These are fantastic to make around the holidays because they have a warm, inviting flavor using maple and pumpkin, which also happens to be super healthy and loaded with vitamins! If you’ve stocked up on pumpkin from Thanksgiving, or if you are lucky enough to find it in a grocery store at other times of the year, this recipe is certainly worth a try.

Yields 8-16 scones, depending on if you use a scone pan or not. Don’t worry, I’ll explain both ways.

Ingredients: Scones:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup, or about 1/2 a can, of unsweetened pumpkin. The rest you can easily freeze in a plastic baggie for future use

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 cup pecans, chopped

4 tablespoons Earth Balance, available in the organic section in Kroger’s

1/2 cup your choice of non-dairy milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon maple syrup, 100% pure maple is best, that way you get the full maple flavor while avoiding all of the nasty preservatives

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Maple glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon maple syrup

2 tablespoons non-dairy milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425ยบ F. Grease your scone pan if you have one, or line a cookie sheet with some parchment paper.

Mix the flour, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder, and pecans, in a large bowl.

Cut in the Earth Balance butter. You can use your hands (which is the more fun method) or a pastry cutter, until it’s pretty well mixed. At this point the dough should feel like sand.

In a smaller bowl, mix the pumpkin, non-dairy milk, vanilla, maple syrup, and apple cider vinegar. Stir the wet mixture into the dry until it’s just combined. The dough will be slightly sticky.

Now is the time where having a scone pan or not will make a difference with things. If you have a scone pan, your life is going to be a little bit easier. Just fill each indentation about 1/2 full with the dough, and the result will be 8 huge, fluffy scones.

If you don’t have a scone pan, the easiest way to go about forming the scones is to separate the dough into two equal parts, and form into rounds about 7 inches in diameter. Lay the two round on your parchment paper, cut into 8 slices each, and separate them just a bit so there is a little space between each slice. With this method you’ll get 16 smaller scones, but still fluffy and delicious. Of course you could try to make just 8 without the pan, but the dough is more manageable if you divide it in half, since it is a little sticky.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the thickest part of the scone.

When they scones are all finished baking, move them to a cooling rack. While they are cooling, simply whisk together the ingredients to the glaze.

Once the scones are all cool (or at least somewhat cool, if you’re impatient like me) drizzle on the glaze.

So good and absolutely perfect for winter. Cinnamon and maple is always a winning combination in my book, the pecans add a nice crunch, and the glaze is the right amount of sweet. Great with hot tea or coffee, how could you not want to start your day off with one of these?

 
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