Pumpkin Obsession

Chemistry will be the death of me...

On another note! Today was fabulously rainy, a rare sight in SoCal and so I took every opportunity to enjoy it, including splurging on a Starbucks run between classes. I got a pumpkin spice latte and a pumpkin scone, because one can never have too much pumpkin.

I loooove pumpkin. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin scones, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin soup, pumpkin seeds, oh boy.

So last year, on a whim, I decided that I needed pumpkin scones because I was going broke buying them from Sbux. A quick search of the internet gave me juuuuust what I needed, a recipe actually designed to mimic those fantastic scones.

But I made mine better. Not only did I up the spice, being a spicy pumpkin pie lover, I made the spice glaze on top a bit spicier, as well as purple! Now on my first batch I actually took the time to pipe out spiderwebs and then decided that was bogus, so the next batch I did squiggles and slapped some plastic spiders on the tray. Voila!

They were so good that my mom immediately volunteered me to bake some for her office for their Halloween potluck. Um...thanks mom? It just gave me an excuse to make and eat more.

NOTE: I take no credit for this recipe at all in any way shape or form. It is just delicious and worth sharing. A quick google search for "pumpkin scone recipe" should take you to a Starbucks Pumpkin Scone recipe on Reciepezaar. They get the credit!

Ingredients


Scones

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 7 tablespoons sugar
* 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
* 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
* 3 tablespoons half-and-half
* 1 large egg

Powderered Sugar Glazze

* 1 cup powdered sugar
* 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
* 2 tablespoons whole milk

Spiced Glaze

* 1 cup powdered sugar
* 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
* 2 tablespoons whole milk
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1 pinch ginger
* 1 pinch ground cloves

Directions

TO MAKE THE SCONES: Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet or line with parchment paper. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Using a pastry knife, fork, or food processor, cut butter into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly and no chunks of butter are obvious. Set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, half and half, and egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Form the dough into a ball. Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a 1-inch thick rectangle (about 9 inches long and 3 inches wide). Use a large knife or a pizza cutter to slice the dough twice through the width, making three equal portions. Cut those three slices diagonally so that you have 6 triangular slices of dough. Place on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 14–16 minutes. Scones should begin to turn light brown. Place on wire rack to cool. [EDIT: I opted to make mini scones just by dropping spoonfuls onto parchment paper, if you do this just watch the scones, they should be done in about 10 minutes]

TO MAKE THE PLAIN GLAZE: Mix the powdered sugar and 2 tbsp milk together until smooth. When scones are cool, use a brush to paint plain glaze over the top of each scone. [EDIT: I found that this made WAAAY too much icing the first time, so the second time I just eyed it and added milk to a little powdered sugar until I got the consistency I wanted. Then, rather than brushing it on, I found I got a really nice coat and a really nice crunch if I carefully dipped the top of all my mini scones into the glaze. I would not recommend the hassle if you honestly don't care]

AS THAT WHITE GLAZE FIRMS UP, MAKE THE SPICED ICING: Combine the ingredient for the spiced icing together. Drizzle this thicker icing over each scone and allow the icing to dry before serving (at least 1 hour). A squirt bottle works great for this, or you can drizzle with a whisk. [EDIT: Instead of making another batch, I took the leftover glaze from the previous step, added the spices, added a lot of purple food coloring (this was before I discovered the magic of gel food color) and put it in a ziploc bag with the corner cut off and drizzled away!]

Add spiders, and voila!