Pumpkin Scones

I had been seeing tons of pumpkin recipes pop up on Pinterest for weeks, so I finally decided I needed to try one out. This recipe almost got me a stand mixer...that's how much Walter loved it. I told him it would have been a lot easier to make, if I had a stand mixer which is why he is now determined to buy me one. In his mind, stand mixer=more scones. I'm not going to argue with that logic.

Courtesy of: The Shoebox Kitchen via sweetpeaskitchen.com

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour (I used white/wheat from Trader Joe's)
  
• 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar (I used turbinado)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 3 tablespoons half-and-half
• 1 large egg

Powdered Sugar Glaze:

• cup plus 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk

Spiced Glaze:

• 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Pinch of ground ginger
• Pinch of ground cloves

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, half-and-half, and egg. Set aside.
3. Stir together into a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer) the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. Add the cubed butter on top.
4. Now, either using a pastry blender or the paddle attachment of your stand mixer on medium speed, mix the butter and dry ingredients until you reach the consistency of coarse cornmeal (pieces of butter should be no larger than a small pea). Alternatively, you could probably do this step in your food processor, much like you would do for making pie crust. OR you can cut the butter with a fork and proceed to mix by hand
5. Now gradually fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. We used a spatula for this step, but had to use our hands in the end to get that last bit of flour to incorporate into a well formed dough ball. As you can see above, the dough is pretty ragged, but that’s just fine. The important thing is to make sure all the dry ingredients have been moistened well.
6. On a well-floured surface, flatten and form the dough into a 12″ x 4″ x 1″ thick rectangle.
7. Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, divide the rectangle into three equal pieces, then slice each piece into four triangular pieces by making an “X” through them.
8. Place the triangle of dough on the parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for just 15 minutes, or until light brown. Remove to a cooling rack and let cool before icing.
9. Make up the powdered sugar glaze by mixing the milk and sugar until smooth, then paint the tops of the scones with the glaze using a pastry brush.
10. While the first glaze is drying (10 minutes or so), make up the spiced glaze by combining all ingredients and mixing until smooth. Drizzle onto the scones using your favorite drizzling method (I put the glaze in my nifty Pampered Chef icing container).