Scone Fail turned Must Try Success!

This morning my sister and I were hosting a coffee playdate with two of our friends. I woke up with a strong urge to bake and have been craving anything pumpkin or pumpkin spiced so I decided to make us some pumpkin scones.

I found a great looking recipe online and began to make it while the kids were finishing their breakfast.

Recipe and Site found here ...

I have to set the stage for you because it is not often that I screw up on recipes and there really was multiple things against me this morning as I tried to bake.

First, my kids were very loud this morning and every time I got back to baking I would be asked (hollered at)  to fetch some other item for their breakfast. "I finished my milk can I have juice, pleeeease!"  "mama! mama! more!more!"

Secondly, I am pregnant and it was morning.  Enough said.

Lastly, I was trying to be a nice sister and I was making two sets of pumpkin scones at the same time. My sister, the one living with us, is Gluten intolerant so she doesn't eat gluten and therefore has to use special types of flour.  Being a nice sister I decided to finish off the can of Pumpkin in special scones for her using her gluten free all purpose flour.

So there you have it, screaming kids, distracted pregnant mom, and two bowls of very similar things on my ridiculously overcrowded counter.   My mistake was totally not entirely my fault.

Just as my sister is coming upstairs with my cute, chubby little nephew, I am ready to roll out the scone dough (which should resemble biscuits).  It looks nothing like it should.  I am supposed to be able to form it into a ball and roll it out to cut it into cute little triangle shapes.

My dough is a giant blob.  It has the consistency of cookie dough, mushy, sticky cookie dough.  There is no way that I am going to be able to for it into a ball let alone roll it and cut it nicely.

Our friends should be at our place anytime now. My snack is a total fail and I am ready to throw it away without cooking it.  But my sister suggests that it will still taste okay, it just may have to cook longer or something.

So we scoop it out, plop it onto the pan and toss it into the oven.

They smelled wonderful.  They looked a little funny, and had to be cooked a little longer but when they were finished they were quite tempting.

I warn our guests that these will likely be horribly disappointing but I take one quickly to try them before our guests have to taste something terrible.

THEY WERE AWESOME!

They were not at all a scone. But that just reminded me that I don't like scones all that much. Scones are dry and need to have butter or something to save them from drying out your mouth with every bite.
But these things, these were moist and pumpkiny and sweet and spicey and almost like a light cakey biscuit.

Seriously, I can't tell you how great they were.  We all ate more than one.  One of our friends got the recipe but says she will only ever make them wrong because they were amazing.


So I thought I had to share.   This was not originally my recipe. But the change that I made makes a world of difference.

Also, I apologise for the lack of pictures.  I really thought that these were a fail and I didn't think to make them pretty while scooping them out or drizzling glaze on them.  You will just have to try me and the opinion of my friends and brother in law,  these are way better than the name I gave them implies.


Pumpkin Spice  (Better than) Scones 

Combine in a medium bowl: 
2 cups all-purpose flour  (or gluten free all purpose flour)
7 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground ginger

Cut in with pastry knife (or your hands)
6 Tablespoons cold butter  until crumbs resemble oats.
In a Separate bowl, Mix together 
1/2 Can of pumpkin  ( The Can of pumpkin I used would normally make 2 pies)
3 Tablespoons milk ( I use whole milk)
1 large egg

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Drop buy the spoonful onto lightly greased or parchment lined baking pan.  
Bake at 350 degrees for 14-18 minutes.  Baking time varies greatly by the size of your dough blobs, they are done when a toothpick comes out clean and if you break into one it looks moist but not raw. 

Allow to cool slightly and top with glaze. ( 1 cup icing sugar, two Tbsp milk (or eggnog or chai tea, really whatever you want))