Pumpkin Ginger Scones with Maple Glaze

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Although I’m working in the hospital tonight on a lovely 14 hour shift, I’m incredibly grateful for this year for two new changes in my life – a husband and a job!

 I’m super thankful for B, whom we’re spending Thanksgiving for the first time together married! Our hours didn’t coincide very well – on Wednesday night he arrived into Connecticut to an empty, as I had already left for my night shift. Today at least we get a few hours together (at least during the day when I’m not sleeping), before having a quick stop at Friendsgiving before I again head to my overnight shift.

B insisted we have our own turkey as well (Thanksgiving is pretty much a Holy Day for him) even though we already had Friendsgiving dinner.

Me: Just so you know the smallest turkey is around 10 lbs. You want that for just two of us?
B: One can never have too much turkey! Buy it!

 So of course we also make a ton of sides to accompany our own bird for lunch. We’ll have two Thanksgiving feasts today.

I’m also super grateful for getting to do Internal Medicine residency at Yale – an amazing place for training and research. I couldn’t have found a nicer, smarter, and more fun group of co-residents to work with and hang out. PS. I love having a (real) paycheck for the first time ever 🙂

I wanted to share these pumpkin scones, as I had some friends over for tea and scones one evening and wanted to bake a fall recipe featuring pumpkin. These are harvest scones adapted from King Arthur Flour topped with a maple glaze adapted from Vanilla and Bean. Getting the right scone texture can be tricky, but this recipe makes amazingly fluffy, flaky scones.

These scones have pieces of candied ginger to give your bite a kick and a maple glaze to sweeten it. Happy Thanksgiving and share what you’re grateful for!

Pumpkin Ginger Scones with Maple Glaze

Ingredients
PUMPKIN GINGER SCONE
2 3/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon each of ground ginger, nutmeg, allspice (3/4 teaspoon total)
1/2 cup cold butter
1 cup minced crystallized ginger, diced
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
2 large eggs
coarse sparkling sugar, for topping

MAPLE GLAZE
3/4 to 1 cup powdered sugar
scant 1/4 cup maple syrup

Directions
PUMPKIN GINGER SCONE: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices. Work in the butter just until the mixture is unevenly crumbly (I used a food processor). Stir in the crystalized ginger. Add the pumpkin/egg to the dry ingredients and stir until all is moistened and holds together (don’t overmix). Dough will should be shaggy and somewhat stiff (not a liquid batter).

Line a baking sheet with parchment. Divide your dough in half and shape two discs. Brush each disc with milk, and sprinkle with coarse sparkling sugar. Freeze the dough for 30 min.

Remove the dough then slice each circle into 6 wedges. Pull the wedges away from the center to separate them.

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Bake the scones for 22 to 25 minutes, or until they’re golden brown. temperature.  Let cool.

MAPLE GLAZE: Sift the powdered sugar and add the maple syrup. Stir with a fork. Chill for about 5 min in the fridge (adjust the sugar and syrup amounts to desired thickness) . Drizzle with a fork over the cooled scones. Enjoy!