How have I never made pumpkin scones!

Adapted recipe, from I don't even remember which scone I've made before. Made a double batch even though it was a test recipe. Fortunately they're delicious: texture just shy of crumbly, nice dense mouth feel. Glazed the second batch with maple syrup, for a little extra sweetness.

In the spirit of October Unprocessed, I grated and/or ground my own pumpkin pie spice-- nutmegs, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, dried ginger, all processed in a simple coffee grinder. To clean between each grinding, run a couple tablespoons of white rice through it, then wipe with a dry rag. You needed to use that white rice for something anyway!)

I left all ingredients except the yogurt and butter out so they were room temp.

Definite winner.

Pumpkin maple scones

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (for October unprocessed, use all unbleached wheat flour)
1 cup unbleached wheat or whole wheat flour
½ cup oats
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 T maple sugar*
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (mix your own, lots of recipes on the web)
¾ stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits (or grate frozen butter. Make sure the grater is also frozen)
¾ cup raisins, plumped

1/4 cup maple syrup
1 large egg
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup plain yogurt or sour cream

* Yes, I know that maple sugar is $16 a pound and hard to find. If you don't have any, or want to spend the money, substitute 1 T dark corn syrup, and cut back the maple syrup by that amount. You can get maple sugar from The Spice House.

Preheat oven to 400F (375 if you have a baking stone in your oven) and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Adjust a baking rack to the middle position. Beat together the liquid ingredients and set aside.
Mix the dry ingredients, then cut in the butter with a pastry cutter, knife or your hands until it resembles a coarse meal. Stir the plumped raisins into the flour mixture. (If you don't plump them, they'll dry out when baking. To plump raisins, just cover them with water in a small glass mixing bowl and microwave on high for 3 minutes. Drain.) Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture. Stir until just combined. Dough will be sticky and slightly elastic.
Roll dough out until it's about 1/2 thick, then cut into wedges. Dough rolled out to about 10" disc. Place onto a parchment-covered baking sheet about 1 inch apart on and bake for 17 minutes, or until pale golden. Transfer the scones to a cooling rack and let them cool slightly before serving.

Apple maple scones

3/4 cup all-purpose flour plus 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup corn meal
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons orange zest
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces

1 large egg
1/3 cup sourcream
1-2 tablespoon milk
1/4 c maple syrup
1 teaspoon maple extract (or vanilla; maple is hard to find)

1 1/2 cups diced apples
½ cup golden raisins, plumped

Preheat oven to 425°.

Mix together first 5 ingredients. Cut in cold butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, then mix in fruit until blended until blended. Whisk together egg and liquid ingredients in a separate bowl; add to flour mixture, and mix just until blended. Dough will be sticky.

Spoon in large tablespoonsful onto a lightly greased baking sheet (or line a sheet with parchment paper). Bake at 425° for 15 minutes or until golden.