Recipe: Pumpkin Spice Everything Is Here

‘Tis the season! No, not Christmas! Pumpkin spice season, previously known as fall. Our love for everything pumpkin and spice is so prevalent now that this year Starbucks decided to move up their pumpkin spice latte arrival date to Aug. 27, a day earlier than last year and a week earlier than years past.

So fierce is the obsession that along with the advent of the pumpkin spiced latte came other pumpkin goodies, among them the infamous pumpkin scone, great for the taste buds but terrible for the waistline. Starbucks, of course, being a major culprit in this deviously delicious baked good has by far one of the best ever pumpkin scones — that is, until now…

In this Starbucks copycat recipe, inspired by online blogger Chungah of the blog Damn Delicious and then modified by yours truly, you can make delicious, quick, and easy pumpkin scones for a fraction of the price.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 cup butter (cold and cut into small 1-inch pieces)
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
3 tbsp. milk
1 large egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract

The glaze

1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 tsp. of vanilla extract
2 tbsp. cream (half and half)

The pumpkin spice glaze

1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1 tbsp. pumpkin puree
2 tbsp. cream (half and half)


Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F.

In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients for the scones including flour, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves and ground ginger. Add cold butter, mixing it in with your hands until the flour and butter mixture have a coarse crumb consistency.

In a separate bowl, mix together wet ingredients, including pumpkin puree, milk, vanilla, and egg. Then pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until it forms a dough.

Pour dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until it all comes together.

Roll out dough into a 7 by 10 inch rectangle, about one inch thick. Using a large knife, cut rectangle down the middle horizontally and then down the middle vertically. Once you have four squares, cut each one diagonally in order to form eight triangles.

Place eight scones on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and place in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the scone comes out clean.

To make the plain sugar glaze, mix the confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and cream together until smooth. If glaze is too thick add a little more cream until the glaze runs slowly off the spoon. An important thing to note is that the best way to guarantee a great-tasting glaze is to always use a fresh, unopened bag of confectioners’ sugar. This particular type of sugar tends to take in smells and tastes around it after it has been opened.

To make the pumpkin spice glaze, mix all ingredients together until smooth. This glaze should be a little thicker than the plain sugar glaze.

Once scones are done, place on a rack and allow to cool. Then spoon the plain glaze over the scones and once that sets, drizzle the pumpkin spice glaze over the plain glaze and let it set until no longer wet before serving.