FINALLY! It’s FINALLY October so it’s FINALLY acceptable for me to post something pumpkin. Now, here in Southern California we are amazingly pumpkin spice anything obsessed despite it never really being cold enough to justify the warming, spicy taste of anything pumpkin spice flavored. Maybe it’s a case of wishful thinking, or hope that it’ll turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy (we act like it’s cold maybe it will become cold). But who can blame us when pumpkin is the best thing about this season?!

The other week I binge-baked pumpkin scones. I couldn’t help myself. I like variety and I love chocolate and I love love pumpkin, so it only made sense to make multiple batches of pumpkin scones. I wanted to make the scones using my original cream scone recipe and alter it to accommodate pumpkin, but I know that pumpkin does funny things to baked goods and it would be smarter to make an American style scone that I knew would work with pumpkin instead of a British scone with pumpkin failure. So we have some eggs, we have some baking powder and baking soda, and we have a whole ton of pumpkin.

Funny story about this recipe. Normally I mix my scones by hand, incorporating the cream and flour and mix-ins by touch and instinct almost more than anything else. That’s what happens when you’ve made 2000 scone batches in the course of a few years. So I went to do the same with this recipe, and stopped milliseconds before pouring the egg into the flour. What was I thinking?! That would be so gross and so ineffective to mix in EGG with my hands. Like seriously. Grab a fork and mix it in like a normal person. But then, yes you should probably spend a few seconds finishing bringing together all the ingredients by hand at the end, after the egg is already fully stirred. Even experienced bakers have brain farts.

The scones finish with a slightly cakier texture than my regular scones, but pumpkin has a tendency to do that to baked goods that are not already pumpkin cake. And despite an entire can of pumpkin added to the dough, they weren’t overwhelmingly pumpkin so the white chocolate is an extra pleasant touch of additional flavor. The perfect way to kick off pumpkin season. You may eventually get sick of pumpkin spice everything, but you’ll never get sick of these pumpkin white chocolate scones!

pumpkin white chocolate scones

Ingredients

• 3 ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup white sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• ¾ tsp salt
• ¾ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¾ tsp ground nutmeg
• ¾ tsp ground allspice
• 1 cup white chocolate chips, plus more for drizzle
• 3 tbsp cold unsalted butter
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 can pumpkin (15 oz)
• 1 tsp canola oil

directions

Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl, sift flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice (all the dry ingredients). Toss in the chocolate chips.

Cube the butter and rub into the flour mixture until pieces are smaller than a pea. Add egg and pumpkin. Stir with a fork until all the dry ingredients are moist. You may have to use your hands to finish incorporating the ingredients.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Pat down to ¾ inch. Cut out scones with a 5 cm biscuit cutter and set on the baking sheet.

Bake 7-10 minutes (we did 8) until the tops of the scones are well done. Transfer to a wire rack to cool immediately.

Pour white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Add canola oil. Microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until melted. Drizzle over the cooled scones. Allow chocolate to set before serving.