Food Lust People Love: Bake Away With Me

Rumored to be just like the ones from a well-known coffee chain, these beautifully spiced pumpkin scones with spiced glaze are perfect with a cup of coffee or tea.

If you’ve been reading along here for a while you’ve already heard me say how much I’ve enjoyed getting to know fellow bloggers during the last three years of public blogging. I sincerely wish I had time to read and comment on every blog that I love every time there is a new post, but that wouldn’t leave any time for my own cooking and writing and other fun stuff, so something’s got to give. I do try to get around to them as often as I can. But what if reading another blog was part of a group assignment? Well, I’d have to do that, right?! Have you guessed already that I have joined another bloggers group to justify my blog reading obsession? You are so smart.

Bloggers C.L.U.E. Society
This one’s called Bloggers C.L.U.E. Society and the premise is that we are matched up with another food blogger each month and we need search his or her blog for a recipe to fit that month’s theme. And make it. We’ll introduce ourselves and our readers to each other with each post, until perhaps someday, we’ve made a recipe from and gotten to know every blogger in the group.

This is our inaugural Bloggers C.L.U.E. post. I was assigned Bakeaway With Me and our theme is Thanksgiving. As I browsed through Kathy’s blog, I had to put on my detective cap to figure out more about her since her profile doesn't reveal anything. Hunting for clues was part of the fun though! I discovered that she is married to a man with Dutch heritage and they live with their children in New Jersey. Her mother’s family is of Lebanese descent and her father’s family came over from Hungary, so she has a fabulous and eclectic mixture of ethnic recipes on her blog, as well as a bunch from another group she participates in called French Fridays with Dorie. Deciding on just one recipe to try was going to be a challenge!

Since our theme is Thanksgiving, I finally settled on one that I know my daughters will love. I’m not much of a sweet eater but I must confess that I took my usual taste test bite from one scone and ended up eating it all. I’ve never had the real thing from Starbucks so I can’t compare but, boy, are these good! I’ve decided that they are going to be breakfast for Christmas morning. (My girls won't be home for Thanksgiving, more's the pity!) Kathy says that they freeze well, so I tested that statement and can report that she is telling the absolute truth. I glazed them and froze them in a single layer and they thawed beautifully, looking and tasting just like fresh baked. Which will make Christmas morning even easier.

Here’s Kathy’s recipe. Hope you love it as much as I did! I’ve added the metric measures for those of you who prefer to use a scale for baking.

Pumpkin Scones (Starbucks Copycat)

Yield: 8 scones
Prep Time: 30 min
Cook Time: 15 min
adapted from Todd Wilbur

Ingredients
For the scones:
2 cups or 250g all-purpose flour
1/3 cup, packed, or 65g brown sugar,
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup or 115g unsalted COLD butter, cut into cubes
1/2 cup or 120g pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
3 tablespoons milk or cream
1 large egg
2 tablespoons maple syrup

For the spiced glaze:
1 cup or 125g confectioners' or icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of nutmeg
Pinch salt
2 tablespoons milk

Method
Preheat oven to 425°F or 220°C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and salt.

Add cold butter, and using a pastry blender, work the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles coarse crumbs. You want to see some very small pieces of the butter.

In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, cream, egg and maple syrup.

Pour mixture over the dry ingredients and stir using a rubber spatula just until a soft dough forms.

Working on a lightly floured surface, knead the dough a few times until it comes together. With lightly floured hands, pat the dough into a rectangle measuring roughly 7x9 inches or 18x23cm. (I patted with my hands then used my rolling pin to just lightly stretch the dough to the right size.)

Using a large knife or a pizza cutter, cut the rectangle in half lengthwise, then cut into 2 even pieces crosswise, making four rectangles. Then cut each rectangle into two triangles, making 8 triangles.