Pumpkin scones

I find it amazing how hyperpriced, underqualitied and overroasted beans can set the standard for coffee. Now it seems that purveyor sets the standard for pastries too.

As you can tell, I'm not their fan.

Time and time again I've heard people wax lyrical about said purveyor's red velvet cake and recently their cakepops. At this time of year, it seems as if their pumpkin scones have won lauds and honours from those accustomed to their wares.

I tried one. I found it absolutely amazing that a lead-like pastry coffined by icing so thick, that it bore more of a resemblance to an oversized Trivial Pursuit wedgie, could be as dry as sawdust.

This is considered to be an amazing scone? I'll just chalk that up with other opinions like Chef Boyardee is the best Italian food (yes, said by a guy I used to date), Combo Number 3B at that restaurant around the corner that gives you free fried rice with orders that cost more than $15 is what people really eat in China (unless you are in China and the resto around the corner really does have a Combo Number 3B), and edible oil products are just as tasty as real cheese or actual whipped cream.

Part of the issue is, I think, this obsession with encasing every baked good in icing. Cookies, cakes, cupcakes, muffins and scones. Heck...I wouldn't be surprised if pies and tarts get the frosted over. Oh wait...certain commercial Bakewell tarts have fallen victim.

It's gotten to the point that I think people honestly believe that a thick slathering of icing sugar held together by butter/ margarine/ shortening/ water/ lemon juice/ stuff I don't want to think about will absolve all evils of the baked good it smothers.

No. No it doesn't.

I fully realise we all have different ideas as to what a scone should be like--heck, people can't agree how to pronounce the word--but I'm of the belief that a scone should be light, tender, abundant with nooks and crannies to nestle in clotted cream, jam or butter...and uniced.

I also think its pronunciation should rhyme with "lawn" as opposed to "loan."

Maybe that's the other problem... Maybe what the ubiquitous coffee shop sells is a scone-rhymes-with-loan (would explain the price), and I'm looking for a scone-rhymes-with-lawn (heck, I have no airs...I'll eat my scone on a lawn).

With about a third of a cup of leftover pumpkin puree, from Thanksgiving baking, I decided to make some pumpkin scones-rhymes-with lawns. After looking at about half a dozen recipes, and referring to my favourite one by Tamasin Day-Lewis, I came up with this one.

I'm quite happy with these scones. They come together easily, are tender, lightly pumpkinny and not cloyingly sweet. Perfect warm with a bit of butter.

Pumpkin Scones

adapted from recipes by Tamasin Day-Lewis, Shoebox Kitchen, Baking and Books, Eggs on Sunday and Pinch My Salt

Yield 12 (with a 6.25cm/2.5" cutter)

Ingredients
100ml (0.33c+1Tbsp) yoghurt
75g (0.33c/85ml) pureed pumpkin
1Tbps (15ml) cream of tartar
0.5tsp (2.5ml) cinnamon
0.5tsp (2.5ml) ground ginger
0.25tsp (1.25ml) ground cardamom
0.25ml (1.25ml) ground cloves
0.25tsp (1.25ml) ground nutmeg
280g (2c/500ml) all purpose flour
1.25tsp (6.25ml) bicarbonate of soda
0.25tsp (1.25ml) salt
65g (0.33 c/85ml) sugar
55g (0.25c/60ml) very cold or frozen butter
50g (0.33c/85ml) dried cranberries
25g (0.25c/60ml) walnut pieces

milk, cream or eggwash
sugar or demerara sugar, for sprinkling

Method
Preheat oven to 200C/400F and line a baking tray with parchment or tin foil.

Mix together the yoghurt, pumpkin, cream of tartar and spices. Set aside.

Sift together the flour with the bicarb, then mix in the sugar and salt. Grate in the butter. Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture looks like a combination of coarse bread crumbs with some pieces the size of small peas.

Quickly fold in the yoghurty mixture and lightly knead into a soft spongey dough. Incorporate the fruit and nuts.

Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1.25cm (0.5") thickness and cut into rounds. Remove to the lined baking tray and let rise for 10 minutes

Brush the tops with milk, cream, or an egg wash made of an egg beaten with water and sprinkle the top with a little granulated or demerara sugar.

Bake for 8-12 minutes. The scones will have risen, the bottoms will be a medium golden and the sides will have firmed a bit.

Notes

• Don't use pumpkin pie filling
• If you don't have all the spices, change them as you will, or simply use 1.75tsp of pumpkin pie spice (though I'm not entirely sure what's in it)
• Omit the fruit and/or nuts, or use what you think will work nicely
• Of course...the number of scones you'll get is dependent upon the size of cutter you use.

cheers!

jasmine

I'm a quill for hire!

Red Prince apples: Apple scones

Disclosure: The apples used in this recipe were provided by the grower.

When my friend Peter of Martin's Fruit Farms told me he had a prince of a prezzie for me, how could I not be intrigued?

What arrived was a series of white hat boxes bound by a festive red ribbon, reminiscent of St. Bride's spire. And inside? A package to help celebrate the marriage of William and Catherine, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge: gilded caramel apple chocolate truffles, apple scones and five gorgeous Red Prince apples.

I've heard a lot about these apples as of late--lasciviously rouged, white flesh and sweet-tart flesh, delicious both eaten out of hand and baked.

So I tried one.

Fabulous red wrap. Juicy. Sweet with a bit of sharpness.

Remind you of anyone?

I must admit while the truffles were nice, I really wasn't enamoured with the enclosed scones. The accompanying recipe promised light and moist treats, but the moistness of the samples were from being underbaked. Not necessarily a good thing.

That said, I could tell the apples had kept their shape, texture and flavour. So I did what any self-respecting home baker would do: I baked up my own batch, based on my go-to recipe by Tamasin Day-Lewis..

The results? Lovely, light and golden scones, flecked with red and filled with apply goodness. Perfect warm, slathered with butter or a shwoosh of double Devon cream.

More information about Red Prince apples, including recipes, health benefits and an FAQ can be found on on RedPrinceApple.ca.

Apple Scones

Adapted from scone recipes by Tamasin Day-Lewis and the official Red Prince apple web site.

Yield 9-24, depending upon cutter size

Ingredients
170g (1.66c) baking apple, skin-on, finely chopped (1 apple)
25g (2Tbsp) sugar plus more for sprinkling
1Tbsp lemon juice
1 egg
a splash of milk or cream
450g (3.25c/1lb) all purpose flour
0.5tsp salt
1dspn (2tsp) cream of tartar
1dspn (2tsp) bicarbonate of soda
0.5tsp cinnamon
75g (0.33c) cold, unsalted butter (frozen preferred)
310ml (1.25c) yoghurt

Method
Preheat oven to 210C/425F. Line a baking tray with aluminum foil.

Mix chopped apple with lemon juice and 2Tbsp sugar and set aside.

Make an egg wash by beating the egg with cream. Set aside.

Sift together flour, cream of tartar, bicarb, salt and cinnamon. Grate and then rub butter into the flour mixture. Gently fold in yoghurt and apple pieces, without overworking the dough. Press into a 3.5-4cm/1.5" thick rectangle and cut out rounds of whichever size you prefer.

Transfer rounds to a baking tray, allowing 2.5-4cm (1"-1.5") between each. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Let rise for 10 minutes.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. The scones will be a warm golden colour and the interiors should be flaky and moist, without being damp.

cheers!

jasmine

I'm a quill for hire!