Pumpkin Walnut Scones with Maple Cream Cheese Icing
Ingredients
Scones
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- ½ cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted cold butter, cut into small cubes
- ½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts toasted
- 2/3 cup pumpkin purée
- 2 large eggs
Icing
- 4 ounces (½ of an 8 ounce package) cream cheese, softened
- ¾ cup confectioner’s sugar sifted if lumpy
- 1 teaspoon maple extract
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup plus more if needed
Instructions
Make the Scones
- Preheat the oven to 425° Fahrenheit.
- Cover 2 large sheet pans with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
- Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until small, pea-sized pieces, of butter are formed.
- Blend in the walnuts using a large spoon.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the pumpkin purée and eggs.
- Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture and blend together until a soft dough is formed. You may want to use your hands to gather the dough together. Do not overmix.
- Pour the dough onto an unfloured work surface and using a dough cutter or a large sharp knife cut it into 2 equal pieces.
- Working with one half of the dough at a time, round the dough into a circle approximately ¾ of an inch thick.
- Using the dough cutter, cut the circle in half through the center. Divide each half into thirds making a total of 6 wedges.
- Place the wedges approximately 2 inches apart on 1 of the prepared sheet pans.
- Repeat steps 9 through 11 with the remaining half of dough.
- Bake the scones for approximately 15-22 minutes or until they are nice and brown. Check the scones after 14 minutes as they will brown very quickly. Do not overbake. Allow to cool on sheet pans.
Make the Maple Cream Cheese Icing
- In the bowl of an electric mixer using the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, sugar and maple extract until smooth and light.
- On low speed, add 1 tablespoon maple syrup and blend well. If it is the consistency that you desire, stop the machine and you can then ice your scones using an offset spatula to spread some icing over each one. If you desire a thinner consistency, you can add a little more maple syrup and using a fork drizzle the icing over each scone.
Notes
Makes 12 scones