The Farmhouse Kitchen {Pumpkin Scones}

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The Weather Man™ loves Starbucks.

Particularly the contents of the pastry/baked goods counter.

A few weeks ago, I ran across a "copycat recipe" for Starbucks Pumpkin Scones.

Between the pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin ales, maybe you are tiring of the everyone's favorite seasonal flavor.

Not me.

I'm just getting cranked up.

Scones are deceptively easy to make.

Once you find a good base recipe, you can add items to flavor them however you like.

{Think blueberry, cranberry, orange, vanilla bean, just to name a few.}

This recipe, found here, was a little different than ones I've made before, 

but the scones were {notice...past tense...} wonderful.

So tender and flaky on the inside.

Just the right amount of sweetness.

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

7 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

{make your own or canned... if going the canned route, be sure to buy pure pumpkin, not pie filling, which has sugar and other flavors already added}

3 tbsp half and half

1 egg

6 tbsp cold butter, cubed

First Glaze:

1 cup plus 1 tbsp powdered sugar

2 Tbsp half and half

Spiced Drizzle Glaze:

1 cup plus 3 tbsp powdered sugar

2 tbsp half and half

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

pinch of ground ginger

pinch of ground cloves

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger.  You can also combine in a large food processor.  Whisk or pulse depending on whether you use the processor.  

Add cold butter, and pulse until well incorporated and mixture is the texture of cornmeal.  You can also just use your fingers.  Or, as I did, use a pastry blender.

In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, half and half, and egg.  

Add to flour mixture and stir {or pulse} until just combined, and it comes together in a ball.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. 

Gently knead a few times to bring the dough together, then flatten into a disk about 1" thick.  

Cut the dough in half, then each half into thirds.

I divided the dough into two disks.  

See below...I took about half of the dough out, kneaded it, formed a circle, then divided it into 6 triangles.  

I prefer smaller scones.  If you want 6 large scones, use all the dough at once.

Place the wedges on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 14-16 minutes until golden brown. 

 Remove from oven and move to a cooling rack.

When scones are cool, whisk together the plain glaze ingredients and spoon on top of scones.

I placed a piece of parchment paper under the cooling rack to make clean up easy.  

As you will see, the glaze drips.

Let the first glaze harden for about 10 minutes. 

 Combine the ingredients for the spiced drizzle and drizzle on top.  

I did mine in a zig-zag pattern, but you can apply the glaze however you'd like.

Let harden completely, about an hour, before serving.

Store in an airtight container.

Some baking notes:

1.  I don't break out the food processor for tasks this simple.  In baking pastries, it is essential to keep the butter as cold as possible.  That is what makes the scones flaky and tender...when the cold butter melts during baking, it creates pockets of goodness within the pastry.  Heat from your hands will warm the butter, so the pastry blender is the perfect kitchen tool for this project...little mess, no electricity needed, doesn't warm the butter.

2.  At the beginning of recipes like this, I cube the butter and put it back into the refrigerator until I'm ready to add it to the mixture.

3.  I prefer this stainless-steel pastry blender.  If you like to bake, get one.  

4.  As with all baking, use the freshest, most pure ingredients you have available to you.  I had whole nutmeg and grated it for use in the recipe.  However, I used cinnamon and cloves that were already ground.

5.  To create the zig-zag pattern, just dip a spoon into the glaze and hold it straight up over the scone and move back and forth in that pattern.

If you try this recipe, let me know what you think.

Do you have a favorite Starbucks pastry?



Check out this and other pumpkin goodness at Stonegable Blog.