Pumpkin Scones With Maple Frosting

Mrs. Deanna did it… with the pastry cutter… in the kitchen. Her crime? Pumpkin Scones With Maple Frosting.

How to Make Scones

• Scone dough, just like pie crust dough, doesn’t like to be played with after the wet ingredients are added. Just mix the wet & dry ingredients until they can be formed into scones. If you over-mix, you’ll get rubbery scones.
• Always use cold butter and cut it into small pieces before adding to the flour.
• Always, always, always preheat your oven (except for on the rare occasion it doesn’t). If you don’t preheat your oven, the scones will melt slowly as the oven makes its way to 400°F.  Preheat and your scones will gain a firm outer crust which will help them keep their shape while they bake.
• Don’t overbake. It’s easy to end up with dry scones and the culprit is overbaking.
• If your scones are ready to bake but the oven isn’t finished preheating or is busy with another bake, place your scones in the refrigerator until the oven is free so the butter in them stays cold.

Pumpkin Scones With Maple Frosting

Makes 8 large scones or 16 small scones.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Pumpkin Scones

• 4 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin spice
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 cup (or 1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 large eggs
• 15 ounce can pumpkin (or home-baked)
• One recipe Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Combine dry ingredients.

Cut cold butter into very small pieces and cut into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter. Butter should be about the size of peas when you are done cutting into the flour. A food processor or Stand Mixer with a whisk attachment works well for this too.

In a separate bowl, whisk together heavy cream, eggs, and pumpkin. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and gently stir just until combined. If using a mixer, change over from the whisk attachment to the flat beater attachment.

You might need a little bit of flour on your hands and countertop for this step. Form 2 round disks with the dough. Each disk should be about 5-6 inches around (or you can make 4 disks for 16 smaller scones).

Cut each disk of dough into 4 sections for a total of 8 scones. Place on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick baking spray or lined with parchment paper.

Or you can use an ice cream scoop and just scoop them onto the tray.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until scones are light golden brown and done in the middle. Cool for about 10 minutes.

Finally, frost warm scones with maple icing. Finish off breakfast with a lovely quiche, some coffee, and perhaps, a guilt-free game of Clue.