Quick and easy Homemade Pumpkin Spice Cranberry Scones mix pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice with tart cranberries into a warm and delicious breakfast or snack.
There it is! The first Jack-o-Lantern on the neighbor's step—a sure sign the holidays are coming. Which means only one thing around here... baking time! And plenty of it. First recipe of Fall? My Pumpkin Spice Cranberry Scones.
I don't usually bake much at home. I'm always watching my carb count and, well, cookies and cake make the carb numbers light up like a pinball machine. My family is not very good about helping me eat the goodies, either. They prefer chips and salsa (I can't imagine why) which usually means I eat waaay too many myself or throw the surplus out.
Holiday time is different story. I can bake and bake and have no worries about leftovers. No, I don't eat them... all. I give them to neighbors and friends that have been so nice and have shared loaves of homemade bread and veggies from their garden with me through out the year.
You might be asking yourself, "What on earth do you bake in the Southwest?"
We bake all kinds of things—pumpkin and apples and Mexican cinnamon, chocolate and coffee and citrus and vanilla that we drive to Nogales to buy... and lots more.
Today, I'm starting out easy with Pumpkin Spice Cranberry Scones. Pumpkin is one of the "Three Sisters" out of Native American lore so it is very, very southwest.
I'm dressing my pumpkin up in a very familiar, but "modern" way in these Pumpkin Spice Scone Recipe with Cranberries and Homemade Butter. These scones are quick and easy. Just throw them together in the food processor if you wish. They keep very well in the refrigerator over night so that you can bake them off in the morning before school or before you start cooking the Thanksgiving Dinner.
The homemade butter is a fun addition. It's something my boys learned in kindergarten and we make it every year. I don't really like the clotted cream that is so traditional with scones (I know, sorry) and processed butter is just too heavy. This old fashioned way of making butter fluffy and light textured and is a great way to help your kids feel involved with baking. In fact, scones are not supposed to look perfect, so let them pat out the dough and cut out the scones themselves.
Tips for Pumpkin Spice Cranberry Scones
- Children really like being a part of holiday dinner. Making butter is a fun way to involve them and have a dish that they "made" on the table.
- Making butter together is a great way to really talk with children about the holidays, the way things were made in the "olden" days, or just talk about anything at all.
- When I make this with small children, I spread out a comforter on the floor and we sit cross-legged as we take turns shaking the jar of cream.
- It is helpful to strategically place older children and teenagers between smaller children to help with the shaking and speed the process a little.
- This is a great activity to let Dad or older teenagers oversee while you are making dinner.
Other great looking scones to try:
Lemon Blueberry Scones by Completely Delicious
Homemade Pancake Syrup and Utah Scones by Barbara Bakes
Savory Avocado Scones by Created by Diane
—posted by Sandy
- ¾ cup apple cider or orange juice
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- ¾ cups sugar
- 1½ tablespoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- may substitute 1 teaspoon cinnamon and ½ teaspoon nutmeg)
- 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, very cold
- 15 ounces pumpkin puree
- ½ cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup whipping cream
- Directions:
- Heat apple cider in microwave for 15 to 30 seconds.
- Pour cider over cranberries, set aside.
- Stir flour with a fork to "fluff" up the flour. Gently spoon flour into a measuring cup and level off with the back of a knife. Measure four cups of flour into a large bowl or food processor.
- Add sugar, baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt, and pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Cut cold butter into half inch cubes. Use a pastry blender or your fingers to blend the butter into the flour. If using a food processor, pulse the butter into the flour until it looks like coarse sand and has pea-sized lumps.
- Gently mix pumpkin puree into the flour mixture. Be careful not to over mix and melt the butter.
- Add buttermilk and whipping cream a little at a time while mixing (or pulsing in the food processor). If your pumpkin puree is very moist, you may not need all the liquid. Mix until the dough begins to come together in a ball.
- Drain cranberries and fold into the dough.
- Turn the dough out onto a large piece of plastic wrap. Shape into a rectangle, wrap in plastic and chill at least one hour or over night.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and pat out to about one inch thick. Cut into six squares, then cut the squares in half diagonally to form triangles.
- Place on an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 425 for 15 to 20 minutes until lightly golden brown.
- Cool on a wire rack.
- Mix powdered sugar, milk and orange flavoring to make glaze.
- Drizzle glaze over scones that have cooled.
- Makes 12 scones
Barbara @ Barbara Bakes
This would be a fabulous breakfast Thanksgiving morning. Great that you can make them the night before.
Maria
The scones look perfect!
Dionne Baldwin
Oh my I never ever thought it would be that easy to make my own butter! I will DEFINITELY have to try that very soon! The scones are what caught my eye, you have some gorgeous photos! I love a good pumpkin scone.
Hester aka The Chef Doc
Hooray for scones! These look really scrumptious and I can't wait to try them. Thanks for sharing, Sandy!
Esme
Pumpkin and cranberry are my two favourite fall flavours.
Baker Street
Pumpkin and cranberry pair so well together! Your scones looks absolutely perfect! 🙂
Kiri W.
Hmm, so many people are posting scone recipes, I must be doing something wrong - scones tend to be to dry for me to endure more than a small bite, but then I have the same problem with biscuits. The cranberry spice combination and homemade butter sound amazing, though! 🙂
Karen
Kiri W,
posting from Britain, the home of scones, I can assure you that home-made scones are on the dry-ish side. You can get less dry ones in supermarkets over here, although they're pretty doughy since they're laden with fat -- which, when combined with sugar, is the nail that seals the coffin lid for your slim figure. That's why I resist desserts; lucky for me, I don't have much of a sweet tooth, and 60% dark chocolate is normally as sweet as I go.
Sandy
Hi Karen, It is so nice to hear from you! I have eaten a few scones in the UK and they are delicious (if a little dry). It sure makes tea taste extra delicious while washing them down. Clotted cream was a surprise for me, it was much thicker than I had imagined. I hope you stop by the blog again!
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