Making Pumpkin Scones is one of the best pumpkinly delicious things about the Fall Baking season. The warmth from the cinnamon, a little kick from the ground nutmeg and cloves and then a sweet, spiced glaze covering the top! Mmm – mmm. It’s pumpkin perfection! At least it is for me! 
Scones are one of those things you don’t want to overwork or they’ll become very dense! When you mix the ingredients together, it may not look pretty, but that’s Ok! Check out my dough pictures here:
Do you see how shaggy it looks? It’s got visible chunks of butter (always a good thing!) and the dough is not smooth. That’s exactly what you want! It’s all about texture at this point. It might be a little sticky and you can see from the photos, mine have a little bit of flour dusted on them, just to make it easier to work with. These pictures are from a batch I made into 8 big scones. You can also cut each triangle in half to make 16 mini-scones!
Carefully separate the scones and put them on a silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet. Another nice thing about this recipe is it only requires one baking sheet! I love it when that happens!
Bake the scones at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes and then let them cool before adding that delicious glaze! Make both glazes while the scones are in the oven. That will give the sugar time to dissolve completely into the milk. That way, when you’re ready for it, the glaze will be much smoother.
Start with the traditional glaze first. Dip the tops of each scone into the glaze, then flip them over and rest on a cooling rack and allow the glaze to drip off the sides. After that first glaze sets up, place the spiced glaze in either a piping bag or plastic sandwich bag with one tiny corner snipped off. Drizzle the spiced glaze over the white glaze in a pretty pattern. Heck, you could even make smiley faces on your scones! Be creative! They’re your scones after all.
These scones are best served the same day. If you’re going to serve them the next day, store without the glazes, in an airtight container on the counter. Glaze scones just prior to serving. These have been a hit everywhere I’ve taken them, so I hope you will feel the same way after you try them yourself!
Pumpkin Scones
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup 1 stick cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- 3/4 cup pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling
- 1 TBLS whole milk
- 1 large egg
- 2 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- For the BASE GLAZE:
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- 2 TBLS whole milk
- For the SPICED GLAZE:
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- 1/2 tsp each ground cinnamon ground cloves and ground ginger
- pinch of ground nutmeg
- 2-3 TBLS whole milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Line a single baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
- In the bowl of a food processor, combine first nine ingredients (flour through salt) and pulse a few times to combine.
- Add chunks of cold butter and pulse again until mixture resembles coarse sand with bigger chunks of butter throughout.
- (If you don't have a food processor, you can do this by hand in a large bowl)
- Place all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside.
- In another bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, milk, egg and vanilla.
- Pour wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until a soft dough forms.
- On a lightly floured surface, knead dough 3 - 4 times, until it just comes together. Do not over work the dough.
- Use a rolling pin, roll the dough out to a 10 x 7 circle, approx 1 inch thick.
- Cut the dough in half vertically, then twice again on the angles to get eight pie shape pieces.
- Think of it like cutting a pizza!
- Place scones on prepared baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes.
- When scones are done, remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before glazing.
- To make the base glaze, in a small bowl combine confectioners sugar and milk. Whisk until smooth. Set aside.
- Let the glaze sit for at least five minutes, then whisk again until smooth.
- To make the spiced glaze, combine confectioners sugar, spices and 2 TBLS milk. Whisk until smooth.
- If the glaze is too thick, add a bit more milk (up to one tablespoon) and whisk until smooth.
- Set aside and allow to sit for five minutes. Whisk again until smooth.
- Dip the tops of the scones into base glaze first. Allow glaze to coat entire top of the scone and drip down the sides. Let glaze set before drizzling spiced glaze.
- Fill a piping bag or plastic sandwich bag with spiced glaze. Cut off the tip (or one small corner of sandwich bag) and drizzle spiced glaze over the base glaze.
- Allow glaze to set before serving.
- Scones are best served immediately. If you will be storing scones to eat later, do not glaze them. Store in an air-tight container on the counter. Make glazes and decorate scones just prior to serving. Enjoy!
Hungry for more pumpkin treats? As you know, I’m not a huge pumpkin fan, but there are a few pumpkin things I enjoy! One: Pumpkin Pie. (Please note, that is a post from my very first year as a food blogger – be gentle with me about the pictures! LOL! ) Preferably, Pumpkin Pie with homemade crust and cute little crust cut-out decorations. Yes, I’m a sucker for a well dressed pie! Two: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds. These are perfect snacks to make after carving pumpkins with the kids. When our kids were growing up, it was a tradition to roast the seeds. Now that they’re older and we’re not carving as many pumpkins anymore, it’s still fun to do. Something of a trip down memory lane! My husband likes them spicy! Three, pumpkin cream cheese muffins. Another copycat favorite from Starbucks, only these taste much better (and are much bigger!) Plus, they use some of those aforementioned pumpkin seeds on the top, so you could make both and be very happy! Four, the pumpkin pancakes, I just posted last week! Finally, coming in at number Five: these delicious, easy to put together, Pumpkin Scones. That’s about where it ends though. Oh wait! There is a yummy pumpkin cake recipe from Williams-Sonoma I should pull out and make for you. It’s pretty fabulous too! Which means a grand total of five pumpkin recipes? Six? Yes, six. So I have six pumpkin things I love to make. That’s not too bad! What are your favorite ways to have pumpkin?
Oh my, my, my, my! Those look divine.
Thank you Cathy! xoxo