Pumpkin Scones

I bought a cute little sugar pumpkin at our local fruit stand this year. I used it mostly to decorate, but after Halloween, I started to get antsy that I needed to use it before it rotted into a mushy smelly mess. I knew I didn't want to use it to make a pumpkin pie....I wanted something more interesting. Plus we are going to have pumpkin pie in a few weeks and wanted something different. I looked through tons of blogs and found so many wonderful ideas....pumpkin fudge, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin bars, muffins, cookies, etc. Note- I do not like pumpkin in savory recipes....I came across lots of those too. I finally found something I knew I wanted to try. Pumpkin scones! I had my very first scone at Panera...their orange scone...so these had some big shoes to fill. Panera's scones are soft, slightly sweet, and SO delicious. These came out a great texture, but just a little dry.....I probably didn't put enough liquid though, because I don't have real half and half....so try the recipe below if you like and tweak as you might see fit. YUM!

Pumpkin Scones
From Recipezaar.com

2 cups all purpose flour
7 Tbsp sugar (I used mostly brown sugar)
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
6 Tbsp cold butter (cut into small pieces)
1/2 cup mashed pumpkin
3 Tbsp half and half
1 large egg

1. Preheat oven to 425 F. Grease baking pan.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, spices). Add in butter and combine until resembles crumbles.
3. In a medium bowl, combine pumpkin, half and half, sugar, and the egg.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
5. Turn dough out of bowl onto lightly floured surface. Knead 4-5 times. Shape dough into disc. Cut disc into 8 wedges. Place onto baking pan and bake 15 minutes or until golden.

These would be great with a glaze...yummm!! This link above has recipes for different glazes.