Pumpkin Chai Tea Scones

This is exciting: I'm here and so are you!

Breakfast seemed like the best place to start my blog. It is the start of the day for most people and was my start to cooking. I fondly remember making pancakes from Bisquick for my parents and then graduating to fine-dining additions such as berries or cinnamon-spiced cooked apples. I have certainly moved on from self-rising flour. I like knowing how to make the recipe from the ground up so that if I am out of something, I can do my best judgement substitute ingredient. If anyone tries a self-rising baking mix (Bisquick or other self-rising baking blend), let me know how it goes! I would replacing the total amount of flour, baking powder, and salt with the equivalent amount self-rising baking blend, but still add rolled oats.

These scones are definitely a warm-hug-on-a-cold-day. I like adding rolled oats as part of my "standard" scone base for additional chewiness and nuttiness, but I am a all-butter all-the-time kind of gal in my baked goods. The flavor is far better to me and in return I try to limit my indulgences to only when I am willing to make it myself. These scones are not overly sweet though, so I don’t feel too bad about having these whenever the whim hits me because they definitely go from mixing bowl to plate very quickly.


1. Before starting, gather up the chai spices and run through a spice grinder. I have a little electric coffee grinder I keep set aside for grinding whole spices and dry chilies.
Preheat oven to 350F with a rack in the middle and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.

2. Mix the dry ingredients minus chai spices in the bowl of a stand mixer with the beater attachment. I usually just get a whisk out and do this in the bowl instead of “sifting” my dry ingredients. As long as your baking powder or sugar haven’t been open for a long period of time in a humid kitchen, you should not have an issue fluffing and mixing with a whisk.

3. With the mixer off, add about half of the cold butter in small chunks- about 1 teaspoon size. Turn to low and cut the rest to size and dump in the side. Once you have pea-sized amounts of butter still visible, turn the mixer off.

4. Add the rest of the wet ingredients:  1/3 cup milk, 1/3 cup pumpkin butter (or pumpkin puree, water squeezed kitchen towel), 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 egg.
Also add the powdered chai spices. Mix on low until just moistened through.

To be honest, I didn’t have brown sugar on hand when making this batch, so I substituted! I used the same amount of white sugar, but then added 2 Tablespoons of molasses and reduced the amount of milk by 2 Tablespoons so that the overall ratio of dry to wet was not off.

5. This dough is rather sticky, working with wet or lightly oiled hands can help. I also prefer to dump onto the parchment paper I’m going to bake on so that I don’t have to scrape my counter. Yes, it looks messier going into the over, but  Pat the dough into a 8”-10” circle and slice into how many pieces you want. Slicing small will be tricky, but these wedges almost double in the oven so a little finesse now helps result in a better portion size.

I try to get an even dozen scones out of this recipe. I do so by using a bench scraper to cut the circle in half, then making a slice that is a third of the half circle, continue all the way across like a pizza, split the remaining big wedge down the middle and go all the way across. Hopefully you have an even 6 pieces. Now split each in half and scrape up a piece each time you’re making the final cut so that you can space the wedges out on the parchment. You can certainly cut into 8 larger wedges if you prefer.

6. Optional: if you want a crunchy sugar topping, brush the tops with milk or an egg wash and sprinkle with turbinado sugar or a heavy coating of white table sugar. If you prefer your scones with icing, wait until after baked to top.

7. Bake 35-40 min until golden brown. I find watching the lower edge of the scone where it meets the parchment to be a better indicator than the top. Take out and cool for about 5 min on the pan, then transfer to a cooling rack. Glaze with icing if that is your preference, but they are perfectly good plain. Goes great with morning coffee or tea!