Pumpkin Spice Scones

These scones seriously changed my life!!! I have always loved scones, but never attempted to make them -- fearful that they may be a challenge I wasn't ready for. I have bookmarked so many recipes telling myself I was going to get to it one of these days...well "one of these days" finally happened when I stumbled across the recipe for Pumpkin Spice Scones!! At that moment I told myself there would be no more putting it off!!

I told you in a recent post that my sister-in-law works for Starbucks, well because of that reason alone, I have gotten to try many scones in my day!!! (My favorite at Starbucks is the Vanilla Bean one...it's small so I don't feel as guilty!!) I love that they aren't so overwhelmingly sweet, but yet satisfy that nagging sweet tooth. I also love how decedent they are. I always feel so dainty eating a scone...like I should be at a table set with silver and gorgeous china atop a white linen. Or maybe over in London with a good cup of afternoon tea...man I miss London, I need to go back!
Don't they look delicious!?!? Well they are/were!! hehe They didn't last long in my household, that's for sure!! I decided to change the icing from what the original recipe called for. I thought I would go ahead and make the icing pumpkin spice. Some of you might be thinking...wasn't that too much...the answer is NO!!! I think it made these scones 10 million times better!!!

So to sum up--I think these are hands down THE BEST SCONES I HAVE EVER TASTED!!!! So what are you waiting for, go conquer your scone making fears!

What flavors have you tried that you liked? Maybe I need to start making more scones!!!

Pumpkin Spice Scones

(recipe from Pinch My Salt)

1 C. all purpose flour
1 C. cake flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground nutmeg
1/4 t. ground allspice
1/4 t. ground ginger
6 T. unsalted butter
1/2 C. raisins (optional)
1/3 C. pumpkin puree
1/3 C. heavy cream
6 T. brown sugar
1 t. vanilla

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Get out a baking sheet and line with parchment paper (not required but makes cleanup easy!). Cut the butter into small pieces, put it in a small bowl and put it back in the refrigerator. In a medium bowl, combine both flours, baking powder, salt, and all spices. Whisk together well. Place bowl in freezer (refrigerator is fine if you have no room in freezer).

In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin, heavy cream, brown sugar, and vanilla. Whisk together well. Put this bowl in freezer (or refrigerator) and take the other bowl back out. Get the butter pieces out of the fridge and dump them into the bowl with the flour mixture. Cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender or rub it in with your fingertips until it resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the raisins if you are using them.

Get the liquid mixture out of the freezer and pour into the flour mixture all at once. Stir with a wooden spoon until everything is just moistened. The dough will be very crumbly, this is the way it should be. Turn the mixture out onto the counter and push the pile together with your hands. It should stick together fairly well. Knead it just a couple of times until everything is together. Don’t knead it too much or the dough will get too sticky.

Pat the dough out into a rough circle, 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Cut it like a pie into 8 pieces. Place pieces on the baking sheet so that they are not touching. Bake scones for about 15 minutes at 425 degrees. They should be light brown on the bottom, the tops will darken as they cool.

If you want to use the icing from the original recipe click here and follow the directions...I suggest otherwise!! I made a pumpkin spice icing, which I think tasted better!

Pumpkin Spice Icing

(recipe from Liesl)

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice

2 Tablespoons milk

Combine all ingredients in a small dish. Brush over cooled scones, allowing some icing to drizzle down the sides.

Pumpkin Pie Truffles

I finally am getting the chance to start baking more with pumpkin this season! It's been such a busy couple of months and I have been neglecting my Libby's Pumpkin sitting in my pantry! Pumpkin is my all time favorite flavor, especially when it comes to baking!

I got this recipe off Cake, Batter and Bowl's blog, which is so awesome you definitely need to go check out some of the great recipes she has! I knew I had to make this recipe, and I decided that I would make the truffles for the hubs to take to school! I knew his kids would enjoy them...at least I hoped they would!!! :o)

My attempt at making the Pumpkin Pie Truffles was certainly not a elegant as Kerstin's version, I struggled a great amount with the chocolate. I think partly because I decided to put the truffles into the freezer for a bit while I prepped the chocolate (I did that because they were so soft I was afraid they would fall apart or loose their round shape to easily when dipped in the chocolate). So, when I dipped the cold truffles in the warm chocolate it just changed the temperature to quickly and didn't allow for a nice pretty even coating of chocolate like I was hoping for. But they still tasted amazing!! Yes just like pumpkin pie...ok maybe a little better! So if you have some patience and time on your hands, give these little treats a try! I loved the idea of putting a pecan in the top for the stem of the "pumpkin"...so cute!!!

Pumpkin Pie Truffles

(recipe from Cake Batter and Bowl)

I doubled the recipe and got 32 truffles, but the original recipe (below) makes 15 truffles.

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup pure pumpkin puree

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups white chocolate chips

Several drops of orange gel food coloring

15 small pecan pieces

Mix butter, pumpkin, and pumpkin pie spice in a small nonstick pan and heat over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes or until mixture is reduced to 1/2 cup.

Mix cooked pumpkin, brown sugar, flour, and salt in medium bowl until well combined. Chill dough for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

Shape chilled dough into 15 1-inch balls. Place on waxed paper on a cookie sheet and chill in the refrigerator while preparing chocolate.

Melt white chocolate chips in a shallow bowl on High 1 minute, stirring after 30 seconds; stir until chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Mix orange gel food coloring with the melted chocolate until smooth. Using 2 spoons, dip pumpkin balls into melted chocolate and cover evenly. Place on waxed paper and top each truffle with a pecan piece “stump”. Serve after chocolate sets, about 5 minutes.

Applesauce Spice Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

A co-worker of mine had a birthday coming up and I had already planned to make her something special...I just didn't know what. Part of me wanted to make a cake, but the other part of me wanted to have another excuse to make another recipe out of Martha Stewart's Cupcake Cookbook! (Stay tuned I have another one coming that is just as good!)

I flipped through the pages of the cookbook trying to pick something I thought would suite her taste buds. I finally decided on Martha's Applesauce Spice Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting. Whew...that's a mouthful! I wanted to make something that fit the fall season (hence the Halloween liners!), but I didn't know if she would like the flavors. It turns out it happens to be one of her favorites, lucky me!

These cupcakes we incredible! I can't even begin to tell you how moist they were. Applesauce always seems to make such a big difference (and it's better for you). The flavor was so good and the Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting complimented it so well. I omitted the nuts from the recipe, just because some people don't care for them, but you certainly could leave them in. I actually think I wouldn't have enjoyed these as much with them. These cupcakes really were amazing! Another BIG Martha success! :o) If you are looking to make a treat for this fall season and want something that's not pumpkin, give these a try. They will be a crowd pleaser!

Applesauce Spice Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

(recipe from Martha Stewart Cupcakes...also found here)

For Applesauce Spice Cupcakes:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

4 large eggs

1 1/2 cups store-bought applesauce

1 cup toasted pecans, chopped (optional - I omitted)

For Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin and a 6-cup tin with paper liners. **While the original recipe says it makes 18 cupcakes, I was able to get 22 out of the recipe. I used my large Pampered Chef scoop to dish out the batter evenly. I think 18 would have made HUGE cupcakes.**

Sift flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cloves together into a medium bowl. Set aside.

Put 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, the granulated sugar, and 1/2 cup brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Cream on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs, one at a time. On low speed, mix in applesauce and then flour mixture. Stir in nuts, if using, by hand.

Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each about three-quarters full. Bake until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool completely in tins on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, in the clean bowl of electric mixer make frosting. Mix cream cheese with remaining 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter and 1 cup brown sugar on medium speed until smooth. Spread cream-cheese frosting on muffins. Muffins can be refrigerated in airtight containers up to 2 days.

Who would have thunk it!

So this is my first blog! Yippee! And surprisingly it isn't a dessert!! I know .... hard to believe huh!? I wanted to start off this blog tipping my hat off to this wonderful fall season! Sometimes living in Nashville we miss out on having a fall season, no colorful leaves, no scents of fall lingering in the air...just waking up to to the bitter cold air the morning after a 70 degree day!! So without further ado I would like to introduce my personal recipe for ...

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds!

I have always loved carving pumpkins...the best part for me was digging my hands down deep into the eewwy gooey pulpy seed filled mess!

TOASTED PUMPKIN SEEDS

(best if done on a night you want to carve, but not required)

Multiple large pumpkins

1/2 cup Salt

Water

Carving Kit to cut pumpkin

***I always have a difficult time with measurements! I always use the best tools God gave me: my eyes, mouth, and nose! When it looks/tastes/smells good...it's good for me!***

Use a sharp knife from the carving kit to cut a circle around the stem large enough to get your hand inside the pumpkin. Once you have circle cut, pull on the stem to open the pumpkin. Inside are all the goodies! Use the Scrapper or a large spoon to scrape all the pumpkin seeds out. You will get pulp with the seeds. Scrape the pumpkin out until it is clean inside. Once you have it all cleaned out get a large bowl to put just the seeds in. Sift through the pulp/seed mixture to pull just the seeds out and place them in the large bowl. Try to get as much of the pulp off the seeds as possible.

Once you have all the seeds in the bowl cover the seeds with water. There really is no set amount of water since the amount of seeds you will have will vary, but just make sure they are swimming in some water! Next, I would add about a 1/2 cup of salt to the bowl. You can always add more if you like them saltier. Then cover the bowl with a lid if possible or just clear plastic wrap will do. Leave them set on the counter for at least 24 hours to soak up that yummy salt flavor!

After 24 hours,

First pre-heat your oven to 350. Pour seed mixture into a strainer and rinse the seeds off with clean water. Take a cookie sheet and spray with non-cooking spray. Spread seeds onto the pan evenly. Sprinkle top of seeds with salt and place in the oven to bake.

Bake seeds for about an hour and a half or until seeds are dried out, times may vary depending on the oven. About every 20 minutes move the seeds around with a wooden spoon to make sure all the wet seeds are exposed to the heat. You can also sprinkle more salt as you stir them around if you wish. After all the seeds have dried (about an hour and a half later) pull cookie sheet out and let seeds cool.

Store seeds in a closed container. Enjoy! I have keep seeds for a couple of weeks, but they usually don't last that long in my house!

***Photography by Kristen Wiltse!***