August 1, 2011

Pumpkin Scones

Pumpkin is such a versatile vegetable. Not only is it great for soups and roasts and baby's first food, it is great in baking. And it's perfect for the Thermomix because most recipes require the pumpkin to be cooked and pureed first.

Here's a traditional use for pumpkin in baking - a staple of the Australian country kitchen (and my freezer!) It's also healthier than the common white scone as the moistness of the pumpkin means less butter/fat is used. (Less fat = eat more!)

Ingredients
300g pumpkin, peeled, de-seeded and chopped into rough 3cm chunks
100g raw sugar
60g butter
1 egg
420g self-raising flour
1/4 tsp salt
milk, for glazing

Method
1. Preheat oven to 230C.
2. Place pumpkin in TM bowl. Chop for 5 seconds on speed 6. Cook for 10 minutes at 100C on speed 2. 
3. While pumpkin is cooking prepare cake tins. I used 2 x 20cm round tins - lightly greased.
4. Once pumpkin is cooked, puree for 30 seconds on speed 8. Set aside.
5. Place sugar into TM bowl. Grind for 3 seconds on speed 9.
6. Add butter. Mix for 30 seconds on speed 3-4. 
7. Keep TM on speed 3-4 and add egg.
8. Add cooked pumpkin and mix for 10 seconds on speed 4.
9. Add flour and salt. Mix for 10 seconds on speed 6. Knead on interval speed for 1 minute.
10. Mixture will be quite sticky. Turn out onto well floured board and flatten to about 2cm thick. Using a floured 5cm cookie cutter (or the TM measuring cup) cut out scones and place into tins, slightly touching each other.
11. Brush lightly with milk then place on second from top shelf in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes until golden. You may want to rotate the tin after 8 minutes if your oven is a bit one sided (like mine!) to get even browning.

Enjoy plain or with a bit of butter (even better with MYO butter from the TM - see EDC p12).

Cutting tip: If you can't be bothered with the scone cutting and don't mind a more free-form shape - just take heaped tablespoonfuls of dough and place slightly apart from each other on a grease proof paper lined baking tray (this actually results in a slightly  moister scone because the extra flour is not used in the shaping).

Leftover tip: Can be frozen. Separate before freezing if you want to be able to snack on one (or two!) at a time. To defrost just leave on a benchtop to bring back to room temperature (or use the microwave defrost bread function).

28 comments:

  1. Awesome! Tasted fabulous. Small and sweet. Thanks.

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  2. Thanks for your comment. Glad you liked them!

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    1. how much sugar?

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    2. 100g of sugar. Sorry seems to be a formatting error on the page. I will fix it.

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  3. yummmm! very light and fluffy!Will defenatly be a staple in our house.

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    1. It is in ours too! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment.

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  4. really nice scones will be making again for sure :-)

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  5. Lovely, I've made these scones several times. I used 70gm of sugar and half wholemeal, half white flour.

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  6. Got these babies in the over as I type thanks for a simple recipe

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  7. Oh my gosh, what went wrong with mine, followed recipe to a tee apart from cutting back sugar to 75 GM and using spelt flour with baking power as the raising agent for it........Fail!!

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    1. Sorry to hear that. I have never used spelt flour but I just did a bit of google research and it sounds like spelt doesn't substitute for wheat flour 1:1 so unfortunately you may need to play with the proportions a bit when using spelt flour in this recipe. Check out this link: http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Spelt-Flour.

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  8. I've just made these with a little more pumpkin, just cause I had it. So. I upgraded the flour by 80g( I used spelt) and they turned out a little wet still so I opted fir the free form method and they worked out fantastic. Thanks

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  9. hi wanting to make these but my husband has diabetes and just wondering if i can take out the 100g raw sugar? maybe sub for a little natvia?
    Thank you

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  10. Hi Kirst. Thanks for visiting. I have never baked with Natvia but I did a google search and it looks like you can substitute it 1 for 1 but I think you could probably even reduce it to 50g if you wanted to make it less sweet. The pumpkin does add its own sweetness. I find the butternut or japanese pumpkin are sweeter varieties. Happy baking!

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  11. I'm keen to give this recipe a go. Has anyone tried it with gluten free flour instead of normal flour?

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    1. Yes, add 1tsp guar gum as well. We used halloween pumpkin- DELICIOUS- light & fluffy

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  12. I just made these and thought they turned out a little dry and only got 10 out of the mixture what did I do wrong??

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    1. Thanks for your comment and sorry to hear they didn't work out but without knowing what you did I am not sure what went wrong? Perhaps when weighing the ingredients something was leaning against the TM so the weighing was not accurate? or maybe a bit too much extra flour used on the cutting and shaping? or you made very large scones? or a combination of the above?

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  13. So yummy! This was my first time ever making scones and they were a hit with everyone in the family!

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    1. Thanks Emilou! So glad they worked out so well!

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  14. Do you think you could use sweet potato instead?

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    1. Hi Amy! Yep I think so although I've never tried but now you've inspired me to give it a go. If you try it before me I'd be interested to hear your feedback! Thanks.

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  15. Just making these now the pumpkin burnt the bottom of my TM bowl :o(
    They still look awesome though

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  16. Awesome recipe. I cut sugar to 80g, added a handful of sultanas to dough just before shaping, and pumpkin seeds to top after brushing with milk...delicious! !!

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    1. Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like a great variation. I'll have to try it too!

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  17. I have cooked these multiple times and they always turn out delicious, definitely a family favourite.

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