This past weekend was the monthly Bake Sale at church. I got up early on Sunday morning to start making my Pumpkin Scones. These scones are delish! I even think they are better than Starbucks. (At least they seem fresher than the ones at the store.) I was excited to take them to church and I never would have admitted it out loud before, but I was sure they'd be a huge hit.
Pride comes before the fall.
Apparently I should NEVER bake at 7am. I took all of the ingredients out of the cupboard but inevitably forgot to add some very important ones. Yes, salt and baking powder are very important for scones. Of course, I didn't realize that I had done this until I took them out of the oven 15 minutes later and they had not risen even the smallest amount and were hard as a rock.
They can't be that bad, I tell myself. So I taste one. YUCK. They were terrible. We ended up taking Dunkin' Donuts to the Church Bake Sale. I'm still a little ashamed, but Grant says I can give him the credit for the donuts. What a good husband.
I redeemed the recipe for myself later that day by making the scones for a party that evening. Without much further ado... here is the recipe for Pumpkin Scones. (Just make sure you add ALL the ingredients.)
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
7 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (homemade or canned)
3 tablespoons half and half
1 large egg
6 tablespoons cold butter
Plain Icing:
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk or half and half
Spiced Icing:
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk or half and half
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
pinch of ground ginger
pinch of ground cloves
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger in a large bowl.
- In a separate medium bowl, whisk together pumpkin, half and half, and eggs.
- Cut butter into cubes and add it to the dry ingredients. Use a pastry knife or fork to combine butter with dry ingredients. You want it to look like sand without any large chunks of butter visible. You can also use a food processor (which I did) because it is so quick.
- Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients, then form the dough into a ball. Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form into a 1-inch thick rectangle that is about 9 inches long and 3 inches wide. Use a large knife or pizza cutter to slice the dough. I like to make them much smaller than Starbucks (so you can have two).
- Bake 14-16 minutes on a baking sheet. You can oil it, line it with parchment paper OR if you have non-stick cookie sheets like these (which are worth every penny) you don't need to line or grease the pan.
- While scones cool, mid the plain icing in a bowl. I found a whisk to be just fine, but you can use a mixer if you prefer. When the scones are cool, drizzle or paint a coating of glaze over the top of each scone. I put the scones on a cooling rack on top of wax paper or plastic wrap to let the excess run over. (See photo below) And there will be excess!
- As the icing firms up, prepare the spiced icing in the same manner as the plain icing. Drizzle on top. I like to do it just like Starbucks does in a criss cross pattern. I just just a spoon and hold it above the scones as the icing drizzles over, but you can use a squeeze bottle or something else too.
Makes 6 Starbucks-size scones or 12 regular-size scones.
Enjoy!
