Pumpkin Scones and my silly life

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October 10, 2012 by jenniebean10

I’M AWFUL at keeping up with my blog. You’d have better luck keeping up the Kardashians than you would keeping up with me! This entire semester is whizzing past, and it always feels as though there aren’t enough hours in the day, so to all the people I haven’t been keeping in touch with: forgive me! If you’re just here for the recipes, that’s cool, but if you’re here to see if you can get glean any sort of update from me, here’s a little peek into my life lately…where do I begin?

WORK: I’m at Gettysburg College for another year, and I’m working on several new projects, which are all equally exciting but very different. This is often somewhat stressful, but I’m being challenged in a good way. I’m also working with some fantastic undergrads in the lab this year, which means lab meetings are both productive AND fun! While MATLAB drives me crazy, I get to code and debug and it’s like solving a puzzle. At the moment, I’m also using morphing software to average women’s faces together, and it’s bizarre and fun. This week, I’m going to work on manipulating the sizes of people’s facial features using Photoshop. That will be fun and weird, too. PLAY: This year, there are a ton of new faculty and staff, so every single weekend has been filled with some sort of event. And people here like to dance, so we have been partying down way more than last year. I have a second home in Gettysburg! Well, not really, but it feels like this because I’m at the TA (teaching assistant) house more often than not – I’ve even got a bed there! I started climbing at the gym, and I’m taking a combat kickboxing class that my friend teaches. I escape Gettysburg pretty much once a week to do something fun and see people out of town – hikes and bike rides, concert in DC, couchsurfing potluck in Frederick, and of course the tradition of going to Cornell’s homecoming. I don’t know when I’ll be back in France, but Kelsey is in Nice now, teaching English, and I’m going to meet up with her when I’m over there again. OTHER STUFF: While I haven’t been going to French class anymore, I’m taking a sign language class once a week! I’m not going to be anywhere near fluent after this intro class, but it’s a lot of fun and I’m excited to learn more. I’ve signed up to take the GRE (finally) in November, and I’m trying to get my butt in gear with applying for grad school. I’m looking at Speech/Language Pathology programs, and those apps are due this winter. I bought a mandolin and have been playing around with that when I have time, my car is being difficult as usual, and I was an extra in a movie they’re filming on campus. More on that in another post. NOW…for the real reason you came here.

For those of you who voted in the pumpkin poll, pumpkin scones NARROWLY beat out pumpkin pop tarts/hand pies by ONE vote! I’m going to make some other pumpkin stuff this fall, not to worry. My brainstorm chalkboard has pumpkin cinnamon rolls, pumpkin ravioli, and those pop tarts on it :] I’ve also got some exciting sweets to make this weekend, since it’s German‘s birthday party and I’m bakin’ the cake.

My friend Leslie and I attempted pumpkin scones last fall. They were a disaster. The dough was too wet, and they were just weird. This time, I spent a while comparing scone recipes, particularly ones that incorporated pumpkin into the batter, and ended up with this! They were pretty delicious, and I even froze a couple to save for a friend. Not exactly sure how those fared, but I’m going to thaw those and give them to her this week. We’ll see….

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Pumpkin Scones and Maple Spice Glaze

1 c. pastry flour (you don’t have to use a blend – you can use all-purpose flour for the whole thing)
1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 c. raw organic sugar
1 T. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
6 oz. COLD butter, cut into 1/2-in cubes
1 c. pumpkin puree (fresh or canned, without seasoning)
1/2 to 2/3 c. buttermilk
2 t. cinnamon
1 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. ginger
pinch allspice
5 cloves, ground with a mortar and pestle
1 egg, lightly beaten, for egg-wash

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place cubed butter in the freezer while you measure out the dry ingredients in a large bowl (or food processor if you have one!). Whisk together, and then add the cubed butter. Cut the butter into the flour mixture using a pastry blender (or the food processor) until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. (If using a food processor, transfer this to another bowl.) Add the buttermilk and the pumpkin and stir just until the dough comes together. If it seems way too sticky, add a small amount of flour.

Turn out on a lightly floured surface, and knead gently a few times. Roll the dough or flour your hands and pat it out to 1-inch thickness. Cut into triangles or whatever shape you wish. I used a pumpkin/apple-shaped cookie cutter and a biscuit cutter. Place on the parchment-lined baking sheet, brush with egg-wash, and bake for 25-30 min, until lightly browned.

For the glaze:

3/4 c. powdered sugar
1/4 c. maple syrup
1 T. milk
1/4 t. cinnamon
1/8 t. nutmeg
pinch allspice

Whisk together the sugar, spices, maple syrup, and milk until smooth. Add sugar or milk as necessary to get the desired consistency. Drizzle over the warm scones.

These turned out really well. They weren’t as fluffy as the dreamy cream scones from Smitten Kitchen, but they are PUMPKIN! And delicious. And that’s all that matters 😀 Has anyone else ever made pumpkin scones? How did they turn out?