Pumpkin Scones with Berry Butter

This is nuts, but it has been a year and 2 days since I posted anything!  I have still been cooking (of course), but last fall, about this time, I started doing Dinner + Dessert + Delivery as a fundraiser for our Haiti trip.  It was very successful but also made me very busy.  I cooked like crazy until we left, and we got back in mid-April.  And then, I was out of the habit.  I contemplated scrapping this whole blog, because it had been so long, and also because this is clearly an amateur effort :) and when I go to other cooking blogs they are light years ahead of mine, as far as polish and professionalism.  So last week a friend asked me about it (she might have been kidding because I can almost never tell with her) and then today my sister asked me about it.  She is a great one for advice, that one.  Both ladies were like (and I'm paraphrasing here) "who cares about how professional it looks?"  So, I sally forth.  Nothing gets me in the mood for baking like fall weather, so this is what I made today.  A few months ago a friend from church gave me a huge stack of Taste of Home magazines from the past several years...some of them I had already seen and cooked through, but a lot of them I hadn't.  So this recipe is from their Oct/Nov 2008 issue.

Pumpkin Scones with Berry Butter
Butter:
2 tbsp dried cranberries (we didn't have these so I used raisins...still good)
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 tbsp powdered sugar
Dough:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1 1/4 cup white and 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour...to make them "healthier" and also to eat them for breakfast with less guilt)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup cold butter
1 egg
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup milk
2 tbsp chopped pecans, optional (but I added them because I love them)

Place cranberries in a small bowl; add boiling water.  Let stand for 5 minutes; drain and chop.  In a small bowl beat butter until light and fluffy.  Add powdered sugar and cranberries; mix well.  Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour (I did not refrigerate mine).

In a large bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, pie spice, salt, and baking soda.  Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  In a small bowl whisk the egg, pumpkin, and milk; add to crumb mixture just until moistened.  Stir in pecans if desired.

Turn dough onto a floured surface; knead 10 times.  Pat into an 8-inch circle.  Cut into 8 wedges; separate wedges and place on a greased baking sheet (my dough seemed wetter than it should [maybe because I used some wheat flour] and I knew separating the wedges would be futile and frustrating.  So I did knead the dough on a lightly floured surface but then I put it on my baking stone and smooshed it into the 8-inch circle, and then cut it into 8 wedges.  I tried to separate them a bit so that it wouldn't be one giant cookie [you can see it in the picture above].  It worked pretty well).

Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes (mine took about 18; it always takes longer on baking stones, I've found) or until golden brown.  Serve warm with berry butter.

 

The results:
Yum yum yum yum yum.  These aren't the prettiest scones ever.  But they tasted amazing. Both older children really liked them.  The little one wouldn't try ("I can't eat those.  Because of the pecans." But he could if he wanted to, he's just picky).  So delicious with my coffee this afternoon.  And THIS JUST IN my friend just stopped by and ate one and said "Mmmmmmm."  So I am very pleased to resume blogging with this yummy thing.  Even if only my sister and a couple other people read it :)