I’ve always wanted to be the kind of girl that can get away with saying ‘y’all’. You know… like, ‘I made Pumpkin Scones, y’all!’.
Being from California, I feel like I can only reasonably get away with something like, ‘Hey dudes, I made you these Pumpkin Scones! Now, let’s go surfing.’ Mostly annoying, but kinda true.
I’ll just daydream about being a ‘y’all’ girl. It’s cool. In real life I get to mega-indulge in scones, so being a ‘dude’ girl is just fine. I’m just steps away from ‘bro’.
‘It’s cold outside. Cool Pumpkin Scones, bro.’
Lordy…. clearly I need help.
Let’s make some scones!
This recipe is October-inspired and super-spiced.
I’ve struggled for a few years to find the proper pumpkin scone recipe. It’s hard to get the moisture proportions right… dorky but totally true.
I think we’ve nailed it, friends! Well… thanks to Donna. When you ask for a recipe and it comes at you like this… you can bet it’s going to be major! Thank you for sharing, Donna!
These scones come together in two ways.
First, cold butter is broken down into a flour, sugar, and spices. Next, pumpkin puree is mixed with buttermilk and vanilla extract.
Wet ingredients are combined with dry ingredients. That old song and dance.
Pecans, too! Let’s add those!
We’re going to need some glaze. Brown Butter Glaze, to be exact.
Lightly glaze the scones with Brown Butter Glaze and YES! It’s like we’re doing everything ever right.
These little scones satisfy so many of my October pumpkin cravings. The scones are super-spiced and mega-soft. It’s like eating a soft pumpkin cookie for breakfast. The pecans add a nice toasty crunch, while the glaze adds a nice dose of sweetness. They’re beyond!
Oh! While we’re talking about pumpkin and such… let’s make Pumpkin Pie Spice. Yes, it’s time. Also, maybe with your extra pumpkin puree you’ll want to make Pumpkin Pie Bars. Let’s just not fight it.
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Pumpkin Pecan Scones with Brown Butter Glaze
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 12 scones 1x
- Category: breakfast, brunch
Description
Tender and cakey pumpkin scones drizzled with brown butter glaze – the perfect fall treat!
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup, 6 ounces) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
- 1 cup buttermilk, cold
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
For the Glaze:
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 to 4 tablespoons whole milk
Instructions
- Place rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and all of the spices. Add the cold butter to the dry ingredients and toss to coat. Using your fingers or a pastry cutter, break the butter down into the dry ingredients. Work quickly so that the butter remains cold. Some of the butter will be the size of oat flakes, others will be the size of small peas.
- In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, pumpkin puree, and vanilla extract.
- Add the wet ingredients, all at once to the dry ingredients. Stir together until almost thoroughly combined. Add pecans and stir until no dry flour bits remain. Using a large ice cream scoop, scoop scones dough by the 1/2-cupful onto the prepared baking sheet. Leave about 2-inches of space between each scone.
- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until browned slightly with dry tops. You can insert a toothpick into the center of a scone to test for doneness.
- Allow to cool completely before glazing.
- To make the glaze, in a small saucepan melt butter over medium-low heat. The butter will begin to crackle and pop. After the crackling subsides a bit, the butter will begin to brown. Continue to cook until the butter smells nutty and the butter solids begin to brown. Immediately remove from the heat and transfer to a small bowl.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, browned butter, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of milk. Whisk together and add more milk as necessary until your desired consistency is reached.
- Generously drizzle scones with glaze. These scones are best served within 2 days of of baking.
159 Responses
i’m from a y’all state and considering changing out the pumpkin for sweet potatoes. just feels regionally right ?
Okay, I was a bit skeptical about these scones coming out rubbery which I have found common with other pumpkin scones. Nope. These were tender and the icing was amazing. I shared these with coworkers who all loved the scones! I will definitely make these again and again.
Hey y’all ! I was born in Memphis, raised in Mississippi, living in South Carolina and Mississippi. And I hereby give y’all the right to say y’all ?? Thanks for the good stuff !
Thank you.
I love these and have made them several times. Since the weather doesn’t feel like fall, I decided to make my house smell like it. Made them today with (roasted and puréed) butternut squash instead – halved the sugar and added a couple of tablespoons of sorghum molasses. Yum!
Can the scones be frozen and then glazed when defrosted?
Yes, they can!
Added espresso to glaze. Loved the recipe!!! Also, didn’t have pumpkin but had pumpkin butter…. worked great. Used less bsugar to compensate substitution
Made these! Absolutely Delightful!!!
Made these tonight, and they were a big hit! That glaze tastes amazing with them!
best scones ive ever made!!!!!! taste amazing!!!!
Hubby can’t have nuts and I’m a total maple syrup freak, so I adapted this recipe a bit. It is AMAZING! Blog post here: https://www.makegrowdo.com/2014/10/maple-pumpkin-scones.html
Thanks for the insanely good recipe!
But they look like cookies! If they were triangular I could eat them for breakfast with a clear conscious.
whatever you have to do!
These have become a standard request from my family and a recipe I pass along with wedding gifts.
Hi, these were great! I’ve never had anything with pumpkin in it so I thought I’d start here. My family enjoyed them as well, especially the brown butter glaze.
I made these this morning, turned out just great, I loved not having to roll/pat them out, so easy!
I love the flavor of these, already made the recipe twice, but I have a problem: They get flat in the oven!!! I don’t know what is wrong with my process… Can anybody help me with this?
your butter may be too warmed when the scones go in the oven. try chilling the scones in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before baking them.
Thanks Joy! I’ll try again soon :)
Cassy, your baking powder might be old or the elevation at which you are baking is affecting the rise and bake time. Check your elevation above sea level where you live and look online for what is your appropriate baking conditions.
I just made these and they are absolutely DIVINE. The brown butter glaze puts them over the edge. My batch made 9 huge scones. My friends and I are having a pumpkin-themed dinner tomorrow night, and these are going to kill it. Thanks, Joy!
You are completely delightful!! I’m going to make these this week for our all church celebration night of worship on Saturday. All 3 campuses are coming together to the Stuart campus. Since we’re like family, you know what happens when family comes together? You have to serve delicious treats. This pumpkin pecan scone sounds like just the ticket!!! I’m going to print out little cards with your blog address on it so everyone knows where I “stole” the recipe from.
Thanks,
Liz
very sweet comment, Liz! Enjoy the worship!
I just made these, haven’t taken one bite of the scones but tasted the glaze, yum times infinity! These might be my entry in my work bake off in a few weeks, this is just the test run. Can’t wait to take a bite. :)
I made your scones yesterday. I didn’t have any buttermilk on hand. I bought whipping cream by mistake, thinking that’s what I’d needed. So I added a tablespoon or so of apple cider vinegar to the whipping cream and used that instead of the buttermilk. I also added dried cranberries and a pinch of cardamon. Otherwise, I followed your directions exactly. My scones turned out fabulous – even my picky husband loved them. I have to tell you, I looked at a lot of pumpkin scone recipes and decided on yours for one simple reason. You used individual spices instead of a “pie spice” blend. I ground the allspice, nutmeg, cloves and cardamon from seeds/pods and I think that really makes a world of difference. Thanks much for a terrific recipe. I will most definitely make these again.
I just made these and they are so good, I had to leave a comment saying so! I substituted whole wheat flour for half the white flour and 1/2 cup plain yogurt + 1/2 cup 2% milk for buttermilk since I didn’t have any. They turned out moist and fluffy (for a scone). I’m haven’t glazed them yet but I’m sure it will only make them better.!
Made ’em this weekend – just the right amount of pumpkin and spice. Yum!
I so wana make these. I love pumpkin season and stocked on some for fall baking. This is one thing I’ve gotta so try!
Made these yesterday with 30g of chopped white chocolate. The spice + pecan + salty flavor of the browned butter with the sharp sweet of the powdered sugar is super tasty. Great recipe!
they look yummy!
I made these over the weekend and they were awesome. really, really tasty. I had a lot of glaze leftover though so I may halve the recipe next time. Delicious!
Holy moly. I’m in such a pumpkin mode right now. Thanks for feeding my addiction! :)
Oh these look gooood. I think I could probably just eat the glaze by the spoonful.
Being from the UK I’ve never had the chance to try making anything with pumpkin purée before. This sounds like a heavenly combination, though! x
Made these today and they were amazing! Moist and flavorful. I don’t think I added enough milk to the glaze but everything else was perfect.
word. these rocked my world, ya’ll !!!
I made pumpkin bread last night, y’all! And dude, it was so good! Giddyup.
These look delicious! Like you mentioned in your previous post, weekends are for delicious breakfast making. I can’t wait to make these this weekend!
I guess I’m a y’all girl. But I live in the Dallas area, so to me it’s sort of normal. I wish I could be a dude girl sometimes.
Grass. Always greener.
Oh, and pumpkin scones win every time.
I’ve been living in the south since I was 9, so I now consider myself a Southerner. But, because so many of my friends were transplants too, it was a huge joke if anybody actually said y’all. But, now that we’ve all been here for many years, we’ve all just succumbed to saying it and I love it. I say it and text it all the time now. Love it :)
Make me some pumpkin scones please :)
I’m a southern girl living in Germany and I get such bad cravings this time of year for fall goodies (aka anything made with pumpkins, cinnamon, or pecans). Sometimes it is super hard to hunt down all the ingredients that we take for granted in America (good luck finding all spice at my village’s grocery store…) but I will have to find everything to make these yummy treats! They look too good to pass up!
Yes! Those look absolutely delicious! I will be giving them a try on Saturday! :D
These look fantastic! Thanks, JTB!
Mmmm I’ve been craving scones and adore pumpkin, so this looks like an amazing combo!
I love this so, so much. Such beautiful colors and styling. I mean…
high-five!
i second that! what a beautiful set-up!
I love the pecans in this… they really bring out the flavor of the pumpkin!! Win
i absolutely love your writing flair!! it always makes me smile and laugh :)
and believe it or not (probably because i’m from australia) i’ve never actually had pumpkin in a sweet food!
i reckon it’s time i tried – and what better opportunity than with these delicious looking bad boy!s :P
thanks for the recipe (gotta love Donna)
looking forward to your next post!
I’ve got g’day mate! And ‘sweet’ (everything is sweet), also other awesome Australianisms that I can’t think of right now. But heck, I’ll throw out a ya’ll with the best of ’em. Fake it till you make it, I say.
This is delicious! Perfect for autumn :)
Thank you for sharing!
Jenna x
http://www.jennafifi.co.uk
I’m totally a y’all girl. You totally need to work on drawing it out more, slow down.: Hey y’all (pause) I made pumpkin scones! (pause) Come get ’em while they’re hot!
They look great btw!
I think you just gotta own it, dude! You could totally pull off y’all. Especially if you’re wearing plaid. It just works.
Can’t waaaaait to try these! I’ve had enough dry, crumbly scones to spot a good one. And girl (or bro?) this looks like a good one!
I’m not a lover of all things pumpkin like a lot of people are but if you gave me one of these I would eat it. Just saying. ;)
Lovely seasonal scones, and lovely approach in sharing recipes too ! Enjoy your Halloween, if you’ll have any pumpkin left for carving !
Come to Alabama. We’ll have you dropping your Gs and saying y’all in no time. :)
I just did a recipe for Pecan Pumpkin Pie (https://www.audacityoffood.co.uk/2013/10/pecan-pumpkin-pie_21.html)
These are another level of amazingness though…. They make my pie look like last year’s halloween decorations haha
This looks so delicious! I wish that I was at home so that I could make these right now
I’m definitely a y’all girl. I say it too often, probably. But I really love these scones! I had some really nice and moist pumpkin scones at work recently, but never asked for the recipe. Definitely going to give this one a try!
This seems to be the perfect Halloween recipe – I often get bored with recipes that include ‘pumpkin’ but these really look delish – ‘mega-soft’, ‘toasty crunch’ – oh yeah now we’re talking. Thanks for sharing.
Claire xx
https://somewhereyonder.blogspot.co.uk/
I LOVE pumpkin scones! I used to have a recipe I absolutely loved, but have since lost it..these look like the perfect replacement!!
gorgeous, delicious, and so festive. i love the fact that they’re drop scones too! ps. i’m totally a “dude” girl too. ;)
The thing that makes me want these so badly is that brown butter glaze! I have a feeling more of that would end up right in my mouth than on the scones, dude.
Yum. I’m going to make these vegan, so hard. Thanks Joy!
I have never wanted to have pumpkin more after seeing this post!!!
https://www.yummei.com
these are the scones of my dreams! you may just be the scone fairy :D! (now please put one under my pillow?!!!)
That looks so delicious!! yummi!!
Pumpkin scones sound good already, but then add in a brown butter glaze and I’m like YESSSSS!
golosissimi, complimenti
Ti seguo su bloglovin
Please appear in front of my face right now!! haha They look amazing!!
totally not fighting it, you’re right – it’s time!
You can totally be a “y’all” girl. As a native North Carolinian, I’m just glad there are Californians who are remotely interested in such a thing! It’s such a useful, friendly word. :)
I love pumpkin and all the savory spices, and scones are my favorite desert treat. I am definitely going to give these a try. Thanks.
I use “y’all” sometimes although being from Canada, it is clearly unacceptable. I should probably stick to “eh”.
That’s what I’ll be making this weekend!
dude is just a part of socal vocabulary. I find myself saying it wayyy too often.
since I am obsessed with all things pumpkin, I’m going to have to make these.
Oh, that’s delicious just to look at. I read the recipe title out to my husband and before I even got the last word out, he interjected frankly with, “Make that. Oh my, why don’t you BAKE?!”
He forgot that I live in a camper and I just get the bag of flour out, and I have no more baking working space. It’s a terribly depressing thing. :(
Pumpkin, pecans, and brown butter? All things I love. I may be adding these to my weekend baking list!
These sound delicious! And as a midwesterner, I’ve never been able to pull of y’all either, but I’ve always sort of wished I could!
Did you purposely change the amount of buttermilk from the original recipe?
Donna: 1 and 1/4
yours: 1
i did purposefully change the amount of buttermilk. 1 1/4 cup milk would have been too wet.
These sound delicious! Two of my favorite things pumpkin and brown butter…are you kidding? Can’t wait to try!
I was out of pumpkin pie spice the other day and had to make my own. Definitely could’ve used your recipe so I didn’t use just cinnamon and allspice. The other one I used led me astray. Far, far astray. Sigh.
Oh Joy!! these look so amazing! Thank you for sharing!
Brown butter glaze sounds ridiculously good. My pumpkin cravings go beyond October – I would like these year round!
What a great recipe! Hello Fall! Thanks so much for sharing! Scones are the BEST! :)
https://sometimesgracefully.com
Joy, scones are the queen of my heart, and you lady are the queen of scones! (Not sure where logic will take us with that one, but I digress). If you say ya’ll while holding a plate of these, no one would dare to judge, for fear of being denied one of these goodies!
Girl you can totes say ya’ll annnnytime, especially when you are bringing these babies to the table!!
HA, that is so the California way. I only lived in LA for a short summer, but that was apparent for sure!
Love the scones and that glaze! Together they sound incredible!
I’ve lived in Texas for five years, still feel weird saying ya’ll.
hahahaa! i appreciate your honesty.
Oooo I do love a scone. They look so good!
And those brown/orange glass plates are to die for! :)
That glaze is absolutely fabulous!! Looooove!
Looks delicious! I’m all about scones, so these are right up my alley!
looks yummy must try them…psst I daydream to be y’all gal myself but I’m a true new yerker all I can up with is check it out …i just made these haha1
Here in New England we are all about anything “fall.” Even though I was born and raised in San Francisco, I have lived here long enough that I can embrace “wicked” as in these are “wicked awesome scones” Joy. We go on a pumpkin and apple marathon from September to Thanksgiving. I will add this lovely recipe to the repitoire. Thanks!
i would now like to add ‘wiked’ to the list of things i wish i could say.
You definitely can’t get away with y’all if you have a British accent, it sounds totally ridiculous, much to my great sadness. Luckily then that these scones of deliciousness make up for that!
wow! it´s delicious!
I’m so jealous of all you people who get pumpkin puree so readily. On another note, I want to be a y’all girl too. Fried chicken, biscuits, fried fried fried…. chowder… I can live happy.
you could roast pumpkin in big batches and puree it! kind of a pain… i know.
Great idea to roast your own pumpkin. I’ve done it, it’s great! Most of what we buy as pumpkin puree is actually squash, anyway.
I abuse the usage of both y’all and dude so I say go for it. Let’s make pumpkin everything y’all! Starting with these scones-they sound amazing dude. Rad.
i’ve got RAD on lock.
Need this in my life! Thanks for sharing!
XO
Joy, these look so yummy! I can’t wait to make them:)
Love the recipe joy! So pretty with the glaze too.
At least you have surfing, I am from Australia; so the best we got is “throw a shrimp on the barbie” and “G’day” (both which I can not say because I am a girl)
So many beautiful images to choose to pin from, love them all, Joy!
And yes, dude, surfing, bro – it’s the SoCal way! I’d love to have one of these now. Normally I avoid scones b/c they’re typically so dry but these look so moist and delish!