Pumpkin Pecan Scones with Maple Glaze

I find it amazing how a perfectly blank calendar month can fill up so fast. October is two-thirds over and I haven’t even posted one recipe to celebrate autumn yet!

I hear from the food blogosphere that people are already getting tired of pumpkin recipes. What?!! Really? Apparently, I’m missing all of them because, barring my premature pumpkin peach ice cream, I haven’t even gotten started with the pumpkin recipes… Well, until this weekend.

My mom hosted a Market at the Farm Sale and asked me to make scones for it. I knew I wanted to make one variety with pumpkin for a “fall-in-the-air kind of sale” and when I found Denise’s recipe over at Chez Us using cardamom I decided I had to give it a try.

I made several changes to her recipe, but the idea is the same. I have to tell you, these scones are SO GOOD!

• 1 1/2 c. white flour
• 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1/4 t. nutmeg
• 1 t. cardamom (freshly ground is best)
• 1/2 t. salt
• 8 T. butter
• 1/2 c. chopped pecans
• 1 egg
• 1/2 c. cooked pumpkin

Mix the dry ingredients together. Cut in cold butter. Add nuts and stir to combine.

Mix together pumpkin and egg with a fork. I didn’t puree the fresh pumpkin, just mashed it with a fork. I love the strands of orange color this produced. Add to dry ingredients and stir together.

Pour out onto a floured surface and knead just enough to combine everything together. Pat into a disk about 1 inch thick and cut into 8 wedges.

At this point you can freeze the scones on a paper lined cookie sheet, transfer to a plastic bag and store in the freezer until ready to bake. It’s so easy to pop the frozen scones on a cookie sheet and into the oven when ever the mood hits. Bake at 350 for 27-29 minutes in this case.

If you want a scone right away, heat the oven to 425 and bake for 12-14 minutes.

Glaze

1/2 c. Powdered sugar

maple syrup

I didn’t measure for this one, but really it’s all about what consistency you like for your glaze. Just add a tablespoon or two of maple syrup to the powdered sugar and stir until you like the way it looks and feels. Drizzle over warm scones.

The orange glaze I put on the Cranberry Almond Scones would be really good on these too. That’s just powdered sugar and fresh orange juice. Add a few drops of orange extract if you want more intense orange flavor. I almost always want more intense orange flavor, though I did find one exception the other day – Dark Chocolate Orange Lindor truffles are just too orange!

It was cold the morning of the sale making it the perfect morning to enjoy a warm scone and one of Caleb’s specialty espresso drinks! Wish you all could have been there!