Skinny pumpkin scones

Happy fall, everyone! I have to say, I'm sad to see the summer end. I love the summertime. And with this being Camden's first summer it was extra special!! I tried to squeeze in as many "firsts" as I could with the little guy this summer. Needless to say, this was one fabulous summer! But now it's over and fall is upon us. The best part about fall, in my book, is hockey season starting! Football bores me half to death so I'm all about preseason hockey right now. And upcoming playoff baseball! But aside from that I have to say that I loooove fall foods! I already busted out the Crock Pot and made some turkey pumpkin chili. It's nice to work some comfort foods back into our weekly menu! Pumpkin flavored everything seems to make the end of summer a little more tolerable. For the past couple weeks I've been dying for a good pumpkin scone (I blame Starbucks) but I wanted a healthy, homemade version. Anyone who knows me knows that I love to bake homemade goodies! And scones have recently become one of my favorites. So I set out to find a good "skinny" pumpkin scone recipe. And you know what I found? Nada. Nothing. Well, nothing that passed my "skinny" test. I'm sorry but if a recipe calls for 6+ Tablespoons of butter it is not skinny. After the initial frustration I decided to make my own recipe! I looked up some basic skinny scone recipes then improvised one of my own. I was very pleased with the results! These scones are moist, almost cake-like as my husband described them. They aren't overly sweet or full of fat and they have the good pumpkin flavor I was looking for. I considered making a glaze for these but decided against it. Although I'm sure they'd be great with a pumpkin spiced fat free cream cheese glaze!

Now here's what you really came to this blog post for. The recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 cups white whole wheat flour (I used King Arthur)
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (more if you'd like)
• 1/2 tsp salt (I used sea salt)
• 3 Tbsp very cold butter, chopped up
• 1/2 cup fat-free buttermilk
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (make sure it isn't pumpkin pie filling)
• 1/4 brown sugar, packed (I didn't want these overly sweet but feel free to add more if you like your scones sweeter)
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (or more to taste, I used vanilla bean paste)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, OR silpat, OR spray lightly with cooking spray.

In a small to medium bowl blend together the buttermilk, pumpkin puree, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla extract. Set aside.

In a large bowl mix the first 5 ingredients (flour through salt) thoroughly with a wire whisk. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender. Once the butter has been completely cut into the flour mixture, add the wet mixture to the dry. Stir until all the dry ingredients are absorbed (batter will be a little sticky). 

Lightly flour your surface and hands. Place dough on floured surface and knead six times. Move dough to prepared cookie sheet and press/shape into a large circle, about 3/4-1" thick. Use a sharp knife to score the circle into 12 pieces. 

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes (more or less depending on your oven, keep an eye on it!). Once the scones are golden and the tops look dry and cooked (it can be hard to tell if they're "golden" because the pumpkin puree makes them a beautiful orange color) remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes.

Separate scones along scored lines and serve. They're best enjoyed warm with a cup of coffee! Store leftovers in an airtight container. I hope you like them! :]

Nutrition breakdown:
125 calories
3.6g fat (2g saturated)
19.2g carbs
2.7g fiber
5.2g sugar
3.8g protein