Pumpkin Spice Scones THM:E

These scones were inspired by a cheat-day!  I took my youngest daughter to Starbucks for a Sunday morning breakfast date, and I split one of their divine pumpkin scones with her.  I immediately wanted to go home and try to make a version that I could eat for the entire fall season.  To my delight, my first try was a success!

I wanted to make these an "E" meal.  Baking blend has a lot of very good uses, and allows us to slather butter on 'breads' and still enjoy them.  However, BB is not just like flour, and I really miss sweets with a real-bread taste and texture.

There are 2 ways to eat real flour on THM - using whole wheat to make sourdough, or using sprouted flour.  I am in the process of creating a full-sourdough bread recipe that is easy and fast enough for any Drive-Thru-Sue.  I've been eating the bread from this experiment for several months now, and if I could take the time to write it up, it would be done!

This pumpkin scone recipe uses sprouted flour.  Sprouted flour tends to be quite expensive (which is why I don't want to use it to bake my regular loaves of bread) but I buy a bag and keep it in my pantry for when I want to make a quick bread out of real flour, but still stay on plan.

There are a couple of blockers to making THM scones.   First, traditional scones are loaded with butter, which shouldn't be eaten along with carbs.  Second they are typically made with white flour, which is a definite NO-NO.

Reducing the butter to less than 1 teaspoon per serving was the first step.  Replacing the white flour with sprouted was the second.  But, I was afraid I would be left with a flavorless chunk of whole grain mess.  I needed lots of flavor, and something to lighten the whole-grain texture without adding fat.  Beaten egg whites solved that problem!

So, the upshot is that these scones take a bit more work than the regular kind, but each step contributes to a lighter and fluffier texture than you would expect from a whole-wheat scone with almost no fat.  These are moist and spicy and definitely do NOT taste like a diet food.  They are light and flavorful enough that I really didn't miss the butter - especially along with a cup of hot coffee or a trimmy light!

Pumpkin Spice Scones THM:E

Click Here for a printable recipe!

This recipe gives less than 1t butter and around 1/4t molasses per scone!

Makes 12

Ingredients:

Wet:

1C canned pumpkin (or cooked/mashed - butternut is good if you're making fresh)

1 1/2 teaspoons molasses

2t vanilla

Dry:

2C whole wheat sprouted flour

6 Tablespoons Super Sweet, Erithritol/Xylitol, Pyure, etc

1 Tablespoon aluminum free baking powder

1 teaspoon pink salt

2 teaspoons ginger (these were fairly spicy, use just 1t if you're not sure)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cloves

Extra:

3 Tablespoons cold butter

4 egg whites - use fresh, not carton

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the pumpkin, molasses and vanilla.  Set aside
3. Mix together all dry ingredients, then cut in the 3T cold butter.  I suggest using a food processor for the dry ingredients & butter, but a medium bowl & pastry blender could also be used.  Set aside.
4. In a large bowl (all ingredients will be mixed in here eventually) beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.
5. Lighten the pumpkin mixture by stirring about 1C of egg whites into it.  Then pour the pumpkin/whites back into the stiff whites and fold gently, about 10 turns - there will still be large white streaks.
6. Pour the flour mixture into the whites all at once and fold gently just until moistened - do not over-mix!!
   
7. Use a 1/4C measuring cup to scoop out scones.  Flatten the scoop with the back of a rubber spatula, then plop onto a baking stone or parchment-lined baking sheet.  Do not spread them out - allow them to be as tall as possible.  
8. Bake for 20 minutes or until firm to the touch.  Cool for a few minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a baking rack to cool.
9. Makes 12-13 scones.

Enjoy warm or cooled with coffee for breakfast, with a trimmy light for a snack, or after dinner!

This recipe should be easy to change for different flavors.  

• Try replacing 1/2C of the flour with 1/2 C rolled oats, reduce spices to cinnamon & nutmeg only, and stir in some chopped fresh cranberries and orange zest.
• Stir in oats & finely chopped apple
• As you can see in the photo above, I made a glaze with powdered sweetener (blender), vanilla & water, but the sweetener stayed crunchy and the scones didn't really need it.  We liked them better plain.  Try your own version if you like!