Today I broke my rule. If you read the post about our tree trimming, you know it’s been a hectic week for us. I spent much of it feeling agitated from barely managing to stay on top of things. Today I decided to ignore all of that and enjoy my girls. The chaos of life with small children is not going to change, but I can change my response to it. Some rule breaking was in order.
I don’t normally let Trinity have a sugary breakfast before school but I had multiple reasons for breaking that rule today. She had a rough week at school right before we left for Thanksgiving but she has had a great week since getting back. I wanted to do something special to reward her. A friend also asked recently if I had a good pumpkin scone recipe. And it’s Fun Friday! Why not make pumpkin scones for my girls for breakfast?
This recipe is from recipegirl.com. Any notes I’ve added to the recipe are in italics. Also I used a food processor to make the whole thing easier. Recipegirl adapted this from Top Secret Recipes and claims they are better than Starbucks Pumpkin Scones. I have never had one from Starbucks but I can tell you that these are delicious and were thoroughly enjoyed by all the Shaffer girls this morning.
Starbuck’s Pumpkin Scones
Yield: 6 scones
More tender and delicious than the original…
Ingredients:
SCONES:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup canned pure (unsweetened) pumpkin
3 tablespoons half and half cream
1 large egg
6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into cubes
PLAIN GLAZE:
1/2 cup powdered sugar (sifted)
1 tablespoon milk (any kind)
SPICED ICING:
3/4 cup powdered sugar (sifted)
1 to 2 tablespoons milk (any kind)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
pinch of ground ginger
pinch of ground cloves
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray or line with parchment paper. Give it a light dusting of flour on top of that.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (through ginger).
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, half and half and egg.
4. Use a pastry cutter or two knives to cut butter into the dry ingredients. Continue cutting until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. (You may also use a food processor for this step. Pulse until the mixture resembles fine crumbs).
5. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients, (or pulse in food processor until they just come together) then form the dough into a ball. 
The dough will be wet, but if it seems super sticky… just go ahead and sprinkle a little more flour into the dough until it’s easier to handle. Remember, you want it to be somewhat sticky, and that’s okay- but you also don’t want it to stick to the baking sheet. Pat out dough onto the lightly floured baking sheet and form it into a 1-inch thick rectangle that is about 9-inches long and 3-inches wide. Use a large knife or a pizza cutter to slice the dough twice through the width, making three equal squares. Cut through the three squares diagonally so that you have 6 triangular slices of dough. Gently pull the triangles apart, leaving about 1/2-inch space between each one. I cut mine into 8 scones instead of six and they turned out perfect.
6. Bake 14 to 16 minutes on prepared baking sheet. 12-14 minutes if you make eight. Scones should begin to turn light brown.
This is what my kitchen work area usually looks like! 😉 The girls like to be where the action is.
7. While scones are cooling, prepare plain glaze by whisking ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix until smooth.
8. When scones are cool, use a knife to cut them apart and then pull them apart so that they are ready for glazing. Use a brush to paint a coating of the glaze over the top of each scone.
9. As the white glaze firms up, prepare spiced icing by whisking the ingredients in another medium bowl until smooth. Drizzle this thicker icing over each scone (or brush it on) and allow the icing to dry before serving.
As we walked to the car to take Trinity to school this morning she said “Thank you for my scones mommy! I enjoyed my special breakfast and my time with you.” Now THAT was worth breaking the rules! 🙂 Even with a sweet breakfast I think she’ll do fine in school today but just in case, I sent a peace offering to her teacher…one of these scones!
*The next time I made these I used my scone pan:
sarahsjoys 
Wow….these look fabulous! I will have to try them:-)
I LOVE Starbuck’s pumpkin scones, so I will definitely try this!
Thank you my amazing friend & gourmet mom!
We will be giving these a try.
These are absolutely delicious and they make the house smell awesome. I love even more that they take less than 15mins in the oven. I sometimes can’t wait an hour for my cakes!
I cut the sugar to just 1/2c and had to substitute the half and half for evaporated milk since it’s impossible finding half and half in HK. But every local kitchen here has evaporated milk (a must have for making HK style Cha
chan teng milk tea). I also used an ice cream scoop because i was too lazy to shape them. They’re fluffier than the Starbucks kind and so full if flavor. Love this!! Thanks so much for sharing!