PUMPKIN SCONES that bake up tall, soft, and tender! We top these with a simple vanilla glaze and then drizzle on a pumpkin spice glaze over the top, just like you’d get from Starbucks. These make a great fall treat to serve with a cup of coffee or hot tea.
One of my favorite fall things to do, aside from hitting up the local apple orchard and being able to wear cozy sweaters outside without sweating my face off, is to visit Starbucks for a pumpkin scone and a pumpkin spice latte.
Yeah. I double up on the pumpkin this time of year. No shame!
We’re staying home more this year and that means even more cozy fall baking happening around these parts. Enter these copycat Starbucks pumpkin scone recipe.
Tender and moist scones topped off with a simple vanilla glaze and then drizzled with a pumpkin spice glaze over the top. They’re just as delicious as they look!
Table of Contents
How to Make:
Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, brown sugar, pumpkin spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) and then use a pastry cutter to cut in cubed butter.
Stir in the pumpkin, milk, and egg until just combined and then turn the dough out onto a floured counter and knead 5 times to bring it together.
Pat into a circle and cut into 8 wedges and then bake!
Whisk together powdered sugar and milk and spoon over the tops of each scone to cover. Let set for 5 minutes.
Stir the pumpkin spice into the remaining glaze and drizzle over the scones.
Helpful Tip!
One Bowl, Two Glazes!
- Rather than making two separate glazes, just make the vanilla glaze first and spoon it over the scones.
- When finished, add the pumpkin spice to the remaining glaze to make the spiced version.
- If desired, add another 1/4 cup of powdered sugar to the spiced glaze to make it thicker.
Special Tools & Ingredients:
- Pastry Cutter: A pastry cutter is ideal for cutting chunks of cold butter into flour. It creates coarse crumbs that help the dough bake up tender and flaky.
- Pumpkin Spice: This is just a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. You may make your own mix or purchase a bottle of it already mixed up for you.
Freezing Scones:
You may freeze these both before or after baking. Place them on a cookie sheet and freeze, uncovered, for 1 hour. Transfer scones to a zip top bag and freeze unbaked scones for up to 1 month or baked scones for up to 3 months.
To bake the raw dough, place directly in the oven from the freezer. You’ll likely need to add a couple of minutes to the bake time.
To warm already baked frozen scones, thaw overnight in the fridge and rewarm in the microwave.
More fall favorites!
- Pumpkin Cream Pie
- Sausage Dressing
- Easy Sweet Potato Casserole
- Applesauce Cake
- Chocolate Pecan Pie
- Twice Baked Potato Casserole
Pumpkin Scones
Ingredients
For the scones:
- 2 ¼ cups flour
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup cold butter cubed
- 2/3 cup canned pumpkin puree
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 1 large egg
For the glaze:
- 2 cups powdered sugar plus more as needed
- 3 tablespoons milk
- ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Add the flour, brown sugar, pumpkin spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine.
- Add the cold butter to the bowl and use a pastry cutter to cut the mixture together until you have coarse crumbs.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, milk, and egg. Stir into the dry ingredients until just moistened.
- Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead 5 times, just to bring the dough together.
- Shape the dough into a circle and cut into 8 wedges.
- Place the scones on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 20 minutes.
- To make the glaze, whisk together the powdered sugar and milk until well combined. Add more milk as needed to thin the glaze to your liking.
- Spoon the glaze over the top of the scones, being sure to leave about ½ cup of glaze leftover.
- Whisk the pumpkin pie spice into the remaining glaze. Add an additional tablespoon or two of powdered sugar for a thicker consistency, if desired.
- Lightly drizzle the remaining glaze over the top of the scones.
- Let glaze set before storing, tightly covered, at room temperature.
NanCT says
First time making scones. Simple to make, delicious to eat. Followed recipe just as written. Icing was a little less than stunning in appearance with the second glaze kind of melting into the first, but that was just a small aesthetic issue. It didn’t stop husband from taking a second helping!
Karly says
So glad you ventured into scone making and they turned out! 🙂
Dana Leslie says
Fantastic recipe. I have never made scones before but I had just learned about cutting butter into flour so had a stick already frozen. I used a cheese grater to grate the frozen butter and it worked perfectly. I did two rounds of vanilla icing instead of more pumpkin spice but this recipe made it easy to tweak things as necessary!! Would you believe I buy a Starbucks scone every morning with my coffee? I will be searching for your vanilla recipe next 🙂 thank you for sharing!
Karly says
Hi Dana! So glad you found the recipe and gave it a try! Our chocolate chip scones are some of our favorites, if you’re going to keep experimenting. 🙂
Kris says
Thank you for this recipe Karly! We are still locked down here in Umatilla county in Eastern Oregon. Our town is like a ghost town. I have never baked any scone recipe before, but I miss buying them and these look so good that I am going to try. First I am baking your pumpkin cream pie! 🙂
Karly says
Hope you love them both, Kris! Stay safe!