Bonus recipe: Pumpkin Cranberry Scones

Scones will forever & always remind me of the year I lived in New Orleans, thanks to Maurice’s bakery.

Let’s travel back in time, shall we?  To 2004: I was a post-grad student at University of New Orleans, working part time as a grad assistant on campus, and part-time as a gourmet foods associate (read: cheese monger) at Martin’s Wine Cellar in Metairie. Jean-Luc, the owner of Maurice’s, was a regular at our store, and like any true Frenchman, he favored the ooey, gooey, nasty, sweaty-foot-stanky French cheeses we carried.  You name it: Camembert, Munster, Pont l’Eveque, Vacherin… if it got gooier & stinkier with age, Jean-Luc loved it.  I’ll never understand that, especially since there are so many delicious non-stanky french cheeses (like the beautiful Brin d’Amour, a slightly tangy sheep’s milk cheese that’s coated in dried rosemary & other herbs… but I’m getting off-topic…)  Anyway, despite his taste in cheese, he was a really wonderful person & always pleasant to talk to.

One of my coworkers, Ozzy, also worked for Jean-Luc at his bakery, so occasionally on Sunday mornings, she’d bring in a few pastries with her to the morning shift at Martin’s, which I always worked.  Maurice’s scones are now, and will always be, the epitome of scone perfection (particularly the cranberry-orange).

Well, I had some dried cranberries and roasted pumpkin laying around, so I figured: why not make some scones?  Found a base recipe, and with a few modifications, we have this:

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup golden brown sugar, packed

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1/2 cup light butter, chilled

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

1/4 cup orange juice

1/2 cup canned or roasted pumpkin

1 egg white

sugar (coarse if you have it)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.

In a mixing bowl, combined the first 6 ingredients & mix.  Cut in butter with a pastry cutter (or I just used my Kitchenaid) until the dough looks like coarse crumbs. 

Add cranberries, egg, pumpkin, milk, juice to the dry ingredients and mix until moistened. 

Knead on lightly floured breadboard until nearly smooth (several seconds).  If it gets too sticky, add extra flour as you knead.  Roll dough into a 12x9 inch rectangle. Using a pizza cutter, cut dough into 4x3 inch rectangles; cut each rectangle in half to form triangles.

Place on ungreased cookie sheet. In a small bowl, mix egg white with a a little water & beat well.  Brush over the scones with a pastry brush and then sprinkle sugar over the top.

Bake for about 12 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on rack for 5 minutes. Serve warm with butter (we had a few with apple butter or pumpkin butter which was also quite nice.)

Nutrifacts:

Calories 217.1

Cholesterol 59.2 mg

Sodium 280.0 mg

Total Carbohydrate 26.9 g

Dietary Fiber 1.2 g

Sugars 5.5 g

Protein 3.7 g