream

I love English Cream.
Some call it Devon.
Fifty percent milkfat--
Oh, I'm in heaven.

Nearly every time someone comes to visit us, we take them for brunch at Cora's (called Chez Cora in Quebec). It's a chain of brunch restaurants with a menu full of omelettes, crepes, fruit and all sorts of other wonderful dishes. In my opinion, the best thing they serve is the "7th of July" (no idea what that date means). This dish is two crepes and two slices of French toast piled high with fresh fruit and smothered in English Cream.

English Cream (also called double cream, manufacturer's cream, and sometimes Devon cream) is thick, rich, lovely cream that goes well with pretty much everything... expecially with chocolate. When we visited London last May, a friend of mine hosted us at his house and he made a FANTASTIC chocolate cream dip by mixing 1-part melted chocolate with 1-part double cream (in England they don't call it "English Cream"). It makes a smooth dip that is perfect for fruit.

We tried to duplicate the recipe when we got home, but we couldn't find the cream anywhere. After a few weeks of fruitless searching in grocery stores, we tried making it with whipping cream (which has 35 percent milkfat). That just turned out runny -- kind of like chocolate syrup. Apparently, English Cream is the secret.

Finally, after looking in 10 grocery stores, we founds some english cream in a store quite a distance from our house. They sell it in little glass jars that cost about $5 each. It turned out perfectly, but it's quite an ordeal. It would be nice if someone would make it for us... someone like Cora.

Well, today at Cora's, R's mom ordered some chocolate sauce to go with her meal (Cora's Surprise - nice choice) and the sauce tasted suspiciously similar to the dip we had in England. That makes good sense, since Cora's obviously has a source for English cream.

I wonder where they get it. I bet they're not paying $5 per jar.