Thursday, November 5, 2009

Pumpkin Scones

Posted by Erin Wilburn / 12 comments » / breakfast, pumpkin, scones

Want to hear a confession? Until recently, I had no idea what a scone was. Seriously. Maybe it’s my raising, I grew up in KY; we had muffins, and biscuits, cookies, pies, tarts… but I never had a scone.

I “discovered” them on people’s food blogs, and then realized they served them at Starbucks. I never EVER buy anything in the pastries case there, so I suppose that’s why I never noticed them. Once I realized what they were (basically like a sweet biscuit), it took a while before they appealed to me. They just looked dry and tasteless. And yet… I kept seeing them and seeing them. (Isn’t it funny how you never know something exists, but once you do, it’s EVERYWHERE?) My curiousity was finally piqued and one Sunday morning I finally set to it. Are you at all surprised I chose Pumpkin Scones as my first venture?

I’m happy to report, these babies are FAR from tasteless or dry! They are decadently delicious. They are moist and soft, with just enough pumpkin to appease my tastes. And let me suggest the perfect pairing, a pumpkin spice latte! I have enough self control to limit myself to just one. The Boy ate one, and asked for another. Then I went to the park for a couple hours and came home to discover ANOTHER one missing. HE ATE THREE! What ever shall I do with him?

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Pumpkin Scones

Ingredients:

1 C. all purpose flour
1 C. cake flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground nutmeg
1/4 t. ground allspice
1/4 t. ground ginger
6 T. unsalted butter
1/3 C. pumpkin puree
1/3 C. heavy cream
6 T. brown sugar
1 t. vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Get out a baking sheet and line with parchment paper (not required but makes cleanup easy!). Cut the butter into small pieces, put it in a small bowl and put it back in the refridgerator. In a medium bowl, combine both flours, baking powder, salt, and all spices. Whisk together well. Place bowl in freezer (refrigerator is fine if you have no room in freezer).

2. In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin, heavy cream, brown sugar, and vanilla. Whisk together well. Put this bowl in freezer (or refrigerator) and take the other bowl back out. Get the butter pieces out of the fridge and dump them into the bowl with the flour mixture. Cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender or rub it in with your fingertips until it resembles coarse crumbs.

3. Get the liquid mixture out of the freezer and pour into the flour mixture all at once. Stir with a wooden spoon until everything is just moistened. The dough will be very crumbly, this is the way it should be. Turn the mixture out onto the counter and push the pile together with your hands. It should stick together fairly well. Knead it just a couple of times until everything is together. Don’t knead it too much or the dough will get too sticky.

4. Pat the dough out into a rough circle, 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Cut it like a pie into 8 pieces. Place pieces on the baking sheet so that they are not touching. Bake scones for about 15 minutes at 425 degrees. They should be light brown on the bottom, the tops will darken as they cool.

For cinnamon icing, mix together 1 C. powdered sugar, 2 T. milk, 1/4 – 1/2 t. cinnamon (to taste). Adjust the amount of sugar or milk to make the icing the consistency you want. It should be pretty thick. Icing can be brushed on or drizzled.

adapted from Pinch My Salt