pumpkin scones w/ cinnamon-cider cream cheese glaze

Wouldn't that be cool if you could scratch and sniff this? I used to love those scratch & sniff books as a young kid. You know you're going to be a foodie when you had a collection of the 'scratch & sniff' books as a youngster. Didn't matter that the sniff part lost it's 'sniff'--you could still smell it, no matter what. I had 'pat the bunny' book too; loved the part of dad's rough skin.
I hate to be one-sided here, I know the scone is supposed to be the best in show here, but in all honesty the cinnamon-cider cream cheese glaze just steals it. Not too sweet, and just the right amount of cinnamon to cider to cream cheese ratio. I love when it all balances out. Try these, that cider bite with the gentle pumpkin scone? Oh heavenly.



Don't get me wrong, the pumpkin scone is stellar, I'm just bragging about the glaze--it melds perfectly with the slightly sweet-pumpkiney scone. Of course I had to add sprinkles. I know scones don't really call for sprinkles, but I got these all natural sprinkles from Whole Foods. There's no dye, no chemicals, no junk--love that. That orange color is just so fabulous for these scones. And they have a taste to them as well. Look for them at Whole Foods as they have beautiful array of colors.



pumpkin scones with cinnamon-cider cream cheese glaze
print recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 TB baking powder
1/2 ts baking soda
¾ ts salt
¾ ts ground cinnamon
½ ts ground nutmeg
¼ ts ground all spice
6 ½ TB cold butter, grated with cheese grater (store in freezer till ready to use)
½ cup canned pumpkin (not the pie filling, just plain old pumpkin puree)
7 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
3 TB heavy cream
1 large egg

Glaze:
¾ cup +/- confectioners sugar, sifted
4 oz. cream cheese, room temp (nice & soft)
1 ts ground cinnamon
A dash or three of pure apple cider

Grate your butter with the large holes of a cheese grater. Then back into the freezer until you’re ready to use them. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. (I have a confection so I did 400 degrees). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and all the spices, set aside.
In a medium bowl combine the pumpkin, sugar, cream and egg. Beat well until nice and combined.
Get out your butter from the freezer, and add that to the flour mixture. Mix with fork or pastry cutter until you have bread-like crumbs.
Then fold the wet ingredients, in 2 batches into the butter/flour mixture. Use a wooden spoon or spatula. Make sure to not overbeat and get all the dry crumbly bits at the bottom of the bowl.
Dust your work space with generous amounts of flour and place dough down. You might want to dust your hands with flour as you will need to shape this dough into a large circle. Dough will be sticky. Once you have a ball, gently press down and out, forming the dough into a flattened circle. About 8-10 inches round. Dough will crack when you press down, just pinch & repair as you go along.
Dust a large, sharp knife with flour and cut the dough into six triangles. Slide the knife under each triangle to help you lift and transfer it to the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 14 – 16 minutes, or until the scones begin to turn light brown in color. Mine were done at the 12 minute mark so check them at 10 or 12 minutes.
While scones are baking assemble the glaze by adding in the soft cream cheese to a medium size bowl, add in the sifted confectioners sugar, cinnamon, and a couple dashes of the apple cider. Don’t add in all the cider at once; it’s better to add in small doses than larger ones. Get out the handheld mixer and beat until well mixed, no lumps are present. You can add as much or as little apple cider depending on how thick you like your glaze.
Let scones cool a bit on a rack before glazing.