Thursday, November 19, 2009

Day 14: Pumpkin Scones

I could so, be British.

Let's face it... I'm like Victoria Beckham (aka, Posh Spice), except without the great shoes. Or free wardrobe. Or personal trainer, smokin' body, and perpetual tan. Or the chefs, nannys (even though I don't have children, sure would be nice to have one), maids, or chauffeurs. Or the paparazzi. Or the accent.

But other than that... I'm practically Victoria Beckham. For instance.... I like tea. And once, when I flew home from seminary, when I got off the plane, my Mom took a picture of me. Oh, and every now and then, I watch soccer.

See.. we're just alike.

But I think what really makes me want to call upon the Brits and question my heritage, is my love of scones. And in particular, Pumpkin Scones.

Unfortunately, these didn't turn out perfectly. They have the texture of a soft, cake-like cookie. What I'm finding is, that when you use the homemade pumpkin puree, it tends to have more moisture in it, thus, textures aren't true to the recipe.

How do you fix this? Am I an errant blogger to admit, that I have no idea? I've found that the excess moisture tends to separate from the puree when it's in the refrigerator -- so I pour that "juice" off right away. And I read somewhere, that if you let your pumpkin drain in a dish towel overnight, it will take care of the moisture. Huh, yeah. That sounds a little tedious. I've tried to throw the pumpkin puree in the microwave, but that just sort of made it tough. So... all that's to say, I don't have any real solutions, other than adding more flour to your recipes. And, you're welcome.

Anyway...














What you'll need:

2 1/2-3 Cups all-purpose flour
1/4 Cup packed brown sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
3/4 Teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons butter, cut into chunks
6 Tablespoons cream cheese, cut into chunks
3/4 Cup pumpkin
1/2 Cup milk
2 Tablespoons maple syrup

Preheat oven to 345*. In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Add the butter chunks and blend until pea-size crumbs form. Just get in there with your hands and rub them around. Add the cream cheese and do the same thing. In another bowl, whisk pumpkin and other wet ingredients together. Add this to the flour mixture and stir just until dough is evenly moistened.

Scrape onto a lightly floured counter, turn over to coat, and gently knead just until dough comes together, 5 or 6 turns. Pat dough into a 6-inch round 1 1/2 inches thick; cut into 6 equal wedges with a pizza cutter. Separate wedges and bake for about 13-15 minutes.

I give these a B- and my husband gave them a B-ish. If I hadn't been wanting to make scones... and had wanted a cake-like cookie... they would have gotten a B+. But as it stands, it wasn't a successful recipe.

1 comment:

  1. "Draining pumpkin puree on a dish towel is tedious..." At this stage in the process you are calling THAT tedious... 100 pumpkins halved, gutted, and baked later. How quickly we forget...
    And yet the world does not hear me to say, "Honey, how can I help? Let me strain the pumpkin for you." Nope, too tedious.

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