Pumpkin Scones ** Starbucks copycat ***

 I've been craving Starbuck's pumpkin scones a lot lately. I don't get them often, even though I love them. And it doesn't help that we are 25 miles away from the closest Starbucks. I did a quick search for their copycat recipe, and found several sites that had the same recipe, so I figured it was probably a good one. 

These are so delicious, and taste sooo much better FRESH/home-made. They are much more moist and soft than at Starbucks, but still have that great pumpkin & spice flavor. They're kinda time consuming to make, but not too bad, the only part I don't like is cutting in butter. The recipe makes 6 scones, and only uses 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree, so I saved the reminder of the puree from the 15 oz can. I'm very tempted to make these again in the morning. They are soooooooo goooooood.

I found this blog had a good picture-by-picture play of the recipe.

SCONES:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup canned pure (unsweetened) pumpkin
3 tablespoons half and half cream ( I did 1 1/2 Tbsp of whipping cream and 1 1/2 Tbsp. of whole milk, because that's what I had on hand.)
1 large egg
6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into cubes

PLAIN GLAZE:
1/2 cup powdered sugar (sifted)
1 tablespoon milk (any kind)

SPICED ICING:
3/4 cup powdered sugar (sifted)
1 to 2 tablespoons milk (any kind)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
pinch of ground ginger
pinch of ground cloves

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray or line with parchment paper. (I just rubbed some butter on a baking sheet.) Give it a light dusting of flour on top of that.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (through ginger).

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, half and half and egg.

4. Use a pastry cutter or two knives to cut butter into the dry ingredients. Continue cutting until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.

5. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients, then form the dough into a ball. The dough will be wet, but if it seems super sticky... just go ahead and sprinkle a little more flour into the dough until it's easier to handle. Remember, you want it to be somewhat sticky, and that's okay- but you also don't want it to stick to the baking sheet. Pat out dough onto the lightly floured baking sheet and form it into a 1-inch thick rectangle that is about 9-inches long and 3-inches wide. Use a large knife or a pizza cutter to slice the dough twice through the width, making three equal squares. Cut through the three squares diagonally so that you have 6 triangular slices of dough. Gently pull the triangles apart, leaving about 1/2-inch space between each one.

6. Bake 14 to 16 minutes on prepared baking sheet. Scones should begin to turn light brown.

7. While scones are cooling, prepare plain glaze by whisking ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix until smooth.

8. When scones are cool, use a knife to cut them apart and then pull them apart so that they are ready for glazing. Use a brush to paint a coating of the glaze over the top of each scone.

9. As the white glaze firms up, prepare spiced icing by whisking the ingredients in another medium bowl until smooth. Drizzle this thicker icing over each scone (or brush it on) and allow the icing to dry before serving.