White Chocolate Pumpkin Scones

Hello Fall!!!  The season I wait all year for…you know…for the foliage, crisp weather, sweaters and fleece, and most of all, the fabulous food that goes along with the season! Towards the end of last week (the last full week of Summer), the weather in the Northeast was gorgeous!  Chilly morning temps, daytime highs in the low 60s, virtually no humidity and I of course gave into my usual waiting-on-the-arrival-of-Fall hankering for pumpkin.  For my first recipe of the season, I chose these pumpkin scones.  I wasn’t ready for anything too sweet yet so this recipe worked out perfectly for me.  Also, I had planned to send a bunch with Kyle to his grandparents’ house when he went to do some work for them and since his grandmother has diabetes, something sweet wasn’t going to cut it for them.

I seriously couldn’t have been happier with this base recipe.  I made some changes according to Annie’s recommendations and after having made them twice now, I would recommend adding even more cinnamon and ginger and adding some raisins; my changes are below.  These white chocolate pumpkin scones turn out beautifully – moist and buttery inside with just the right amount of crunch to the top. I’ve really taken to freezing scones rather than baking the full batch and these are great from the freezer as well.  I’ve also found that an egg wash lends an important element to these scones so if you plan to bake them from the freezer, bake them for 10 minutes then brush on the egg wash and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

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Pumpkin Scones

source: adapted from Joy of Baking

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup light or dark brown sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1/3 cup white chocolate chips (optional)
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup canned pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

For the egg wash:

• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon milk or cream

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400° and place a rack in the middle of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Stir in the white chocolate chips. In a separate bowl mix together the buttermilk, pumpkin and vanilla, and then add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture. Mix just until the dough comes together. Do not overmix the dough.
3. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead dough gently four or five times and then pat the dough into a circle or a rectangle, about 3/4″ high. Using a 3″ round cookie cutter, cut out the scones, rerolling and cutting out additional scones from the scraps . Place the scones on the baking sheet and move the baking sheet to the freezer for 5-10 minutes to ensure that the dough and butter are cold before baking. Brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash before baking.
4. Bake for 1o minutes then rotate 180 degrees and then bake for another 10 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Makes 9 scones.

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