Chocolate Drizzle Pumpkin Scones

Oh, impulse buys.  You know it's happened to you: you're standing in line at the grocery store, wait-wait-waiting for the old man in front of you to fish his 63 cents out of his pocket.  Your eyes wander from the faces around you to the tabloids, bubble gum, and candy bars.  Those damn candy bars!  And then your eyes meet the vanilla-speckled cheesecake with chocolate ganache tantalizingly draped across one of the food magazines and you are instantly seduced.  You - barely - resist the urge to abandon your items and spot in line to grab all the ingredients and rush home.  But you'll compromise by buying the magazine and promising yourself the cheesecake will be your weekend reward.

....flash forward three weeks.  I still haven't made that sinful cheesecake, but I have made some Chocolate Drizzle Pumpkin Scones which, while probably not as delicious as the cheesecake, are pretty darn good.  I made them for breakfast a weekend or two ago, hesitant of hubby's reception of them.  My fear was just wasted time; he loved them so much in fact that he would not let me bring the leftovers to work!

Oh, by the way, the magazine was Better Homes and Garden's MixingBowl.com  'The Baking Issue. "

Chocolate Drizzle Pumpkin Scones
(page 24)

• 6 tbsp butter
• 4 oz of cream cheese
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (I used honey as I have yet to buy maple syrup)
• 1 tsp vanlila
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cake flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger

Chocolate Drizzle

• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 1 tbsp butter

Cut butter and cream cheese into small pieces; freeze until chilled.  In a bowl, stir together pumpkin, buttermilk, maple syrup, and vanilla.  Chill.

Preheat oven to 375F.  In a bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, allspice, and ginger.  Cut in butter and cream cheese until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Add pumpkin mixture to the flour  mixture.  Using a fork, stir until moistened.  Tough dough onto a lightly floured surface.  Knead dough for 10 to 12 strokes or until nearly smooth.  Pat into a 7 inch circle.  Cut into 8 wedges.  Place wedges 2 inches  apart on an ungreased baking sheet.  Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.  Transfer to a wire  rack; let cool.  

For the drizzle, place chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl.  Heat the cream to a boil, then pour over the chocolate chips.  Stir until smooth.  Stir in butter until melted.

Drizzle chocolate atop the scones. 

*Funny story: when I made the scones, my batter was SUPER moist.  It was so moist there was no way I could knead it.  I thought "what the hell??" and added flour until I had a kneadable consistency.  Now, as I typed up the ingredients I realized I used the WHOLE CAN of pumpkin puree, not just a 1/2 cup.  (forehead slap).  Good job, Sarah, good job.  They were still tasty though!