These sourdough pumpkin scones with chocolate chips are delicious, sweet, and full of fall flavors. Quickly mix them together for a fast treat, or you can choose to long ferment for more health benefits.
The tastes of fall are my absolute favorite. Warm flavors of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and maple are just a few of those favorites. It’s a new season to change up our food rotations. My kitchen goes in waves. You might call them trends. I get on kicks with different flavors, eat the same meals for a little while, and then a new season begins with new flavors. It’s a great time for inspiration in the kitchen.
I love creating new “pumpkin spice” versions of my favorite dishes. Like pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin rolls, pumpkin cinnamon rolls, pumpkin cobbler, pumpkin ice cream… pretty much any dessert can have a spiced twist, in my opinion.
Scones are no different. For this recipe, I didn’t want to only add the classic fall spice; I had to get pumpkin purée in there, as well. Since I love adding pumpkin (or squash) whenever possible, I wanted to actually add pumpkin to these scones.
In our garden this year, we grew my favorite pumpkin, the jarrendale. Not only is it the most beautiful shade of sage green that looks picture-perfect sitting on your front porch, but it is also the perfect pumpkin to turn into purée.
The humble pumpkin can be made into just about anything, and I love to inspire people to be creative using this culinary delight in the kitchen.
Tips:
- The key is to keep the scones very cold before baking so they don’t spread out. I put mine in the freezer for 5-10 minutes before baking. It also helps to use frozen butter, cold cream, and cold eggs. This also helps to make the scones more flaky.
- While these can be made long fermented, I found them to be less fluffy than the quick version. I would suggest refrigerating the dough after fermentation and mixing it together, but before rolling out. Another method is to mix the dough together following the quick version, then refrigerating the dough up to 3 days. This slow fermentation gives the dough enough time to ferment.
- You can use sourdough discard or sourdough starter for this recipe. Either will work.
- If you don’t have chocolate chips, no worries, just skip them. They add a sweet and chocolate flavor, but these scones can hold their own.
- For this recipe, canned pumpkin purée, homemade pumpkin puree, or even butternut squash purée may be used.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.
Tools:
Large mixing bowl
Pastry blender, food processor, or fork.
Baking sheet
Measuring cups and spoons
How To Make Sourdough Pumpkin Scones:
The Quick Version
In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, pumpkin spice, salt, and sugar.
Cut in butter using a fork or pastry blender. You can also use a food processor which makes this process super easy.
Add in chocolate chips to dry ingredients. This helps coat them in flour so they don’t just sink to the bottom.
Combine sourdough starter, cream, egg, and pumpkin purée in a separate bowl.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until combined, being careful not to over mix.
Shape into a 12″ circle, and cut into 8 equal slices.
Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes until the edges start to turn golden.
Allow to cool for 10 minutes. Serve.
For long fermented version:
Though long fermentation is better for digestion, I must admit, these do not have the same light and flaky texture when long fermented. If you do still want to try it, there are two ways you can try this. The way outlined below is what I tried and yielded the best results for me.
After talking to a friend, she suggested you could make the dough outlined in the quick version above and then refrigerate for up to 3 days. The refrigeration slows down the fermentation process and she found that 3 days gave the right amount of fermentation for her family.
The night before:
Cut butter into flour using a fork, pastry blender, or food processor.
Add in cream, pumpkin purée, and sourdough starter. Stir until combined.
Cover with a tea towel and allow to ferment overnight.
Next day:
Combine salt, pumpkin spice, sugar, and baking powder in a small bowl and mix together.
Sprinkle over dry ingredients. Add eggs and knead to combine.
Cut in chocolate chunks.
For best results, chill again before rolling out and cutting.
Shape into a 12″ circle, then cut into 8 equal slices.
Find More Farmhouse Sourdough Recipes:
Sourdough Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
Sourdough Galette With Sage, Leek, And Goat Cheese
Chocolate And Coconut Sourdough Scones
Sourdough Strawberry Shortcake
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love if you could come back and give it 5 stars!
Sourdough Pumpkin Scones
Sourdough pumpkin scones with chocolate chips are delicious, sweet, and full of fall flavors. Real pumpkin and pumpkin spices give these scones a unique and yummy taste.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp pumpkin spice
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup sugar (sucanat or coconut sugar are my favorite options)
- 1 stick unsalted butter, frozen
- 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chunks
- Wet ingredients
- 1/2 cup sourdough starter
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup canned pumpkin purée
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, pumpkin spice, salt, and sugar.
- Cut in butter using a fork or pastry blender.
- Add in chocolate chips to dry ingredients.
- Combine sourdough starter, cream, egg, and pumpkin purée in a separate bowl.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until combined, being careful not to over mix.
- Shape into a 12″ circle, and cut into 8 equal slices.
- Bake 400 degrees for 20 minutes until the edges start to turn golden.
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes. Serve.
Notes
The key is to keep the scones very cold before baking so they don’t spread out. I put mine in the freezer for 5-10 minutes before baking. Also, it helps to use frozen butter, cold cream, and cold eggs. This also helps to make the scones more flaky.
Find directions to long ferment these scones in the blog post.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 467Total Fat: 22gSaturated Fat: 13gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 62mgSodium: 333mgCarbohydrates: 64gFiber: 3gSugar: 25gProtein: 7g
Kali says
Pumpkin puree comes in different sized cans. What size should we use for this recipe?
Kali says
Nevermind. Read recipe closer. Cups, not cans.
Roschelle says
I would love to try this recipe using einkorn flour. Could you please advise on how to change to accomodate for that? Thanks!
Gwen says
These are so good! I made them during my kids nap time today and gave one to my toddler when she woke up. She sat there swinging her legs in pure delight of her treat and said, “I love you Mom.” Maybe not that big of a deal, but she has never said that before without me saying it first. Needless to say, I will be making these again!
Deanna says
Have you tried using Almond milk in place of cream?
Caitlin says
I’ve made her other sourdough scone recipe using yogurt instead of cream, it worked well 🙂
But if you’re looking to make it dairy-free I guess that’s not helpful
Teresa Gainey says
I didn’t have any chocolate chips on hand so I left them out and the flavour was still excellent! I definitely will be making these again.
Lisa says
Wonderful! Glad you enjoyed them
Stacey says
This recipe is perfection!! These were a hit in my house.
Lisa says
So glad you enjoyed the recipe! Have a great day!
Susu says
I made these with purple sweet potato mash and coconut sugar, shaped the dough in two disks, wrapped in plastic and set in the fridge for a couple days, then moved to the freezer for a later date. These puffed up beautifully and had the best texture. They were a huge hit and turned out to be the beat scones I’ve ever made! I’m growing purple sweet potatoes and these will be a staple recipe going forward. Wonderful served fresh from the oven, smothered in butter and drizzled with honey, but just butter or plain is great too!
Lisa says
Purple sweet potatoes sound amazing! Thank you for sharing. So glad you enjoy this recipe.