Pennies on a Platter

One of my foodie blogging friends just announced she’s pregnant! So, she hasn’t been posting much lately due to her nausea causing little desire to cook. Because of the lack of posts, I spent a few minutes on Saturday morning checking out her older posts. This recipe she had posted back in August caught my eye for my morning’s breakfast.

Even though Ben had no idea what a scone was, he is now a scone lover thanks to this recipe. I believe Annie (my prego foodie friend) got her recipe from the Joy of Baking website. Using white chocolate chips in this recipe is optional, but I left them out because I really don’t care for white chocolate.

Another change I made is replacing egg wash with milk. I didn’t feel like messing with egg wash, and I baste milk on my apple pie crust, so I thought I’d do the same with these. Then, I sprinkled some raw sugar on top for a tasty finished look.

Since I never seem to have buttermilk on hand when I need it, I’ve learned of a substitute that works just as well. In Annie’s original recipe it calls for 1/3 cup of buttermilk. Instead, I combined about 1 teaspoon of vinegar with 1/3 cup skim milk and let it sit for about 5 minutes and used that in replace of the buttermilk.

If you have a baking stone, use it! The bottoms will not burn. A trick in the original recipe says to double up the pan so the bottom will not burn, but use your baking stone if you have one instead.

Also, I think the traditional shape for scones is a triangle shape. I sort of got the shape of biscotti’s confused with scones…and made my scones into more of a biscotti shape. Maybe I was just up too early. They turned out fine, though, so you can do the same if you want!

**UPDATE 11/29/08**  I took another photo with the correct shape of a scone.

My changes are reflected below. If you would like Annie’s recipe, please click here.

Pumpkin Scones

Ingredients:
1 tsp vinegar
1/3 cup milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup light or dark brown sugar
½ tsp. ground ginger
½ tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
½ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
½ cup pumpkin
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk for basting
raw sugar

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400° and place a rack in the middle of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, combine the vinegar and 1/3 cup milk. Let set for 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. In a separate bowl mix together the milk and vinegar mixture, pumpkin and vanilla, and then add to the flour mixture. Mix just until the dough comes together. Do not overmix the dough.

Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead dough gently four or five times and then pat the dough into a circle that is about 7 inches round. Cut the circle into six equal triangles. Place the scones on the baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with the milk. Sprinkle the raw sugar on the top of each scone to desired look.

Place the baking sheet inside another baking sheet to prevent the bottoms of the scones from over browning (unless using a stone). Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Makes 6 scones.