Sourdough Pumpkin Scones

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.

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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

Sourdough Cherry Cobbler

If you try this recipe and love it, I would love if you could come back and give it 5 stars!