Because frankly I’m too much of a hard ass to for something like that to work. The fact of the matter is, I fucking love pumpkin. I do. If those damn things grew year round I’d never be without it. I know I can probably get canned year round but I’d rather buy when it’s in season. Even if I do still get the canned version for simplicity’s sake.
Canned? But you’re a pastry chef! Yeah I know and I’ve said this at least twice in the past month – just because I CAN make everything from scratch, doesn’t mean I want to. I can buy a pumpkin, cut it up, roast it, take all the yummy pulp and all that jazz out but you know what? Opening a can is a lot easier.
About the only other flavor I love more than pumpkin is cinnamon. Cinnamon is a spice I will use year round with pleasure and glee. Evil glee.
Be warned: This will be a LONG post. You’re getting 2 for 1 this week.
Don’t want to read through everything? Well you’re missing out. I mean, I’m witty as hell, but whatever. Here, have instant gratification. You’ll be back…mostly because any recipe modifications are written in here.
Since it’s the last weekend before I head out of town to recuperate from my actual job (shocking right? I have a job that’s not baking!) with friends in the Pacific Northwest I’m going to open some windows, let in the crisp it-actually-feels-like-fall air, and break out my two favorite things: pumpkin and cinnamon. We’re sticking to the scones medium though because I love having those for breakfast and I’ll be changing a few things up with how I put everything together. The most notable difference is I will be doing a double batch again, but this time we’re doing two separate batches, one after the other.
First thing I did was cube up my butter and then stick it all back in the fridge to keep chilled while I measured out all the dry ingredients and sifted them together.
BUTTER!
I did some research before deciding to do my pumpkin scones and one video I watched the guy actually said that he wasn’t going to sift his dry ingredients because sifting was “old school” and not the good kind, that it was more like the memorizing dates important dates you could just look up online old school. Oh really? Because personally I always sift my flour and sugar. ALWAYS. Even when it’s not called for. Why? Because I like a smooth texture in my dough. It looks amazing and the baked goods come out wonderful.
So smooth…
See that picture below? I don’t want those things in my dough, thanks.
Things I don’t want in my dough
After all the cubing and the sifting I added the extra dry ingredients: 2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice to one batch and 4 oz of cinnamon sugar to another then I bagged them up into gallon freezer bags (because those were the type I had) and took a break for lunch and to go to the store for eggs since I didn’t bother to make sure I had any. Good job me right?
Sifting is important m’kay?
Cinnamon Suger Love
Pumpkin Spice Goodness
Upon my triumphant return with eggs in hand I continued to work up my doughs by putting half of the pumpkin scones dry mix into my food processor along with half of the chilled cubed butter to pulse until the butter was cut in and the dry ingredients looked like sand, once that was done I poured the first half into a mixing bowl and cut butter into the rest of the dry ingredients.
Cutting in the butter
Sandy, grainy, good.
This was followed up by mixing up the wet ingredients, which for the pumpkin scones, included 1 1/2 cups of pumpkin puree.
Enter the pumpkin
Once the pumpkin was mixed in I made a well in the bowl the dry ingredients were waiting in and poured the mixture of heavy cream, eggs and pumpkin in. I started out using the whisk to integrate the dry and wet then swapped it out for some good old elbow grease. By which I of course mean my hands. This time around I gave my stand mixer a rest and did the mixing by hand because with all the scones I’ll be eating I could afford to burn a few calories with some manual labor.
When worlds collide
Once I had the pumpkin dough mixed up I needed to add in more pastry flour and sugar (I remembered this time!) since the pumpkin puree threw my ratio of dry to wet ingredients off. I added about 2 oz. more of flour and 1 oz more of sugar in order to get the dough to a consistency I could work with. The cinnamon sugar scones were almost the same process with the exception of the cinnamon sugar was added with the dry ingredients and threw the ration off in the opposite direction resulting in me needed to add more heavy cream to get the dough to the right consistency. Once the cinnamon sugar dough was ready I added in 12 oz of walnuts and had a fun time doing the mixing dance.
Work it girl!
Now that both doughs were mixed up I put them onto sheet pans I had prepped earlier with parchment paper and flattened them out to the shape and thickness I wanted. They both went into the fridge to chill for a few hours while I caught up on some TV.
Pumpkin Dough
Cinnamon Walnut Dough
After they chilled I whipped up some egg wash and pre-heated the oven to 400 degrees then got to cutting out my scones. I decided to make circular scones this week because I like being different. Deal with it. After egg washing them and letting them rest for a few minutes they went into the oven to bake up and make my apartment smell amazing.
Circular Scones! INCONCEIVABLE!
Once the scones were done I let them cool and whipped up the simple syrup, cinnamon sugar, and sugar glaze.
Simple Syrup
Sugar Glaze
After the simple syrup was ready I added some to silvered almonds to candy them for garnishing the pumpkin scones.
Candied Almonds
With the scones cooled off there was nothing left to do but garnish them. The pumpkin scones got a drizzle of sugar glaze, some candied almonds and a dusting of powdered sugar. For the cinnamon walnut scones I went with a glaze of simple syrup, a dusting of cinnamon sugar and a drizzle of the sugar glaze. I was overly pleased with the results of the pumpkin scones, they were light, fluffy and moist with a great balance of flavor. The cinnamon scones were light, fluffy and moist but the flavor ratio seemed a bit off so this recipe will be tagged for later development.
Pumpkin Scones
Cinnamon Walnut Scones
Gurl...have a cupcake. 