Pumpkin Scones: Recipe

This summer I heard about a national pumpkin shortage and the only thing I was concerned with was whether or not Libby's would have an adequate supply in my supermarket of 100% pure pumpkin in the 15 oz can come October!  I imagine that others cared about whether or not there would be pumpkins for the annual 'pick-your-own' festivals...but I was thinking about pies, breads, and scones. So what did I do?  I purchased about 8 32-oz cans of pure pumpkin and another 10 15-oz cans.  Truthfully, pumpkin like this doesn't go bad - and certainly not within a year!  However, I'm now hoarding it all - so now if you notice there isn't any pumpkin on the shelves...I might be the one to blame!

I love pumpkin scones and I've never made them before so I searched all over for the right scone recipe  to use as a base.  Typically scones are served with jam so they aren't designed to be ultra sweet - I suppose that if we wanted a sweet cake, we'd order a cupcake. Pumpkin seems to favor the flavors of its namesake pie - cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, etc. So I crafted this recipe based on two or three others I reviewed.

These happened to have been cakey and rather good without the icing but once the icing went on...they were perfect.

Pumpkin Spiced Scones with Two-Toned Icing
makes about 12 small-medium scones

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/8 tsp. ground all-spice
7.5 oz. canned pure pumpkin (about 1/2 a 15 oz. can)
6 Tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
3 Tablespoons buttermilk
1 large egg

For the White Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons milk

For the Spiced Glaze
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons milk
1 tsp. cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg, ginger, ground cloves and all-spice

Preheat oven to 425 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine the flour, sugars, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and all-spice in a large bowl. Use a fork and mix well.  Next add the butter and with your fingers, rub the butter into the flour mixture until it's crumbly and there are no more chunks of butter.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, buttermilk and egg.  Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ones and for a dough ball.  Onto a floured surface, turn out the dough ball and flatten into a long rectangle about 1-inch thick. Use a large knife and make three horizontal cuts about equidistant. Next, cut an "x" into each of the three sections so that each section then has 4 pieces of dough.  Place each on the prepared baking sheet and bake about 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Once scones are cooled, make the two icings.  First place the white icing mixture into a bowl and mix well. With a butter knife or a pastry brush, spread the plain white icing over the scone.

Finally, prepare the spiced icing and drizzle over each scone.  Allow them to set and harden - about an hour or so (though they can certainly be eaten before that!)