Pumpkin Scones

I love pumpkin but I really haven't baked with it much yet. I did make some yummy, and healthy, pumpkin muffins. But that's pretty much it so far. I normally just use it for my pumpkin oatmeal, which is delicious by the way! Or I feed it to my dog. But I realized that I need to start baking with it more. I had some buttermilk left over from making buttermilk pancakes for dinner last week and I wanted to use it up before it went bad. I found this recipe on Annie's blog and I knew I had to try it. These scones are easy and delicious!! I'm looking forward to having them for breakfast this week. Here is the recipe, with my adjustments in italics.

Pumpkin Scones
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup light or dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground ginger (i didn't have ginger, so i used ground nutmeg)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup white chocolate chips (optional) (i used semisweet chips because thats what i had)
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the eggs wash:
1 large egg, beaten
1 tbsp milk or cream (i used fat free half and half)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 and place rack in the middle of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. I cut my butter into pieces and then refrigerated it for a few minutes so that it stayed cold. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Stir in the chocolate chips. In a separate bowl mix together the buttermilk, pumpkin and vanilla, and then add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture. Mix just until the dough comes together. Do not overmix the dough.

Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead the dough for or five times and then pat the dough into a circle that is about 7 inches round. Cut the circle into six equal triangles (i was able to get 8 scones out of this recipe) Place the scones on the baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash.

Place the baking sheet inside another baking sheet to prevent the bottoms of the scones from over browning. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothepick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.