Pumpkin Scones

Pumpkin puree is easy to make. Come pumpkin season you are sure to be looking for a range of recipes with this very useful ingredient, including Pumpkin Scones!

If you are going to the trouble of chopping up a pumpkin, say using half of it for a roast vegetable salad, I encourage you to roast the lot at once. With the pumpkin you don’t eat, simply scrape off the flesh (discarding the skin for the compost) and simply mash it. Keep it in an airtight container in the fridge.

If you are a ‘boil it’ kind of household, do the same. Simply mash leftover pumpkin (drained first, no added butter or milk required) and store in an airtight container. For boiled pumpkin, be aware that it will need to be strained of excess liquid if it’s been stored in the fridge overnight as it would have naturally absorbed more water in the cooking process.

Pumpkin Scones

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 50g cold butter, grated
• 2 cups flour
• 3 tsp baking power
• 1 cup pumpkin puree*
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbsp milk
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• pinch of salt

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Combine sugar, butter, sifted flour and baking powder in a bowl. With clean fingers, rub butter into the dry mix until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
3. In a separate bowl, mix pumpkin puree, egg, milk, spices and salt. Combine well.
4. Create a well in the centre of the dry mix, pour in pumpkin mix and combine together well as best you can with a wooden spoon. Use clean hands to knead in dough to combine the remaining flour around the sides of the bowl. This will take several minutes.
5. Transfer onto a floured surface and pat down, or roll out with a rolling pin, to approx 3 cms in height in the form of a vague circle. Cut into 8 pieces, as you would a cake, then transfer onto an oven tray lined with grease-proof paper.
6. Bake for 10-15 minutes.
7. Serve warm with butter and your favourite toppings, be it sweet or savoury OR serve alongside soup.
8. Store uneaten scones in an airtight container to keep fresh for 2-3 days.