Pumpkin Sourdough Scone and Other Recipes

March 31, 2022

I do not know why I have never had a scone like this? On a frosty, autumn morning, warm pumpkin scones served just from the oven with butter and a hot beverage is pretty hard to beat. And this week we had our first really hard frost here at Riverside Lodge.

Bamboo Bread Slicing Guide

The Child is affectionately known as “Baby Yoda” among The Mandalorian fans.

I had managed to get all the garden produce in safely. Even the pumpkins did not have to endure the cold, which gave “The Child/Baby Yoda” a reason to celebrate.

My wife gave me a new Bamboo Bread Slicer, for our Sapphire Anniversary Thursday, which I love almost as much as my Baby Yoda. But somehow my wife knew I would love this little guy the most.

But I digress, let’s get back to the pumpkins. They are everywhere this time of year, on front stoops, smashed in the street, and of course, in cans waiting for pumpkin pie.

But there is much more inside the great orange gourd (gourds are for decorating, squashes are for eating, and pumpkins are both) and the bright orange color is the clue.

These squashes are loaded with beta carotene, which gives the body immunity-boosting power as it converts it to vitamin A. But here is some good news, “there’s no need to choose fresh to get the benefits of pumpkin,” reports Caitlin Covington.

“One cup of canned pumpkin has 7 grams of fiber and 3 grams of protein (even more than the fresh stuff) and contains only 80 calories and 1 gram of fat. Plus, canned pumpkin is packed with vitamins and provides over 50 percent of the daily value of vitamin K.“—Covington, greatist.com

Pumpkin is both low in calories and fat, and in addition to being a good source of Vitamin A, is loaded with vitamins B6, C, and E and is its own trove of minerals.

Joe Carei, Senior Vice President at Bradenzo Restaurant in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, says that “pumpkin puree is a healthy substitute for eggs in a variety of baked goods.” He explains, that it “can be used when eggs are incorporated for moisture in cookies, muffins, and quick breads,” but not when the eggs are used as binders in baked breads like challah or in chewy cookies. But, he continues, “Pumpkin puree can be effortlessly added to mixes for cakes, cookies, breads and brownies.”

Joe Carei is Senior Vice President at Bradenzo Restaurant in Uniontown, Pennsylvania

Making Puree From Fresh Pumpkin

“I prefer to clean the pumpkin of seeds and string and cut in half, top to bottom. Then, I wrap each half with foil and put in 325 degree oven, cut side up. Cook for about an hour and then check to see if soft. Then scrape flesh from skin and puree in blender or processor. Push through strainer or sieve to remove excess stringiness, if desired. Other ways to cook pumpkin is; to steam it or boil and strain, but I find both of these ways make the puree too loose. To give a more roasted flavor, brush flesh with butter or oil and roast flesh side up; no foil. Keep in mind the larger pumpkins used for jack-o-lanterns are more stringy, watery and will need to be cooked down. You are better off using smaller pie pumpkins.

Carei gives a formula for substituting canned pumpkin for other liquid ingredients:

“Add ¼ cup canned pumpkin for each egg called for in the recipe.
“For oil, the ratio is one to one — one cup oil is simply replaced with one cup pumpkin puree.
“To substitute pumpkin puree for butter, multiply the amount of butter by ¾. If a recipe calls for one cup, use ¾ cup puree in its place. If you’re not ready to give up all the butter, and in some recipes, you cannot, consider splitting the bill. For one cup of butter, use ½ cup of butter and ½ cup of pumpkin puree.

He concludes, “In recipes that call for butter and sugar to be creamed or fluffed up, definitely split the use of butter and pumpkin and fold in pumpkin after creaming. In [the case of] boxed cakes you can substitute the oil, water, and the egg with pumpkin puree.”

After reading that, I wanted to see if it is true, so sat down this morning early and looked at this recipe from King Arthur Baking for Harvest Pumpkin Scones. Now I have to tell you this took some serious Baker’s Math but in the end, these worked out great.

Harvest Pumpkin Sourdough Scone Recipe

On a frosty, autumn morning, warm pumpkin scones served just from the oven with butter and a hot beverage is hard to beat.

Ingredients for Pumpkin Scone Recipe

Everything you’ll need for sourdough pumpkin scones—mise en place!

Scone Directions

Eight hours before baking, mix the starter with the eggs and pumpkin puree until smooth.
In a second larger mixing bowl mix the flour and room temperature butter until it is crumbly, but it is fine if the butter is unevenly mixed.
Combine the flour and butter with the starter/egg/pumpkin mixture and knead until the flour is combined.
Cover and set aside for 8 hours to ferment.
Then whisk together the sugar, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.
(Make your own by combining ¾ teaspoon cinnamon + ¼ teaspoon each ginger, nutmeg, and allspice).
After the 8 hours, preheat the oven to 425°F/220°C.
Scrape the dough onto your work surface, then sprinkle it with the sugar/baking powder/salt/ pumpkin pie spice mixture. Work this in by poking it into the dough with your fingers.
Then lightly knead a few times and shape into a 6-inch circle, about ¾–1 inch thick.
Place this into a well-buttered or parchment-lined dutch oven or cast iron pan.
If you want a sugared top, brush each circle with milk, then sprinkle with coarse sparkling sugar and/or cinnamon sugar.
Cut dough into wedges with a wet bench blade.

Using a wet bench knife or spatula, slice the circle into 6-8 wedges.
Separate the wedges just a bit.
Bake the scones for 22–25 minutes until golden brown. You may also use a “toothpick inserted into the center of a scone. It should come out clean, with no wet crumbs,” suggests King Arthur Flour. Also, continuing they say, “If you pull one of the scones away from the others, the edges should look baked through, not wet or doughy.”
Mine looked this way and had to bake the additional few minutes, but I at 4500’/1375m altitude.
“Remove the scones from the oven, and serve warm. Wrap any leftovers airtight, and store at room temperature. Reheat very briefly in the microwave, if desired,” they suggested

PJ Hamel at King Arthur also offers this tip:

“Wondering what to do with the rest of the canned pumpkin? Scoop onto plastic wrap or into a small container, and freeze. It’ll be ready and waiting next time you want to make these scones. If you’re really serious about using your ingredients most effectively, use a scant 2/3 cup pumpkin (a scant 5 1/4 ounces), rather than the full 2/3 cup called for. You’ll find a typical 15 1/2-ounce can of pumpkin will then be enough for three batches of scones.”